In keeping with the journalistic tradition of looking back at the recent past, we present the top 50 stories of the year that were read on The Aquila Report site based on the number of hits. We will present the 50 stories in groups of 10 to run on five lists on consecutive days. Here are numbers 1-10.

In 2023 The Aquila Report (TAR) posted over 3,000 stories. At the end of each year we feature the top 50 stories that were read.
TAR posts 8 new stories each day, on a variety of subjects – all of which we trust are of interest to our readers. As a web magazine TAR is an aggregator of news and information that we believe will provide articles that will inform the church of current trends and movements within the church and culture.
In keeping with the journalistic tradition of looking back at the recent past, we present the top 50 stories of the year that were read on The Aquila Report site based on the number of hits. We will present the 50 stories in groups of 10 to run on five lists on consecutive days. Here are numbers 1-10:

Russell Moore Loses His Religion

It is important to remember that three months before his departure, a Southern Baptist task force determined that Moore’s organization was “a source of significant distraction from the Great Commission work of Southern Baptists.” The report cited things like participating in the partially Soros-funded Evangelical Immigration Table, filing an amicus brief to support a mosque, failing to support the religious liberty of California churches during Covid-19, and a general tone of condescension and unresponsiveness. Moore’s opposition to President Trump was only factor in determining mission drift. [2] This lack of self-awareness on Moore’s part can almost be considered the theme of his book.

A Philosopher’s Guide to the Overtures Presented to the PCA General Assembly

In what follows, I take a different approach. I give my frank assessment of the overtures in the hopes that, even if you disagree with me, you can better formulate reasons for why you do so. I also, at times, offer an analysis of different issues surrounding the overtures. This approach will, I hope, be helpful to anyone interested in current issues facing Christians everywhere.
8 PCA GA 50: Summary of 20 Key Events & Highlights
Overture 29: Passed Presbyteries 79-1. An Officer’s view of Indwelling Sin, Actual Sin, and Sanctification matter. This is the language that was approved to BCO 16.4: “Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America must be above reproach in their walk and Christlike in their character. While office bearers will see spiritual perfection only in glory, they will continue in this life to confess and to mortify remaining sins in light of God’s work of progressive sanctification. Therefore, to be qualified for office, they must affirm the sinfulness of fallen desires, the reality and hope of progressive sanctification, and be committed to the pursuit of Spirit-empowered victory over their sinful temptations, inclinations, and actions.”

Final Tally From PCA Presbyteries on Overture 15

O15 was one of three overtures presbyteries considered in 2022-23 on the topic of sexuality. Overture 29 (O29) and Overture 31 (O31) passed in a supermajority of presbyteries and will come to the floor of GA this summer, where a simple majority vote of commissioners will amend the BCO with their language. Two sexuality overtures—Overture 23 (O23) and Overture 37 (O37)—failed to reach the two-thirds threshold in 2021-22.

Tell the PCA’s Magazine to Issue a Retraction

As fallible humans we all sometimes succumb to haste, emotion, and the influence of others, especially the media, whose sole occupation lies in seeking to get us to believe its narratives and to think and act along its preferred lines. Add in the rigors and tedium of pastoral and publishing work and mistakes are apt to happen sometimes, even large ones. In such cases a little public or private contradiction that seeks to set one right is justified, provided it is moved by charity and expressed courteously.

My Complicated Feelings about Tim Keller

It was his focus on the eternal issues of life—of issues of meaning—that really hooked me. Nowhere else was anybody I knew talking about these things in the way that Tim was. He illustrated his points through philosophy, art, pop culture and yes, the Bible. But it was a Bible I had never been introduced to, despite attending church and Sunday school every weekend of my childhood. He brought it alive and showed how it was actually relevant to my life.

4. The PCA’s Denominational Magazine Goes Political: A Rejoinder to David Cassidy’s “Prayer and Work in the Face of Violence” at By Faith Online

This is the social justice gospel exposing itself openly, without modesty and without regard to how repulsive it is to the many other PCA members who believe in the spirituality of the church (Col. 3:1-3), the prudence of minding one’s own affairs rather than those of other communities (Prov. 26:17), and the propriety of an armed citizenry (Neh. 4:7-23). It has nothing to do with the duties of Cassidy’s office, not anything to do with our denomination or its faith: it is contemporary urban political preference presented as edifying Christian teaching, a coercion to agree masquerading as earnest Christian appeal.

Scott Sauls, Author and Nashville Pastor, Placed on Indefinite Leave of Absence

Sauls’ standing as a pastor will also be reviewed at an upcoming meeting of the Nashville Presbytery. According to the denomination’s rules, he is considered a “teaching elder” whose status as a minister is overseen by that local presbytery. That presbytery will have the final say over the length and conditions of Sauls’ leave. 

Actions of the 50th PCA General Assembly

In the report of the Review of Presbytery Records, the Assembly approved the recommendation that Metropolitan New York Presbytery appear before the Standing Judicial Commission to adjudicate several matters pertaining to proceedings on the Lord’s Day. The Assembly also approved the recommendation that Northwest Georgia Presbytery appear before the Standing Judicial Commission to adjudicate a matter pertaining to the approval of calls and installation of three candidates.
And the number one story on The Aquila Report for 2023:

COVID-19 Reflection

Actions of massive significance call for significant accountability. Self-reflection is a good spiritual discipline, also for church leaders. Did we engage in spiritual abuse when we turned away faithful worshipers? Were we condescending toward mask-wearers seeking to protect vulnerable family members? Did we demand submission to civil government on matters better left to individual conscience? I for one am still bothered by the restrictions we did place on our own congregation. Couldn’t we have simply let sincere Christians make up their own minds on timing and masks and everything else? Did we lord it over the flock? Did we succumb to fear?
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The words teach and teaching are mentioned 212 times in the scriptures. Christianity, unlike any other worldview, is an intellectually rigorous worldview. For far too long, we’ve delegated education to public school systems. Only recently have Christians taken a stand, as we’ve witnessed the proliferation of homeschooling across the country. The next phase of growth, however, will require true vision and sacrifice as followers of Christ re-stake our claim in the area of education. It will be imperative to build our own colleges, universities, and seminaries, unyielding to the cultural onslaught we’ve witnessed in the last decade.

Ruby Bridges was the firstborn child of Abon and Lucille Bridges. The Bridges were farmers from Tylertown, Mississippi. As a black family living in the segregated south in 1950, they were aware of their limited options for work. The Bridges relocated to New Orleans to pursue better job possibilities. This family, like many, realized the importance of hard work and education in climbing the ladder of success, and they wanted better opportunities for their children.
In the same way that the Bridges sought opportunities in their day, parents today continue to seek the benefits of hard work and a decent education for their children. Unfortunately, public schools are no longer institutions focused on children’s primary education; they’ve become experimental laboratories of indoctrination for kids. Today, students are used as test subjects for the latest notions proposed by modern critical theorists.
No longer is education the prescription for success that it once was. The hard work of achieving academic excellence is ignored. Poor academic performance among students receives the majority of attention, supporting the notion that institutional racism is the root cause and that educational reform is therefore necessary.
Education has changed dramatically from the days of Abon and Lucille Bridges in the 1950s. I’d argue that education was better at preparing children for success during the ’50s than it is today. And the results can be readily evidenced in higher failure rates, low achievement scores, and programmatic government dependency.
An Assessment
During the 1950s, racism and segregation had taken their toll on black families like the Bridges. However, education was still seen as a priority for most blacks. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the percentage of blacks unable to read or write at age 14 decreased from 79.9% to 1.9% between 1870 and 1979. From 1870 to 1940, perhaps the most heinous period of segregation and Jim Crow, we witnessed the most significant drop in illiteracy (79.9% to 11.5%). This tremendous improvement brought black students parity with their white counterparts regarding literacy.
By 1969, organizations such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress had begun to assess reading, mathematics, and other important educational indicators. Long after the civil rights struggle, the black power movements of the 1970s, and even the beginnings of critical race theory in legal studies, there has been a persistent drop in scholastic achievement in black communities.
Between 1992 and 2019, blacks experienced a 10-point drop in overall academic performance, expanding the gap with whites. While a 10-point decline may not appear to be noteworthy, a closer examination of the figures reveals the looming disaster that awaits scores of children in the coming years.
Armstrong Williams cited information from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in an essay published in The Hill in 2022. Williams writes,
In California, 90 percent of (black) students cannot do math or read well. In New York, the figures are 85 percent and 82 percent. In Illinois, it is 86 percent and 85 percent. In Texas, the numbers are 84 percent and 89 percent. Maryland sits at 86 percent for math and 80 percent for reading… In Georgia, the numbers are 86 percent and 82 percent. In Missouri, it is 89 percent and 88 percent. And in Washington, D.C., the numbers are 85 percent and 87 percent.
As indicated, there has been an observable reversal of progress in educational achievement. But how is this possible, and what is the root cause?
Is Racism the Problem?
How can educational advances earned during a more difficult period in American history be so readily squandered during a period of immense opportunity? Is racism to blame for the obstacles that students face?
Most academics would say that racism is the root cause of putting black pupils behind. Many papers and published studies cite corollary anecdotal evidence to prove the narrative of racism. Furthermore, many of the proposed solutions to correct the problems (i.e., less policing of students, easier testing, more funding, etc.) can be easily refuted by pre-Brown v. Board of Education examples like Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.
Long before the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Dunbar High School was a segregated high school. The school was underfunded, had students from all socio-economic strata, and had a penchant for discipline. During segregation, this all-black high school consistently graduated men and women who would be firsts in their area of expertise.
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After we admit our spiritual poverty, since we do not possess the righteousness we need, we must hunger and thirst for righteousness from another source. There is only one place we can find it.

How do the wicked not become overwhelmed with guilt? How can they boast, “only God can judge me,” without fear of that terrible day? The reality is that a morality of their own governs even murderers. It is a perverse and twisted virtue, and it should serve as a warning to the rest of us. If the wicked can blind themselves to their evil, so can we who seem to be morally upright.
Man’s ability for self-deception is astounding, and we get a glimpse of it in the chief priests who gave false counsel to have Jesus executed. No greater act of evil has ever occurred. They lied to kill the Son of God but notice what happens when Judas brings back the money they paid him to betray Jesus.
Judas hands them the money and says, “I have betrayed an innocent man.” The chief priests must then decide what to do with the money. They surmise they cannot put it in the temple’s treasury because it is blood money (Matt. 27:6).
Did you catch that? The same men who bore false witness to kill an innocent man are now concerned about adding blood money to the treasury. That would be like a human trafficker being concerned about properly paying taxes on his income.
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