First a disclaimer. I am neither a lawyer nor the son of a lawyer. So this is an Opinion/Commentary, not a news story. This analysis is simply one person reading the Appeal Court decision and the words in the Appeal Petition which asked for the Appeal Court to take action and trying to make some... Continue Reading

The question is whether the Plan recognizes who it is that we are supposed to be keeping safe, and whether what it proposes will better help them stay that way. The first theme proposed by the PCA Strategic Plan is “How to Provide Safe Places to Talk about New Ideas to Advance the PCA’s Faithfulness... Continue Reading

Allow me to enter the debate about the use of our English word “immigrant” to translate the Hebrew Bible term ger and to apply it to our situation in the United States today. As a Hebrew Bible scholar, I would agree that “immigrant” is just as good a translation of the word ger as the... Continue Reading

Here is one alternative ending for the blockbuster series LOST. We refer to this as BUREACRACY LOST. Sayid: “OK, I’ll take the blame for the juvenile, self-serving ideas in the StratPlan bomb. I’ll gather it up and run to the exit of the submarine and jump out to my own death. Someone has to fall... Continue Reading

The secret to the PCA’s multi-year decline may be primarily external to a denomination that is losing its ability to connect and lead an American culture that is increasingly multi-ethnic and non-white, as many are now arguing. The internal issues of new generations, missional emphasis vs. traditionalists, and so on may, in fact, be more... Continue Reading

“I contacted Cokesbury and was advised that a Common English Bible (CEB) translation to which you (PCUSA Stated Clerk) referred does not exist.” Lloyd Meyer’s e-mailed request was simple: “What translation of Scripture did you use?” That question, originally sent to the Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly, ricocheted... Continue Reading

Emergents are stereotypically associated with soul patches, body piercings, black clothing, and coffee houses. Though too young to remember Beatniks, or Jack Kerouac, they stylistically often aspire to be their more spiritual descendants The “emergent church” is a loosely defined and even less organized force of postmodern evangelicals who emphasize community over Christian doctrine. Having... Continue Reading

The first overture called for a ‘means of grace’ alternative to the proposed Strategic Plan; the second called for a recognition of the sufficiency of our constitution to govern offices and ordination in the church. On Saturday May 22, the Northwest Georgia Presbytery (NWGP) convened in a called meeting to consider two overtures from the... Continue Reading

In a second installment, PCA Business Administrator John Robertson responds to questions about gifts versus assessments, and the funding of tasks that aren’t mandated in Scripture. In an interview in byFaithonline, TE Robertson answers three additional questions about the AC Funding Plan portion of the Strategic Plan. 1) Don’t your previous references to 2 Cor... Continue Reading

Everything is tolerated except “intolerable” Christian moral standards. While being reassured by the “progressives” that we are moving forward to a new day of utopian human transformation, in fact, all roads are leading backwards— to pre-Constantine pagan Rome. During that period, the Christian faith was outlawed and officially persecuted [see the first four chapters of... Continue Reading