The response to the civil rights movement in effect split the PCUS into three factions: a liberal group desiring full endorsement of the movement's platform, a moderate faction desiring church-wide consensus before taking positive action, and a conservative/traditionalist group vigorously opposing what it believed was the meddling of the church in the civil and cultural traditions of its native region. Conservatives argued that church activity on behalf of racial desegregation and voting rights constituted a violation of the doctrine of "the spirituality of the church," a principle developed by 19th-century Presbyterian theologian James Henley Thornwell. He had declared that social reform and political participation were duties or pursuits to be taken up by individuals, not church courts. The conservative group strongly defended that teaching, but the liberal critics believed the doctrine was a justification for maintaining racial segregation and preserving the social standing of historic upper-class white elites within Southern society, a fair percentage of whom were PCUS members.