I’m not the only one who has been warning about this kind of lawfare being deployed in the PCA, but these recent cases are exactly what many of us have been talking about.
Consider two examples: Burke Parsons and @ZacharyGarris.
I would be surprised if either suspension ultimately stands if appealed all the way through the process. But that is exactly the problem.
The process is long. In the meantime, these men are suspended from office. They are sidelined from pastoral ministry. Their churches are disrupted. Their people are left without their shepherd. Even if the suspension is eventually overturned, the process itself becomes the punishment.
That creates a dangerous incentive structure. Men can use the courts of the church to temporarily remove pastors over charges they likely know will not hold up under final review. The accusations are often tied to elastic applications of ninth commandment violations, claims of “harshness,” or other highly subjective standards.
Take Garris. He was suspended for poking fun at Dr. Anthony Bradley by saying there are some things so complex that even a PhD cannot understand them. Frankly, that is funny. Dr. Bradley regularly invokes his credentials in ways that invite that kind of jab. To have a church lose its pastor, even temporarily, over something like that is absurd.
This kind of judicial maneuvering does real damage.
It chills ordinary pastoral speech. It rewards strategic accusations. It destabilizes local churches. And it sends a clear message to younger men: enter this denomination, and you may find yourself sidelined for months over charges that will eventually be overturned.
If the older conservatives in the PCA do not step up and use their authority to stop this sort of procedural abuse, younger men are going to ask a very reasonable question:
Why would I come into, or remain in, a denomination where the process itself can be weaponized against faithful pastors?
This is not mainly about whether these particular men win on appeal.
It is about whether constitutional process in the PCA will be used to secure justice or to exercise ideological control by other means.
#SavethePCA
Since Christ is King you have no excuse to be a coward. Your savior and very close help and lover of your soul is literally in complete sovereign control.
Act like it.
You know, I think that no matter what happens, Christ is King.
And that’s pretty awesome to know in trying times.
Abide with me! Come quickly Lord Jesus.
I see a path to the future, a long and narrow one - a thin golden thread suspended above a boundless abyss. if heaven helps us, maybe we can walk it, if it’s not too late.
@CIKJeremyCarl This is quite well said and I would probably agree.
In theory I like the idea of big tent on little things as long as big things are adhered to.
We just haven’t seen that though have we?
Watching the Sound of Music hits differently when you’re a parent
Veteran becomes a widower with 7 young children. Becomes obsessed with discipline, rules, quiet and minimizing emotional outbursts
The children’s drill and proper sizing is impressive. He clearly taught them well
@wilhelm_vanD@redeemed_zoomer I think assuming we mean the Supreme Court is the boomer answer. Might be reading too far into it tho.
Duns Scotus>SCOTUS
"If you claim the name of Christ and believe what Charlie believed, then you will be persecuted. The details might differ. The context might differ. But the scorn will be the same." —@StephenAdams26