Abuse reform push in PCA faces resistance once again
An influential Presbyterian denomination yet again balked on policy revisions aimed at bolstering accountability measures for ministers accused of wrongdoing, contributing to what advocates for abuse reform see as a disappointing pattern.
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) considered and ultimately rejected two proposals, called overtures, to require background checks and expand the eligibility of witnesses in church court cases during the recent PCA General Assembly in Richmond, Virginia.
Both overtures had also came before the PCA’s top policymaking assembly in 2023 in the wake of an abuse study and similarly failed. Though opponents of the proposals cited legal concerns or a fear of compromising core doctrinal beliefs, advocates for reform are concerned the inaction follows a lack of awareness about cases happening in real time.
Echoing a debate at the 2023 PCA General Assembly in Memphis, opponents of the overture to expand witness eligibility in church courts said the policy change accounts for a “hypothetical” scenario. But delegates to this year’s PCA General Assembly, called commissioners, also raised a more fundamental objection.
“Paul warns us against taking our grievances to the unrighteous. Now we want to invite them into our courts,” Mississippi commissioner Zach Byrd said during a June 13 floor debate. “The ends of discipline are reclaiming a brother. But primarily it is the glory of God. This is Christ’s court.”
The overture would have removed language in the PCA Book of Church Order section 35 that currently prohibits testimony from witnesses “who do not believe in the existence of God.” Advocates for reform contend the current restrictions, which technically allow testimony from witnesses who believe in other monotheistic religious traditions, withholds important testimony from victims of ministers accused of abuse.
“It’s not at all uncommon for victims of church abuse to have conflicts of faith,” advocate Lynna Sutherland said in a June 18 podcast reflecting on the witness eligibility debate at the PCA General Assembly. “So, if sheep-eating shepherds drive their only credible accusers out of the church, who can bring accountability for their behavior?”
Earlier in the week, a subcommittee rejected the overture to expand witness eligibility. Then, before the full assembly, a motion to reverse the subcommittee’s decision and to approve the proposal failed by about 20 votes.
Donna Wescott is another advocate for reform and attended the Richmond assembly in person. She said on a June 18 podcast she left the event feeling the “systems and organization of the PCA is much more important to some of these men than real life, flesh and blood who have experienced abuse.”
“These issues are often treated just as a matter of theory that can be debated,” she said.
Growing awareness, some changes
Both the overtures on expanding witness eligibility and to require background checks emerged from a growing awareness of misconduct in the PCA and a 2022 report on preventing and responding to those instances of inappropriate behavior.
That 2022 report from the PCA ad interim committee on domestic abuse and sexual assault (known as the “DASA committee”) recommended changes to the denomination’s policies and best practices to help churches and presbyteries, the term for regional church authorities, take stronger disciplinary action and to better care for abuse survivors. As the primary mechanism for disciplining a PCA minister, most of those recommended changes focused on the church court system.
“The church has a duty to maintain the boundaries of membership and to remove wolves from leadership,” New York commissioner Tim LeCroy said during the June 13 floor debate about the witness eligibility measure. “We cannot cede the power of the keys to the state if the state fails in its job to exercise the power of the sword.”
LeCroy, a New York pastor who served as chair of the DASA committee, disputed arguments the civilian court system is sufficient for responding to clergy abuse and noted statistically very few victims report allegations to the police.
“I believe our duty to preserve the truth means we should receive that information in order to exonerate the falsely accused,” LeCroy said during the June 13 floor debate. “Likewise, if there is information that our courts could receive that would convict the rightly accused, we should receive it.”
Awareness about alleged misconduct in the PCA has incrementally grown in the past couple years, gaining traction when Indiana pastor Dan Herron faced allegations of sexual harassment in 2022. Other cases in the past year — such as allegations of misconduct against Nashville pastor Ian Sears and Philadelphia pastor Liam Goligher, both of whom have resigned from their churches and are facing ongoing disciplinary proceedings — have added to that awareness.
In response to this growing awareness and DASA committee recommendations, the PCA General Assembly has ratified two legislative proposals over the past two years. The most recent one is an amendment to PCA Book of Church Order section 38-1, a provision commonly known as “case without process.” Essentially the equivalent of a guilty plea in the civilian court system, “case without process” allows a minister to confess to wrongdoing and avoid a church court trial.
The recent change to section 38-1 allows a victim or “offended person(s)” to receive information about a minister’s confession. This change acts as a sort of backstop to an otherwise secretive practice in which a presbytery receives a minister’s confession in executive session, something that came to the forefront of the Nashville Presbytery’s disciplinary cases for Sears and former Christ Presbyterian Church senior pastor Scott Sauls.
‘Opportunity to avoid humiliation’
Instead of outright rejecting the proposal requiring background checks as it did last year, the PCA General Assembly this year approved an amended proposal encouraging churches and presbyteries to conduct background checks.
Speaking on behalf of the overtures subcommittee that recommended to the full assembly that amended proposal, Pennsylvania commissioner Steve Tipton said the change doesn’t prevent churches from administering background checks. Tipton cited guidance his subcommittee received from PCA lawyers earlier in the week as a reason for softening the language.
“We believe that the language that was presented was too restrictive or too prescriptive,” Tipton said during a June 13 floor discussion.
Other commissioners disagreed and spoke against the overtures subcommittee’s recommendation to approve the amended overture.
Alabama commissioner John Alexander expressed concern about the PCA following in the footsteps of its conservative evangelical counterpart, the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention, if the Presbyterian denomination opts for a less firm stance on this prevention measure.
At the same time as the PCA General Assembly, the Nashville-based SBC gathered in Indianapolis for its annual meeting in which it discussed long-term needs for preventing and responding to abuse amid the expiration of a two-year, task force-led effort to study and implement reform.
“We have the opportunity to avoid the humiliation another denomination is experiencing right now,” Alexander said during the June 13 floor debate at the PCA General Assembly.
Advocate and nonprofit leader Ann Maree Goudzwaard, who was an adviser to the DASA committee in the PCA, said the absence of a background check requirement places the onus on abuse victims.
“They will also need to provide for their own protection from said abuse,” Goudzwaard said in a statement, responding to the assembly’s decision on the background check overture. “Vulnerable individuals should be able to walk the halls of PCA churches, gatherings, and events without fear.”
Also, an overture encouraging churches and presbyteries to partner with third-party experts in instances of alleged abuse failed to pass the overtures subcommittee, a rejection the full assembly didn’t reverse.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.