The PCA and Peter Leithart

My good friend James Grant summarizes the situation well:

In 2007, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) approved a study report that concluded the movement known as the “Federal Vision” was outside the boundaries of the Westminster Standards. This basically means that a minister holding to some of the doctrines and beliefs that are found in the FV movement could be brought up on charges in the PCA.

Since he was known as being part of this movement, Peter Leithart provided his Presbyterian (the Pacific Northwest Presbytery) with an explanation of his views in light of the recently adopted report. This started a process of investigating Leithart’s views. At first, the committee of that Presbytery responded by saying that Leithart’s views were not out of bounds. Appeals were made, and eventually the case landed with the PCAs highest court: The Standing Judicial Commission.

Jason Stellman, who blogs here, was one of the elders who filed the complaint against the Pacific Northwest Presbytery and brought this to the Standing Judicial Commission. He posted a link to the SJCs decision regarding this case. You can read that decision here.

The decision basically explains that the complaint was upheld. In other words, the SJC explains that the presbytery erred by not finding a strong presumption of guilt on regarding the views of Leithart. The concluding paragraph of the report states this:

In conclusion, since what amounts to a thorough BCO 31-2 investigation has been conducted by PNW, the results of which PNW should have recognized raised a strong presumption of guilt that Leithart holds views that place him out of accord with our Standards (the Constitution of the PCA), PNW erred in not so doing. In determining what is the appropriate remedy, the SJC remands and sends this case back to PNW with instructions to institute process, based on this finding of a strong presumption of guilt, and appoint a prosecutor to prepare an Indictment of Leithart and to conduct the case.

You can download the whole report here. I count Peter Leithart as a friend, and I was thankful to see Rob Rayburn and the PNW Presbytery handle this in the way they did. As one who is outside of the PCA and does not know a lot about their particular Presbyterian polity, although I did have L. Roy Taylor as a professor at RTS, I find it rather frustrating that a small committee like the SJC has such power. I have friends who left the PCA and went into the OPC for precisely this reason. Nevertheless, it is their polity, and the SJC has told the PNW Presbytery to prepare an indictment against Leithart and conduct a case against him. As Stellman said on his blog, it is a sad day for the church no matter what side you stand on, or at least it should be.

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