PCA Standing Judicial Commission Denies Complaint Against Missouri Presbytery
The SJC officially concluded, “Based on the Record, there was no reversible error in the decisions reached by Missouri Presbytery regarding the four allegations. It was not unreasonable for Presbytery to judge that TE Johnson’s ‘explanations’ on the four allegations were ‘satisfactory.’ (BCO31-2).”
The Standing Judicial Commission (SJC), the highest judicatory of the Presbyterian Church in America, has ruled that Missouri Presbytery did not violate the investigation requirements of the Book of Church Order and did not err when it declined to process allegations against TE Greg Johnson.
The judgment is a consequence of a complaint that arose out of Missouri Presbytery which alleged that TE Johnson 1) “denies that same-sex-attraction is sinful,” 2) “compromises and dishonors his identity in Christ by self-identifying as a same-sex-attracted man,” 3) “denies God’s purpose and power to sanctify SSA [same-sex-attracted] believers,” and 4) “cannot meet the biblical ‘above reproach’ qualification for the eldership.”
The SJC officially concluded, “Based on the Record, there was no reversible error in the decisions reached by Missouri Presbytery regarding the four allegations. It was not unreasonable for Presbytery to judge that TE Johnson’s ‘explanations’ on the four allegations were ‘satisfactory.’ (BCO31-2).” The SJC judgment indicates that the Record of the case included “over 600 pages covering multiple years of [TE Johnson’s] writing, speaking, and judicial processes” as well as “representations [that] have been extrapolated by critics….”
On March 25, 2021, a hearing was conducted before the full SJC in Atlanta with all judges present to hear representatives of the Complainant and Missouri Presbytery. Additional questions were addressed to TE Johnson by the SJC. A 5-person drafting committee of the SJC was, then, randomly selected by the Chairman to write a proposed opinion for the Commission. That proposal with amendments was ultimately approved by the full SJC on October 21, 2021 by a vote of 16-7-0 (one member absent due to medical concerns). This judgment is considered the final action of the General Assembly on this case.
The Final Decision of the Standing Judicial Commission in SJC 2020-12.
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A Summary Report of the Reformed Presbyterian Church Synod 2023
Following the preaching, eleven first time delegates were introduced to the court, six of whom serve as pastors and the remaining 5 as ruling elders. Nominations were then open for moderator. Much to his surprise, Rev. Dr. Pete Smith of Covenant Fellowship RP Church was elected. He was an excellent moderator.
The Psalmist says, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Ps. 128:5-6).
The 191st Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) commenced on Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Following several years of ongoing discipline matters and formal complaints, the Lord gave us a year of both weeping and rejoicing. The meeting opened with a devotional message from the retiring moderator, Rev. Harry Metzger. He preached from I Corinthians 15, and three others preaching through the week would bring sermons from the same text: Revs. Ma and Blocki from North Hills (Pittsburgh, PA) and Rev. Dr. Ben Glaser from Bethany Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP). Following the preaching, eleven first time delegates were introduced to the court, six of whom serve as pastors and the remaining 5 as ruling elders. Nominations were then open for moderator. Much to his surprise, Rev. Dr. Pete Smith of Covenant Fellowship RP Church was elected. He was an excellent moderator.
Most of Tuesday was spent working through a Business of Synod report that made recommendations on how various papers, communications, and complaints ought to be handled. Eleven communications needed to be processed by the court. Most of the complaints were returned to their authors with the court choosing not to speak to them. One complaint, which argued against the Pacific Coast Presbytery sustaining a pastoral examination following the complainant being dissatisfied with the answers of an examinee. This complaint resulted in a study committee which will seek to give counsel to pastors and elders who find themselves in worship contexts where the Psalms are not being sung exclusively.
The one complaint that was heard (and did not result in a study committee) was from Rev. Adam Keuhner against the Great Lakes Gulf Presbytery (GLG). Keuhner argued that when presbytery rebuked two elders for administering the sacrament to a disciplined minister, it was not a sufficient censure. After hearing both sides of this complaint, the synod sustained the complaint 50-40 against the GLG (GLG delegates were not allowed to vote in this matter).
Three other communications resulted in actions from the synod: A paper that came through the Midwest Presbytery (MWP) sought to change the language of our current Testimony regarding abortion. As it reads currently abortion is murder “except possibly” in the case where a mother’s life is at risk. The proposal is seeking to bring equal dignity to the life of the mother and the child. This was sent to a study committee to report back next year.
The Orlando Session petitioned the synod to admonish the Reformed Presbyterian Women’s Association (RPWA) for suing a retired minister who lived at the RP Home. The petition sought to urge the RPWA to seek forgiveness from the minister and to take actions to seek a session’s aid in matters that would otherwise go to court (I Cor. 6). The Synod upheld the petition, admonishing the RPWA and urging them to facilitate change in their practice.
The Presbytery of the Alleghenies (POA) submitted a paper on the RPCNA’s practice of women serving in the diaconate. (The RPCNA has had women serving as deacons since 1888.) A five-man study committee was established to study the biblical practice of women serving in the diaconate as well as the nature and purpose of ordination. They will report their findings at next year’s Synod.
Several study committees as well as judicial commissions also reported. Over the last year, two commissions have been working with the former leadership of a congregation that was, sadly, caught in the middle of a minor-on-minor sexual abuse scandal. The pastor was deposed and suspended from communion, and the elders were suspended from office in 2022. These commissions have been working to the end of repentance and reconciliation. The former ruling elders told their commission that they were no longer able to work with them, violating the agreement reached when they pled guilty in 2022. Synod elevated their discipline and deposed them from office by an 88-32 vote. The former pastor, who rejected the authority and discipline of the RPCNA, was excommunicated by a 99-24 vote. The former moderator called him on the phone to inform him and then the pronouncement of excommunication was read.
It was a sober and dreadful experience and you could feel the heaviness of the room and see the tears streaming down men’s faces.
A few study committees will continue into another year, either not reporting or needing to rework some of the ideas presented: Kingship of Christ (did not report); Recusals (sent back to committee); and Vows and Queries (did not report). A study paper seeking to define the previous acts of synod (191 years’ worth) encouraged the synod to maintain the written understanding of previous synodical acts: they are the “law and order of the church” rather than merely suggestive or informative. This committee’s work began in 2018 or 2019 and came to synod through the GLG. The synod voted overwhelmingly in favor of previous acts remaining as law and order.
A major work that was sent back to the committee was a paper seeking to set up a task force to response to claims of abuse. The paper sought a standing committee of thirteen made up of pastors, elders and professionals in various fields (medical, social work, police, etc.) that would serve a resource for those with questions as to whether certain cases in the church would qualify as abuse. The synod debated this extensively before returning the paper that it may be improved.
We sowed in tears. We also reaped in joy. Several boards and agencies of the church reported on their work in the past year. Crown and Covenant reported on their book sales and some of the things in the works (including posthumously published works by Rev. Gordon Keddie). Geneva College reported, and we heard from president, Dr. Troup. Dr. Troup presented a brief presentation on how Geneva instructs from biblical literacy and confessional fidelity. We also heard from Dr. Barry York on the ministry of the RP Seminary, which seeks to be biblical, confessional, pastoral, and devotional.
The RPWA’s representative spoke on the RP Home and disability ministries. Reformation Translation Fellowship is expanding beyond the Chinese language for the first time since the 1940s and the Chinese Education Fund seeks to help Chinese families who do not want their children in state-run (Communist) public schools.
The court also heard fraternal greetings from three denominations with whom we have relationships: Dr. Ben Glaser of the ARP was already mentioned and we also heard Rev. Ian Wright of the OPC and Rev. Bartel Elshout from the Heritage Reformed Churches. Each presbytery of the RPCNA also reported on the highlights of their ministries in the past year.
Various missionary arms of the church shared exciting news. Global Missions reported on their several fields and some of the challenges that their teams face. From South Sudan to unpublishable locations, the RP Church is laboring faithfully in fields ripe for harvest. RP Global also presented a revised set of bylaws that were returned to them failing to be approved by the synod. We heard from two commissions that plant churches and train pastors in nations I am not allowed to write about. The Central and South America (CASA) committee reported on their labors in seeking to facilitate relationships with existing congregations in CASA. A commission of Global Missions was set up to ordain men and plant churches in CASA. Another missionary commission reported on the number of worshipers in three presbyteries in yet another nation I cannot publicly mention: 16,400 Reformed Presbyterian worshipers meet from Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day in this unmentioned nation. The numbers of amazing!
Some of the other numbers and dates-discussions were of interest. We have grown slightly in membership and attendance although last year we closed five congregations. Besides these five congregations, a dozen Canadian congregations departed this year to form the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Canada. This is a good thing! The Synod is also very interested in boards reporting salaries of employees in the name of greater transparency. Following several motions, these salaries will now be published in the Minutes of Synod. The salary of every pastor is already published annually. Other number discussions include an increase in ruling elders in the denomination and the fact that we have almost twice as many pastors on our rolls as we have congregations (many are not active, not serving, or retired). Giving has increased in our church and the denominational arm for giving (RPM&M) has increased significantly—of course there are more boards, committees, and agencies that are seeking financial assistance as well. June 11-14, 2024 is our next synod. RP International is June 25-July 1, 2024.
After several long days of difficulty, joy, fellowship, suffering, and labor—we adjourned on Friday just before noon. Many prayers were prayed. Many Psalms were sung. Many tears were shed. As brothers we looked to Jesus together to establish the work of our hands and to bring forth sheaves with rejoicing. In the words of the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs, “grace teaches us how to make a mixture of sorrow and a mixture of joy together.”
Nathan Eshelman is a Minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and Pastor of the Orlando RPCNA in Orlando, Fla.
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On Plundering the Egyptians
Although we must use discernment when using pagan philosophies, there is no need to fear their usage in the Christian church. Being able to rightly appropriate these things in service to Christian doctrine is evidence of the Holy Spirit working in common grace and the obligation of Christian theologians. This is precisely what theologians in the Great Tradition in the church has sought to do.
The debates surrounding catholicity and theological retrieval do not seem to be slowing down any time soon. With all the back and forth about Thomas, Aristotle, and Van Til, one theological topic seems to be overlooked more often than others—namely, common grace.
Often, the discussion of common grace is relegated to subjects such as marriage, art, government, and science. We think about these as goods not only for Christians, but for all mankind, perhaps recalling that God causes rain to fall on the just and unjust alike (Matt. 5:45). Yet we find common grace at work not only in the actions of unbelievers, but also in their intellect and inner life.
Although clearly different than special grace for the elect, common grace remains a sovereign operation of the Holy Spirit. As John Murray has said, in common grace the Spirit
“…endows men with gifts, talents, and aptitudes; he stimulates them with interest and purpose to the practice of virtues, the pursuance of worthy tasks, and the cultivation of arts and sciences that occupy time, activity and energy of men and that make for the benefit and civilization of the human race.”[1]
Therefore, unbelievers can, by virtue of common grace, come to philosophical conclusions that are helpful and true and can be utilized by the Christian.
This in and of itself is not highly controversial. Though in recent days, when it comes to Aristotle (and Aquinas’s use of Aristotle), there are some who are quick to sound an alarm, typically seeking to eschew these men in favor of claiming “sola scriptura.” This is not, however, how the Reformed have traditionally handled these matters. Rather, Reformed theologians have sought to utilize the insights, metaphysics, and philosophical truths from pagans where it is appropriate, while rejecting that which is antithetical to divine truth. Simply put, the Reformed can affirm the maxim that all truth is indeed God’s truth.
This does not mean that we should uncritically swallow everything that pagan philosophy has to say. Rather, we can claim that which is true as a gift of God, since the Holy Spirit is the fountain of all truth who guides us into all truth (Jn. 16:13). Understanding this allows us to understand philosophy rightly—even that of Aristotle or Plato—and utilize it as the handmaiden of theology.
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On the Absence of Systemic Racism
It is now glaringly obvious that critics of the Left and Critical Race Theory have been right all along: Critical Race Theory and the broader Leftist agenda making use of it are not serious endeavors; they’re tools for seizing power, cynically applied.
According to Critical Race Theory, “racism is ordinary, not aberrational—‘normal science,’ the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country” (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001, p. 7). Its advocates call this belief “systemic racism,” and Critical Race Theory is the “study” of this so-called systemic racism, if by “study” we mean “treasure hunt to find racism in everything.”
Consequently, according to Critical Race Theorists, virtually everything anyone can imagine is racist. The names of some birds and fish are racist, according to Critical Race Theory. Math is racist, especially if we care about getting the right answers, according to Critical Race Theory. A rock on University of Wisconsin, Madison, campus property is racist, according to Critical Race Theory. Schools, government institutions, businesses, classical music, Beethoven specifically, art, hiking, going outside, the pandemic, rock climbing, jogging, conservatism and all conservatives, the curriculum in any school and its books, black people who don’t agree with Critical Race Theory, logic, loyalty, punctuality, hard work, merit—these are all part of the “system” of racism that this neo-Marxian Theory “interrogates” for its hidden racism. Even being “less racist” or “not racist” and desegregating schools via Brown v. Board of Education is racist, according to Critical Race Theory. In fact, it was in those two phenomena that Critical Race Theory started.
In that it’s a neo-Marxist Theory that demands to be understood only in its own predefined terms, however, perhaps it is best to consider what Critical Race Theory is really all about by taking the advice of some of its philosophical forebears. In One-Dimensional Man (1964), the neo-Marxist Herbert Marcuse explains, presaging the poststructuralist Jackie Derrida, that the motivating energy for a movement rooted in (Hegelian) “negative thinking” comes from what isn’t there more than what is. The absence haunts the movement and, ultimately, gives it its motivating energy and will. He, of course, meant the (absence of the) liberated Utopia—Communism, when it finally works—that “specter of Marx” that also animated Derrida, though less manically, in the 1990s. Thus, perhaps we can learn more about what “systemic racism” is about by taking some examples of what isn’t systemically racist, even though it plainly is (by their definition).
A glaring example of systemic racism-that-isn’t arises in the willful discrimination against meritorious Asian-Americans in American colleges and universities and other schools. This blatant exception to the rule of systemic racism not only exists but was defended against termination by nearly every Senate Democrat in a party-line vote in April when Ted Cruz attempted to add a provision in the “Stop Asian Hate” bill that would finally prohibit it. But, of course, Asian-Americans are a paradoxical minority. They’re white-adjacent, which is systemically racist.
There’s also the obvious case of the disproportionate impact (this being the proof that systemic racism is occurring) the riots, looting, arson, chaos, and subsequent “defund the police” initiatives had on black and Latino neighborhoods in our cities, costing many hundreds of black and other lives and billions in property damage and theft. “Whiteness is property,” we were told in apparent justification of all this mayhem, and the police are systemically racist. Somehow, though, encouraging these disastrous behaviors and policies doesn’t qualify as “systemic racism” despite the definition because they were protests for “justice,” which is supposed to be “uncomfortable.”
Another less obvious example of systemic racism-that-isn’t follows the eviction moratorium, which was just reinstated unconstitutionally by administrative decree. Brown and black landlords, who tend to run smaller operations and own fewer rental properties, are disproportionately affected and far more likely to lose their livelihoods and property as foreclosures loom. This policy, which benefits interests like BlackRock (with its deep ties to the administration and major international NGOs who also claim to care about “systemic racism” in everything else), is not “systemically racist,” however.
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