The Write Place

Much to my Chagrin, David French was announced as a speaker on panel for the seminar titled “How to Be Supportive of Your Pastor and Church Leaders in a Polarized Political Year.” If you have been following politics like I have, and David French’s devolution you will be just as discouraged as I was to hear it.

David French has a long history of furthering of furthering the neo-pagan push against the church in the culture war. He took part in Rob Reiner’s anti-Christian (which is what it was) documentary God and Country, supporting Reiner’s thesis of the dangers of Christian activity in the public sphere. He was also active in constructing a heavily leftist Sunday School curriculum aimed at keeping Christians from applying Christianity to law and public life (Follow the Money to the After Party | Megan Basham | First Things). He praised Drag queen story hour as a part of our liberty. As you can see, David French opposes civic righteousness in the name of a pluralism that is exclusivist when it comes to Christian virtue.

I suggest you read the concise and well written work by Ben Dunson here.

Unlike what David French thinks, there is no such thing as neutrality, and it is not the Christian’s who are at fault for the loss of civility in our current political environment. Yet due to his fondness for the secular humanist delusion he grew up with, David French is convinced he can be neutral when it comes to things concerning honoring the King. You are either with Christ or against him, French has deluded himself onto the side of opposition. This is the man on an assembly wide seminar. Remember

²³ Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Luke 11:23

The letter I received in response to my email to the stated clerk was concerning as his former pastors affirmed his orthodoxy. Let us grant his supposed orthodoxy, his orthopraxy is anything but. The devils after all, know God exists, and they shudder. I was assured of his “regard for the PCA” a denomination he accused of being full of Confederates. I was also told the pushback proves our need for such a seminar, which has nothing to do with excusing David French as one of the speakers (why even mention this at anyway beyond political posturing?). Revulsion at sin would not affirm the need for Lucifer to speak. Likewise, this sounds suspiciously like a sheepskin title meant to deflect from mischievous content and is political speak at the least. David French is one of the reasons we are politically divided. Likewise, we often see our institutions are ready and able to take a political side and give voice when it comes to going left, but going to the right is seen as getting too involved or extreme. Whether political speech or inexcusable ignorance, this shows the danger of committees that progressives have taken advantage of in one form or another. David French needs to be told to repent, and we need to be serious about expelling Hegelians (who are at core gnostics) and their assets. David French is the latter. Political sins exist and our denomination is platforming a bold accuser of the church. I was told the stated clerk would consider the matter more closely, I pray he does. The inability on his part to have done so is a red flag it’s own, one that hopefully wins him to the side of care and orthodoxy.

The heretics appear far more concerned with purity than many who claim to be within orthodoxy.

From what I have seen this is why the conservative/confessionalists keep losing and keep getting pushed out. It is beyond time conservatives were purists and unafraid to be so. Remember God’s words through Paul to Timothy (an ordained elder).

⁵ I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. ⁶ For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, ⁷ for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

1 Timothy 1:5-8

The progressive playbook (inside and outside of the church) has always been to introduce an evil, initiate a response from the conservative, then DARVO (Deny, Attack, reverse the victim and offender) and claim their opponents are the instigators causing problems. We would have peace after all (so the deceiver says), if you got those Presbyterians out of this Presbyterian denomination for throwing a hissy fit when we try to make it something it’s not. It may be under the nebulous “Christian Nationalist” title or something other now (someone who believes rights come from God, perish the thought) but they are saying the same thing now of anybody who means it when they say Christ is Lord. just as in the days of Rome. I expect the same tactic, now or later if they get the chance within the PCA.

It’s a simple three-year-old playground dynamic but people keep falling for it over and over again. The reason is simple, people want quiet. But we are not called to quiet because quiet is not peace.

They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.

Jeremiah 6:14

Remember the Hebrew here is Shalom, not quiet but peace in the fullness of blessing and we are called to it.

We are told for this reason not to be peacekeepers, but peacemakers. Sure, we are to keep the peace when we have it, but we are to fight for it always. Peace needs to be fought for, and it is deeper than a lack of obvious conflict. It cannot be achieved by refusing to fight or turning on the one who fights. It is secured by accurately diagnosing the wolf and killing it.

⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons^[a] of God.

Matthew 5:9

This concern for peace and quiet rather than shalom is what initiated the persecutions of the church in the Roman era. Rome persecuted the church for their refusal to worship Caesar, Rome was instigating disorder in creation. Rome was breaking Shalom. The Pagans were actually producing the disorder in God’s creation. Within the empire itself the Christians were seen as instigators for refusing to worship Caesar, but also for attracting the hatred of the Jewish institutions around them.

When they were considered a part of Judaism the Christians were persecuted by the Sanhedrin and their institutions. This created violence almost wherever they went (Acts 6:12, Acts 14:2, Acts 14:19, Acts 17:13, Acts 21:27). Rome did not care to investigate the validity of the deity of Christ, the resurrection or the legitimacy of the Jewishness of the Christian religion. Had they, it would have been the Christians who would have been licit Jews. Instead, the Romans came to persecute the Christians for causing a raucous.

The unbelieving of every stripe will always demand we change, will never change themselves, and will never allow the Gospel faithfully preached and applied a place at the table (no matter what David French says or believes). Why? Because it upsets the apple cart of their sin.

Those outside of the Church know better than those within that Christianity is holistic, so they’re inviting us to compromise. David French did, and he is being used as a Trojan Horse. David French does not believe Christ his Lord, whatever he may say. You can trust he will teach accordingly against this truth. The individuals or committee responsible has earned much scrutiny.

Allowing David French to speak or bringing in critical theory (or Maoist struggle sessions as appear to be happening in some churches and presbyteries) are not ways to get in good with an unbelieving world for the sake of the Gospel. They are ways the world gets into your churches so they can remove the Gospel. They do this because you already have the answers and the truth, they are found in scripture. Take heart, it’s proof you are dangerous to their sin. Stand firm and fight the good fight.

¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

Matthew 5:10-13

write the PCA’s stated clerk
ac@pcanet.org.