Is voluntary schism from the church sinful?
No.
Did the PCA’s separation from the PCUSA over liberalism accelerate the PCUSA’s trend toward liberalism?
No.
If the schism had not occurred, could the liberalism have been overcome internally?
No.
Can it even now be overcome from within?
Absolutely not.
First, there was much dissatisfaction in the southern church concerning the merger, and some churches would have left in any event. But the immediate cause of the split was a betrayal of the conservatives. There had been an agreement that conservative churches would be able to withdraw peacefully. That was suddenly jerked off the table and the initial withdrawals were a result of that - a last chance to get out cleanly. The final agreement did include Article 13, but by then, the damage had been done. (My recollection is that information about the betrayal first came to light in a meeting at the Air Host Inn near the Atlanta Airport. But it's been many decades since I read the full story, and some details of that meeting may be fogged by time.
Second, the unanimous vote of the southern presbyteries for union deserves, at the least, a footnote. The Presbytery in southwest Georgia voted against the merger; the presbyters were ordered to hold a new vote to approve the merger. That vote was not entirely voluntary.
I've been aware, if not involved, since before there was a NPC (now known as the PCA) - I was on Paul Settle's mailing list back in those days. And decades later, he was one of my pastors.
I was a member of a PCUSA church in Southwest Georgia at the time the presbyteries voted for merger. It was a smallish church and the pastor was aware of my separatist tendencies, and kept me in the loop as to what happened.
Later, my parents were next door neighbors to Parker Williamson's parents (he was the long time man behind the Presbyterian Layman, the newspaper of the conservative PCUSA Presbyterian Lay Committee).
And finally, at the end of the Article 13 I was a member of a PCUSA church and involved in a petition drive to force a vote over the objections of the Pastor and his loyal elders - and some billionaires. Since this recital began with mention of liberal lies and betrayal, I'll end it with one as well. That vote ended with the separatist getting a simple majority, but not the supermajority needed to leave. One of the things that held the vote below the supermajority was a representation that the Presbytery would allow the church to leave after the end of the Article 13 window without having to buy their way out if the church later decided to do so. When that church several years later did later decide to go with the EPC rather than stick with the PCUSA, there was no free exit. It cost them millions of dollars in congregants' contributions to get out. I fortunately was long gone by then to the PCA.
