All I am saying is this: let’s remember Dr. Smith as the New Testament remembers Old Testament saints. Learn from a saint’s sins but remember their faith. Soon we all will die, and our children will have to decide how to remember us. Let’s leave them a grace-filled example.

Morton Smith is well known within Presbyterian circles. He was a leading conservative in the old PCUS, a founding father and first stated clerk of the PCA, and the founding professor of Reformed Theological Seminary. His influence also reached far beyond the PCA. The denomination of which I am a member, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, owes Dr. Smith a debt of gratitude. He trained the first generation of ministers who called our denomination back to conservative, Reformed Christianity.

But in recent years Dr. Smith has become (in)famous for the views he allegedly held regarding race. In his younger days he opposed interracial marriage, and in the 1960s he wrote an article for the OPC’s denominational magazine in defense of segregation. Before his death, Dr. Smith repented of his views on interracial marriage, but as far as I know, he never gave up the idea that segregation was, in principle, not outside the bounds of biblical morality. He did say in my hearing that segregation as practiced by Southerners was sinful because they did not give equal and fair treatment to African Americans.

Now Dr. Smith has gone on to glory, receiving his eternal reward. As is our custom as Presbyterians, memorials are being offered to this year’s PCA General Assembly to give thanks to God for Dr. Smith’s life and ministry. This is standard practice when a leader in a Presbyterian denomination dies. However, the memorial process for Dr. Smith is shaping up to be anything but ordinary. Central Indiana Presbytery has sent up a memorial that will prove to be inflammatory. It appears that they aim more to censure Dr. Smith than to praise him. After speaking of Dr. Smith’s accomplishments and the sins of the PCA regarding race, the memorial concludes:

That the Assembly recognize and acknowledge that although Dr. Smith’s publicly stated views on race, segregation, and slavery, fall short of the full counsel of God on this important matter and have caused severe challenges for many brothers and sisters in our denomination, for our ministries, and for our witness before the watching world, yet the Lord used him in a foundational way to begin a denomination that has recently acknowledged its failures in these matters and increasingly reflects the diversity of the kingdom of God.

To say that this is an unusual way for a General Assembly memorial to conclude is an understatement. This would be the first time to my knowledge that an overture to memorialize a teaching elder has included a criticism of his theological views. (I am told that Dr. Smith was not the only deceased teaching elder who had this sort of memorial offered up this year. It’s my understanding that a similar overture was offered for Paul Settle, but that it failed to make the filing deadline.) What should we make of this sort of memorial?

I, for one, think this sort of memorial is wrongheaded. The death of a faithful servant of God is not the time to make statements about issues before the courts of the church. An overture to memorialize the dead is not the proper place to offer criticism of the individual who has passed. And I think there are good, biblical reasons for thinking this way.

Jeremiah Burroughs offers an insightful comment about how the Lord treated Sarah, the wife of Abraham, in his excellent book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. Burroughs comforts believers by showing how God does not treat us as we deserve. Concerning how Peter treats Abraham’s wife, Sarah, Burroughs writes:

“Sarah had a speech to her husband in Genesis 18:12. She called her husband ‘lord.’ There was only that one good word in a bad, unbelieving speech; yet when the Apostle mentions that speech in 1 Peter 3:6, the Holy Ghost leaves all the bad and commends her for calling her husband ‘lord,’ putting a reverent title upon her husband. Thus, how graciously God deals with us!”

What great comfort, indeed! There is no man alive who should desire that God would deal with us as our sins deserve, even in the way that God treats us as his adopted children. In fact, this seems to be the persistent pattern of the New Testament. Think of some of the figures whom the writer to the Hebrews places in the hall of faith: Sarah, Jacob, Samson, and Jephthah! That Samson and Jephthah are included in the list, without any negative comment, should be striking to us. If God deals this graciously with these men and women, should we deal any less graciously with one of his servants who has recently passed on to glory?

“But their sins are recorded in the Old Testament,” someone might protest. Fair enough. But the New Testament does not dwell on the sins of Old Testament saints. Their sins are known, but it is their faith that is remembered.

We all know the sins of Dr. Smith and many of the other leaders of his generation. I’m not saying we white-wash them. I’m saying that in our formal pronouncement where we spread their names upon our minutes as a memorial, giving thanks to God, let’s do it like Peter remembered Sarah or Lot. Let’s remember Dr. Smith the way the writer to the Hebrews remembers Samson and Jephthah.

All I am saying is this: let’s remember Dr. Smith as the New Testament remembers Old Testament saints. Learn from a saint’s sins but remember their faith. Soon we all will die, and our children will have to decide how to remember us. Let’s leave them a grace-filled example.

Scott Cook is a minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church ARP and is serving as the Interim Dean of Enrollment and Adjunct Professor of Bible at Erskine College in Due West, S.C.

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