During the consideration of its adoption by the presbyteries, conservatives who desired the continuance of strict subscription to only the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Catechisms campaigned against its inclusion.
The sexual revolution, woman's liberation, the civil rights movement, and the anti-war effort seemed to clash with the traditional values of the institutionalized church.
The counterculture was a powerful force in American culture and politics from the mid-1960s, when the oldest boomers became old enough to vote and actively influence America's society in many ways.
In fact, the document was mainly written in 1965 at a time of substantial growth for the predominantly mainline United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Financial offerings to the denomination grew 61% from 1946 to 1967.
This Reconciliation is called one of the Bible's ultimate truths and an eternal promise that God has provided a way to heal the estranged relationship between man and himself after the fall.
[9] The confession states that "God's reconciliation in Jesus Christ is the ground of the peace, justice, and freedom among nations which all powers of government are called to serve and defend.
It lists the availability of birth control and treatment of STD infection, pressures of urbanization, exploitation of sexual symbols in the media, and overpopulation as aggravating factors in "Man's perennial confusion about the meaning of sex".
The church is warned that it "comes under the judgment of God and invites rejection by man when it fails to lead men and women into the full meaning of life together, or withholds the compassion of Christ from those caught in the moral confusion of our time.
[10] Many opponents maintain that the authors of the document deny that Christ died only for the sins of the elect rather than for all people, contrary to the original Westminster Confession.
Additionally, they take issue with the more humanistic theology, focusing more on man's ability to "save himself", trivializing the centrality of God in the salvation of both individuals and society as a whole.
The Presbyterian Lay Committee voiced their concerns about the inappropriateness of a spiritual body turning away from its purported historical call to enter into secular affairs.
[12] United States Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a Presbyterian elder, expressed his concern about the "disarmament mentality" suggested by the confession.
They campaigned heavily against the passage of the confession, and took out full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal expressing their protest.
It claims credit for "sharp reductions of unrestricted church gifts for projects controlled by the General Assembly Mission Council" of the PCUSA.