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.

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.

If you want a balanced perspective on this year’s overtures to the General Assembly (GA) in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) you have come to the wrong place. Go instead to the helpful notes prepared by Scott Edburg and Jared Nelson. 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. (For those readers not in the PCA, think of an overture as a proposed piece of legislation to amend already existing law.)

A note about the workings of this guide: Because the PCA numbers overtures according to their arrival time, overtures discussing the same issue will not be listed side by side. I find it easier to talk about topics rather than overtures, so I group similar overtures under a heading of my own design, e.g., SEXUALITY, along with my recommendations (with O standing for overture), e.g., AFFIRMATIVE: O23; ANSWER BY REFERENCE TO O23: O24; POSSIBLY ANSWER SOMETHING FROM O9, O16, O17 IN THE AFFIRMATIVE AS AMENDED (OR REFER THEM TO O23).

I have arranged all the topics under four main headings: DOCTRINE, CHURCHES, DISCIPLINE, and DENOMINATION. Many of these overtures relate to the PCA’s Book of Church Order (BCO), but some request the General Assembly to do something else; if so, I try to make that clear. Within each category, I sort the topics by the earliest overture from this year connected to that topic. So, for example, all the overtures on sexuality occur in this guide before the single overture on critical race theory, even though there were three overtures on sexuality before critical race theory and two after it. If this explanation sounds confusing, read on. It may be easier to see than to explain.

TRANSGENDER PETITION | AFFIRMATIVE AS AMENDED: O12

We must speak against the horrific mistreatment of children. This overture should be affirmed, hopefully with changes that will improve it. First, I think the second half of the petition should come first. Second, the overture speaks of a special status for children “before they are capable of choosing good and refusing evil.” This statement may be an oblique reference to Isaiah 7:16, but that verse speaks about knowledge to refuse and to choose, not the capability to do so. This difference is important. It’s not that children can never refuse evil. It’s that children are easily manipulated to embrace something that harms them, and even to embrace that harmful thing as though it helps them. Children should be protected from such deception and destruction. Anyway, here’s my attempt at polishing up an overture that should be affirmed:

We who love our nation, in the name of God who alone is sovereign, call upon you to renounce the sin of medical and surgical sex change procedures in minors by the American healthcare system. Obedience to God, which places us in subjection to your rightful civil authority, requires us to humbly, boldly, and prayerfully proclaim the counsel of God as it bears upon the same God-given authority.

The Bible teaches that God made man in his own image, male and female, and called his creation good; that God blessed man and woman commanding them to be fruitful and multiply; that children are God’s heritage and should be protected from harm, not exposed to it; and that it is scientifically impossible for a man to become a woman or a woman to become a man. Medical and surgical sex change procedures in minors result in irreversible harm, and we call upon you to renounce them.

Humbly and respectfully submitted,

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America

SEXUALITY | AFFIRMATIVE: O23; ANSWER BY REFERENCE TO O23: O24; POSSIBLY ANSWER SOMETHING FROM O9, O16, O17 IN THE AFFIRMATIVE AS AMENDED (OR REFER THEM TO O23)

Overture 23, my dear friends, is the one we have been waiting for. It is concise, lacks parenthetical asides or em dashes, and avoids identity language. Here is the proposed single sentence addition to BCO 8-2, on elders: “He should conform to the biblical requirement of chastity and sexual purity in his descriptions of himself, his convictions, character, and conduct.” The overture places the same language in a clause to BCO 9-2 on deacons. This addition to the BCO communicates to our Church that we have higher requirements for office holders than for members; it does not focus on a particular sin, and the language is plain.

I like BCO 7, so my heart warms to overtures 9, 16, and 17. Even still, I think they need work. For example, O9 speaks of deviating by declared conviction and also of God’s creational intention for human sexuality. I don’t know who does the former (even if they are deeply in error), and I wonder whether the latter could be read to question the presence of unmarried men in ministry, something the overture obviously does not want to do. Overture 16, also on BCO 7-4, is clunky; it can be shorter and fit with the language of BCO 7-3. Perhaps something like the following:

BCO 7-4. No one who holds office in the Church should describe himself by any sin identified in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10. He should instead describe himself as someone “washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Overture 17, again on BCO 7-4, raises questions. Does anyone ever refer to “a particular sin struggle as descriptive of their . . . being”? What would it even mean to do so?

Overture 24 turns us back to BCO 8, on elders; unfortunately, it does not include a proposed change to BCO 9, on deacons. This overture is good, but it is too long. Even still, I do like the sentence (slightly modified by yours truly): “They should guard against setting a damaging or confusing exampe to the flock by describing or defining themselves by their sinful desires.”

My hope is that the Overtures Committee will happily endorse O23, with or without some polishing, and will also give us an additional overture to consider on BCO 7.

OATHS | NEGATIVE: O2021–41; ANSWER BY REFERENCE TO 2021–41: O13

I am surprised at how animated I am on the question of oaths. But perhaps I should not be surprised. We are commanded to take oaths in God’s name (Deuteronomy 6:13, 10:20; Isaiah 65:16) and not to take oaths in the name of anyone else (Joshua 23:7). We see such oaths in the Old Testament (Genesis 24:2–9; Nehemiah 13:25; Ezra 10:1–5), and this practice continues in the New Testament — and understandably so, as God is both the witness of statements made under oath and the ultimate judge of their truthfulness (Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:23, 11:31; Galatians 1:20).

We have an entire chapter in the Westminster Confession on oaths and vows, so we know constitutionally what an oath is. “A lawful oath is a part of religious worship” (WCF 22.1). Why? “The person swearing solemnly calleth God to witness what he asserteth, or promiseth, and to judge him according to the truth or falsehood of what he sweareth” (WCF 22.1). So God serves both as witness and as judge. By what name should one swear? “The name of God only is that by which men ought to swear” (WCF 22.2). What about swearing by another way? “To swear at all by any other thing, is sinful, and to be abhorred” (WCF 22.2).

Outside the context of church courts, oaths are properly seen as a religious act, requiring belief in God and the afterlife. “Neither will it do to allege that an oath is a merely civil transaction,” writes the Scottish Presbyterian James Bannerman in his Church of Christ (1868). “In so far it may be true that there stands connected with an oath a civil engagement as well as a religious. But it is the solemn appeal to God, as the present Witness of the truth, and the future Avenger of falsehood or breach of engagement, that forms the essence of an oath; and it is in this character that it is employed in the transactions of human society.”

In the Westminster Confession of Faith, a lawful oath comes before the discussion in chapter 23 on the civil magistrate and chapter 24 on marriage and divorce. Why? Because a lawful oath is a precondition for these other things. The requirement in BCO 35-1 for witnesses to believe in God and the afterlife is not a Presbyterian distinctive but a feature of the common law. Indeed, the text of the oath in BCO 35-6 reverberates with the language of English and American law courts. The PCA Historical Center points to the revision of 1858 draft as the background for BCO 35-1 and 35-6. Prior to these revisions, in 1845, the Presbyterian minister D. X. Junkin published The Oath: A Divine Ordinance. Unsurprisingly, his definition of an oath conforms to the one given by the Westminster Confession of Faith (belief in God as a witness and as a future judge), but Junkin also takes time to appeal to various legal authorities, demonstrating the consensus on belief in God and future rewards and punishments (pp. 36–38).

What constitutes a properly administered oath is far from an arcane issue. (Mark David Hall has been influential in my thinking on this issue, see, e.g., my review of his recent book.) True, in 1784, Connecticut required each office holder to take God as a witness. That was then. Yes, but it is also now: In 2023, with the General Assembly in Memphis, it is not inappropriate to mention article 9, section 2 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee: “No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.” Absent the Supreme Court ruling Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488 (1961), this section of the state constitution (and similar provisions in several other states) would still be in force.

The provision for an affirmation instead of an oath developed to accommodate Quakers and others, not to make room for atheists and agnostics. Quakers believe in God and the afterlife but are unwilling to swear, given their misunderstanding of Matthew 5:33–37 and James 5:12 (hence the need for WCF 22.2 to contend for the lawfulness of oaths).

Now to the overtures themselves. Overture 2021–41, carried over from last year, removes the first sentence of BCO 35-1, thereby eliminating any explanation of who counts as a competent witness. By dealing only with this part of the BCO, it cannot stand alone, since BCO 35-6 would still require an oath or affirmation that stipulates belief in the existence of God and a future judgment — which, to be clear, BCO 35-6 should do.

Overture 13 can stand alone, but it too should be rejected. Overture 13 seeks to change both the provision for who counts as a witness and the actual oath. These proposals would make things both too loose and too restrictive, in ways that could hurt the very people the overture seeks to help. First, it is too loose, because it does away with belief in God and heaven and hell, contrary to the Bible, the Westminster Standards, and our common law tradition. Second, it is too restrictive, because it gives the court wide discretionary judgment in assessing the quality of a witness. According to the current BCO 35-1, a seven year old who believes in God and heaven and hell is a competent witness. Period. According to this overture, that same child is generally competent to testify as a witness (whatever that means) but “the court shall give consideration” to a variety of factors (including age, intelligence, and relationship to the parties involved) “in judging testimony.” Whereas the current BCO 35-1 gives the court latitude to judge “the degree of credibility to be attached to all evidence,” this overture instructs the court to assess the testimony by consideration of the witnesses themselves. The current language is superior, because it allows a court to believe a dumb 15 year old, who is obviously telling the truth, and to disregard entirely the extremely intelligent 50 year old, who is so obviously lying.

Additionally, I want to voice my displeasure with two of the whereas clauses in this overture, specifically those relating to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) and to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). In one whereas clause, the Presbytery informs us that “the ARP already recognizes the competence of all persons created in the image of God to stand as witnesses,” citing the ARP’s Book of Discipline 4.4.J. But the Presbytery neglects to mention the ARP’s proposed oath in form 6, which requires belief in God and the afterlife. (Is there an ARP Presbytery that uses a different oath?) Likewise, another whereas clause appeals to the OPC Book of Discipline IV.A.4.a for support, but it neglects to mention that IV.A.4.b, to which IV.A.4.a refers, requires a witness to say, “I solemnly swear, that by the grace of God, I will speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth concerning the matters on which I am called to testify.” That is to say, the OPC requires that its witnesses believe in God.

Finally, overture 13 proposes that a witness can swear “with other language . . . provided such oath or affirmation impresses the solemnity of this duty upon the witness’s conscience.” The overture proposes an empty set, i.e., there is no oath that impresses such solemnity upon a witness’s conscience if belief in God and the afterlife are absent. An ecclesiastical court cannot bring to a prospective witness’s mind any sanctions apart from those related to God and the afterlife. There is no threat of a perjury conviction, like in a civil or criminal court.

Indeed, one can argue that without belief in God and the afterlife, a church court has no authority to administer an oath at all. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Presbytery of Georgia overtured the General Assembly with that question: “Whence do the General Assembly derive authority to empower the Moderator of a church session to administer an oath?” The Assembly adopted a reply, drafted in committee, that begins with a description of an oath: “‘An oath for confirmation, (saith the Apostle,) is to men, an end of all strife,’ Heb. vi. 16. It is a solemn affirmation, wherein we appeal to God, as the witness of the truth of what we say; and with an imprecation of his vengeance if what we affirm is false, or what we promise be not performed.” The reply adds, “The authority of Moderators in the Presbyterian church to administer oaths, is not derived from the General Assembly, but from the constitution, or articles of compact, which our churches have adopted, and by which they have agreed to be governed as a Christian community” (Extracts from the Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America [1817], pp. 144–145). Given that our constitution specifies what oaths are (WCF 22.1) and on what their warrant depends (WCF 22.2), these overtures ask us to abandon the very constitutional grounds we have for obligating witnesses by oaths.

Finally, this overture may have atheists and agnostics in mind, but the changes would apply to any possible witness. A Hindu medical doctor and Muslim psychologist will have as much right to use “other language” in swearing oaths as an atheist. Will a Muslim be allowed to swear in “the name of Allah be He Exalted” in a Christian church court? To ask the question is to answer it. Hence the need to answer overture 13 in the negative.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY | NEGATIVE: O18

I looked carefully over this one, in part because I did not immediately understand what this overture wants the General Assembly to do. I think it asks us to adopt its mini-study report on pages 3–5 of the overture, i.e., we should affirm what it affirms and we should reject what it rejects. So the overture is a homegrown Nashville Statement, but on race, and we are told to commend it as biblical.

Unfortunately, the overture does not clarify what we should affirm and what we should deny. For example, it says, “Secular social justice and critical theory ideology interprets an individual’s identity according to his/her ethnicity, gender, so-called sexual orientation/preferences, and other traits, many (though not all) of which are immutable and amoral.” But the overture also says the Bible affirms that “an individual’s ethnic background remains spiritually, psychologically, and socially significant, yet fundamentally an individual’s identity is either as an image bearer of God redeemed by Christ and united with him, or as an image bearer united to Adam and in need of God’s redeeming grace (Rom 8:1-11).” The overture does not clarify when an individual’s recognition of the spiritual, psychological, and social significance of his ethnic background become unbiblical. Perhaps someone speaks or thinks unbiblically if he appeals to the “oppressor/oppressed designations” this overture denies. But the Bible recognizes oppression, e.g., Exodus 3:9: “And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” The overture references Ephesians 1:5–10, 2:6, and 2:13, in order to empathize the unity of believers in Christ. But the overture does not mention Ephesians 5 and 6, in which Paul addresses different believers differently. In Ephesians 6, Paul addresses bondservants (or slaves) and masters.

Even still, I think this issue is worthy of a study committee, with affirmations and denials like the Sexuality Report, or more narrowly tailored overtures. I am confident a study committee could help me very much, and I do not think I am alone. (For anyone wanting to read a recent book on race, I recommend George Yancey’s Beyond Racial Division, which received the Christianity Today 2023 book award in the Politics & Public Life category. About the book, I write, “Yancey proposes a compelling alternative to our current racial stalemate that — dare I say it? — actually gives me hope.”)

CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS | NEGATIVE OR AFFIRM AS AMENDED: O6

I appreciate the spirit of this overture, and I am glad to be at a church that takes background checks seriously. But I am unsure about this overture, so I am going to mark myself down as negative for now; I may change my position, though, depending upon what comes out of the Overtures Committee.

Here are my concerns: Though I am not a lawyer (merely a philosopher), various states have different laws on criminal background checks, and I wonder whether this overture proposes a conflict with some state laws. I also wonder what kind of criminal background check is required here. The more general phrase “background check” may be better. Finally, I fret about a higher court requiring a lower court to do something so particular. Perhaps this overture can be amended to more closely follow the DASA Report’s own language, namely that “Presbyteries and Sessions are encouraged to carefully investigate” candidates, using, among other things, “background checks.” Also, though this point is not as important, the language could be polished a little, e.g., the first sentence says “when a minister is seeking admission” but the better phrase is “when a minister seeks admission.”

WOMEN TEACHING | REFER BACK TO THE SESSION WITHOUT PREJUDICE: O15

This overture tries to address an understandable concern: that women preach in all but name. I wonder whether this Session, or someone else, should try to craft a more narrowly focused overture. For example, someone may want to add a new paragraph in the BCO on how to handle gatherings that are not in a church on a Sunday morning or to add a paragraph with full constitutional authority on what any church must do it if gathers on a Sunday morning.

About this particular overture, I have questions. First, I am not sure I know what “a public worship assembly” is. The word “assembly” in the BCO is, as best I know, used exclusively for the General Assembly — and the overture can’t mean that. BCO language for a Sunday morning church service is “a service of public worship” (e.g., BCO 47-2), but I don’t think it means that, either, since it mentions any “gathering overseen by the Church or one of its agencies.” So what are we talking about exactly?

Second, the word “public” is unclear, too. Is a college chapel service public? I assume it is, but I have not thought carefully about it. Is a meeting of missionaries overseas public? Perhaps it is private, thought it may resemble a Sunday morning worship service in many elements. Greater clarity is needed here.

Third, though preaching has a clear definition, I am not sure what counts as teaching: “No woman shall . . . teach at a public worship assembly . . . in any educational institution . . . .” Due to the amorphous nature of “a public worship assembly,” I wonder whether a nurse making an announcement during a Covenant College chapel about the psychological stress to students during the COVID–19 lockdowns counts as teaching — or not.

Finally, it is odd for a single sentence in BCO 53 to have constitutional authority but the rest of the chapter lack it. We are Presbyterians, but that seems pretty fine grained to me — though to be fair to the Session submitting this overture, BCO 59-3 (on marriage between one man and woman) does have unique constitutional authority in BCO 59.

TITLES | AFFIRMATIVE AS AMENDED: O26

Churches refer to unordained employees and volunteers according to their job titles, but some job titles are confusing, at best, and downright misleading, at worst. So we should approve overture 26.

I propose a few modifications. “Unordained people” seems odd, because it suggests we believe in “ordained people,” when we don’t — or we do, but only the male. Also, I like the idea of restricting the use of “titles connected to” the offices, e.g., a youth pastor should only be called a “pastor” if he is ordained. But this underspecified restriction creates problems, even with BCO 9-7, which speaks of “assistants to the deacons,” which sounds like a title connected to an office.

Even still, let me be very clear: I am supportive of this overture; here is my attempt at a polished version:

7-3. No one who holds office in the Church ought to usurp authority therein, or receive any official titles of spiritual preeminence, except such as are employed in the Scriptures. Furthermore, no one without such an office should receive a title employed in the Scriptures for that office, such as pastor, elder, or deacon.

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