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Originally Posted by SemperFideles  Whatever the motivations were that precipitated it are sort of immaterial to the thing at hand. If this case serves one powerful purpose it might serve to remind people of the longer term consequences of a wrong decision when it seems the shorter term consequences of seeming to hurt a brother are staring you in the face. |
Yes.
We can't know the motivations for sure. One possibility is that the SJC indictment itself crystalized some elders' thinking. Maybe they previously thought it was a liberty of conscience issue on FV; that is -- I don't buy into this, but maybe it's OK as someone else's cup of tea. But when faced with being kicked out of the PCA over it, they took a second look and had to agree it was wrong. I think that is more likely than the speculation you had earlier that they were knowingly being soft on error out of financial considerations.
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I can tell you this: that men who are in my line of profession would have been relieved of their duties - regardless of apology. That's tough but that's leadership. There's part of me that wants to not see men's lives turned upside down but then there's the part of me that wants to underline and boldface that Presbyters have got to stand up and face the music for the consequences of their decision. Perhaps self-sacrifice could be in order for men to step down in repentance and bring forward new leadership that had not had a serious lapse in judgement at the time of decision.
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But the marines have unity of command, Rich.
There is only one commander at each level. I don't think the PCA has any mechanism for relieving an elder of his position at the Presbytery level for participating in a bad decision. They just reverse the decision itself at the higher level. Apart from heresy or immorality on an individual elder's part, there is no punishing them other than reversal of the decision, for people voting the wrong way on a bad decision. And I think that is the way it must be, otherwise, you'd never have an end to litigation.
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Again, just my opinion but this is one reason I've been waiting to accept the call for Elder with two opportunities to accept a call in the past because the responsibilities and consequences are so very, very grave.
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Yes, there is the warning to not let many be teachers, but if God is calling you, you need to accept the call, Rich.
