10. Communion ushers us into all the privileges of membership

A fourth objection that is frequently heard in PCA circles is that admittance to the Lord’s Table ushers us into all the privileges of membership, including the right to vote. However, no Scriptural evidence has ever been given, despite an overture to the General Assembly to erect a study committee to show the Biblical evidence.¹⁹ In light of the PCA’s insistence that nothing may be law in the church that does not have the explicit warrant of Scripture²⁰, this refusal to give Scripture is ironic. Furthermore, this denomination, which claims to be the heirs of Thornwell and Dabney, is clearly out of agreement with these authors on the issue of voting. They are heirs to a recent innovation of feminism that Dabney stood against.

The fact of the matter is that there are many rights that the Lord’s Table does not confer. It does not confer the right to be nominated to office, to serve as a representative before the court on behalf of an accused or (in the PCA) to vote on corporate issues. Indeed, the PCA’s policy of allowing state law on ages for voting on corporate matters shows that the PCA does not even consider voting to be a fundamental doctrine of the church since state law trumps church law when it comes to corporate matters. Many churches have communicants at much younger ages than law allows to vote for corporate issues. Many of these churches have bylaws that make the elders of the church to automatically be the trustees of the corporation. This means that those PCA churches that are incorporated automatically disenfranchise some communicant members. This is of necessity true since a vote for elder would at the same time automatically be a vote for trustee. Besides the unbiblical character of incorporated churches (=state churches), this shows an unwillingness to be consistent on the issue of voting.