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Originally Posted by sastark  Ok, I agree that it is wrong to allow the board members back, only to add further stipulations afterwards and I would also like to state that church politics are always shameful and this incident reeks of church politics.
Having said that, I'm curious: Was Knox Seminary originally set up as a "ministry" (for lack of a better word) of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church? Was the Session of CRPC accurate in saying that the Board of Knox Seminary is a Standing Commission of CRPC? If so, how could the stated clerk of the PCA offer an assessment in favor of the board of Knox Seminary? It seems to me that this is a local church issue.
Another question I would want answered before making up my mind on this topic is: Who has the right to discipline professors at KTS? Does that responsibility fall to the board of directors or does the Session of CRPC alone have that authority?
Also, I would encourage everyone to withhold judgment until we hear both sides of the issue. |
The board cannot be a commission (standing or otherwise) of the Session. In order to be on a commission (except as an invited ex officio guest, like the preacher at an ordination), you must be a member of the court. In order to be a member of the Session of CRPC, a man must have been a member of CRPC and have been elected an elder from that congregation. It is manifestly not the case with the Teaching Elders (who are members of their respective Presbyteries), and don't think it is the case with the non-TEs either. Furthermore, as Dr. Taylor states, the Session has no authority over Dr. Gage (himself a member of a Presbytery) either to condemn or exonerate. All of this is standard polity - and does not touch on the substantive issue of Dr. Gage's teaching.