For now it is enough to see that the fevered outbreak it got caught up in has lost much of its momentum and been shown to be the egregious bit of mass hysteria and folly that some always knew it was. The people who chanted ‘silence is violence’ (a malicious, coercive slander) actually contributed to bloodshed in the streets by their ludicrous ideas about law and justice (notably, abolishing the police). It shall not be pleasant explaining such things at the day of judgment.

It is now five years since an anonymous group of Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) agency heads and permanent committee coordinators issued a statement on “heinous killings” through the denominational magazine’s website. The thing was not well-received by many among us, and was later critiqued at great (7,000+ word) length here: one correspondent told me it was the straw that broke the camel’s back of his morale and that he mentally left the PCA at that point, as it seemed to him proof that the PCA was gone over to worldly compromise. Probably it drove some sheep from our fold, or at least contributed to the larger situation at the time that did so.

The partial anonymity was galling, as it meant the authors could not be identified and personally remonstrated with, while at the same time retained the prestige of their positions. They spoke to, and to some extent for, the PCA, yet had not the courage to reveal their names, which would have had the further advantage of revealing how widespread their opinions were. (Was their group two or three, or did it consist of all our agency heads?)

There were many of us who saw in that statement an example of being caught up in the tumultuous tide of the moment. We heard in that moment the siren song of the French Revolution, the fervent desire for the overthrow of existing institutions and a purging the land of all memory of the hated past. To go along with such a thing was never right, and the statement went along with it gladly, adopting its rhetoric and presuppositions as its own and interpreting scripture in light of them.

But of the many particular faults with that statement we shall not dwell now. For now it is enough to see that the fevered outbreak it got caught up in has lost much of its momentum and been shown to be the egregious bit of mass hysteria and folly that some always knew it was. The people who chanted ‘silence is violence’ (a malicious, coercive slander) actually contributed to bloodshed in the streets by their ludicrous ideas about law and justice (notably, abolishing the police). It shall not be pleasant explaining such things at the day of judgment.

And just as David acknowledged that he had a part in Doeg’s murder of the priests at Nob (1 Sam. 22:22), so also should the writers of the statement acknowledge that they failed to be leaven by standing athwart an evil movement, but rather went along with it. The time is right for them to reveal themselves and to retract the statement and offer in its place an acknowledgment that they got caught up in a movement which has subsequently been discredited by its bad fruits. The wording can be decided by themselves, but an example of the message it ought to convey can be found here:

In June of 2020 we published a statement calling for justice in society and the remedying of past and contemporary wrongs. In so doing we let our zeal get ahead of our knowledge and failed to be wise as serpents as well as innocent as doves (Matt. 10:16). Though we never endorsed criminal behavior, least of all violence, and sought rather to oppose such things, we see now that our cry was part of a larger movement that did result in a severe increase in wrongdoing, especially violence. Remembering that the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles to instruct us to honor the emperor (1 Pet. 2:17) and to obey the authorities (Rom. 13:1-7) while they lived in a pagan empire full of slavery, cruelty, and oppression that exceeded our nation in even its darkest moments (e.g. Lk. 13:1-2), and remembering that the Lord told a governor of said empire that his kingdom is not of this world (Jn. 18:36), we now recognize it was not appropriate for the church to make direct comments on civil affairs at that time, particularly as we did so. We affirm the propriety of Christian political and social involvement, but recognize that it is not the place of the institutional church or her representatives to do so, and that our ecclesiastical mission and authority is intended to call men and women to repentance and faith, and to instruct them in the ways of Christ in the hope that this will bear good fruits of justice and many other blessings in our wider society. We affirm also that believers ought to walk in discernment and take heed what terms they use and where they get their ideas in such matters. For it is clear now that many people have a different meaning of justice and equity than God, so that it is easy for one to provide inadvertent aid to others whose meaning and intentions are not good. We therefore retract our previous statement as unhelpful and urge all people to trust in Christ for salvation and look in hope to a world to come in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13), and to live in a manner that is characterized by a wise love for him and for one’s fellow Man.

It would take much courage to do so, but it would be a good example. And if any of the authors do take up this earnest plea to do so, everyone else will be under a solemn obligation to accept such an act of revelation and retraction as satisfactory, and to not hold past faults against the one that does so. The question is: will the authors do it? Will they continue to let their statement stand and to hide behind the veil of digital anonymity, or will they recognize their error and do as I have suggested here, and thus remove a source of offense to many of their brothers and sisters?

Tom Hervey is a member of Friendship Presbyterian Church in Laurens County, SC. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not of necessity reflect those of his church or its leadership or other members. He welcomes comments at the email address provided with his name. He is also author of Reflections on the Word: Essays in Protestant Scriptural Contemplation, and helped modernize Volume I of James Hervey’s classic dialogue on evangelical faith, Theron and Aspasio, available now at Monergism.