smallbeans
Puritan Board Freshman
I agree. It is not kosher for Louisiana Presbytery to countenance all the aberrations it does, causing problems for a myriad of other presbyteries. It is very likely that the only reason Lusk was never brought up on charges was because he was in LA Presbytery.
It may be that you're talking about the federal vision stuff here in your comment, which does tend to isolate the Louisiana Presbytery because they are the only Presbytery so far that has released a study committee report that doesn't condemn certain aspects of the Federal Vision. But more broadly, I think you are underestimating the number of presbyteries in which the views of this pastor which prevented his transfer would be normal fare. In other words, some of the same concerns that make Federal Vision persona non grata in Birmingham also rule out a lot of other viewpoints not associated with the FV.
I also see in the most recent reply by Rev. King that he continues to conflate "THE PCA" with one of its presbyteries. Fact is, given our praxis, one powerful older presbyter can pretty much keep any pastor he wants out of any presbytery. And because in this case there is no official statement as to precisely why the pastor in question was rejected (correct me if I'm wrong here) it further strengthens the impression that we are not talking about a unified voice of a denomination standing behind this occurrence.
As for whether we should be smug or not - we have no reason to be snug about anything, regardless of which black pots are describing our black kettles. The PCA is being piloted with three or four different visions - most of which embarrass me. I think after you leave the "Purpose Driven Life" themed service at one of the "acceptable" PCA churches in Birmingham, you'd be ready to reexamine just which church is presbyterian. (Now I'm saying this having never met the rejected pastor, but having attended said Purpose Driven Life service. It could simply be that the pastor in question is a personally abrasive and unsavory character and that's why he was rejected, but I wouldn't know. So my comments are assuming it was his views and not his character that kept him out.)