Hey PCA Friends, You Paying Attention?

Some of my friends inside the Presbyterian Church in America have made excuses for pastors like Greg Johnson of Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, MO, and of Revoice, the conference held at his church a few years ago.

Revoice made waves for what seemed to be an attempt to normalize unbiblical sexual identities behind biblical veneers.

Well, let’s fast forward to today. Revoice is still going, and Johnson’s church might leave the PCA. And what of Revoice’s antics?

They’ve gone exactly where I predicted they would go.

Speakers have always emphasized homosexuality as an identity, not just a behavior. But this year, such assertions from the dais seemed more insistent, with speakers assiduously using civil-rights language to present radical change as settled truth. That identity rhetoric extended to transgender ideology. Speakers frequently referred to “sexual and gender minorities” and used preferred pronouns, along with terms such as women “assigned female at birth.” The group’s reach and influence are growing, but leaders now emphasize parachurch activities. Speakers frequently referenced ongoing rejection within the church and encouraged attendees to form their own spiritual communities in local Revoice chapters.

Oh wait, there’s more:

During the conference’s two-hour lunch breaks, Revoice offered “affinity groups,” broken into various categories: gender minorities, family/loved ones of LGBTQ+, bisexuals/pansexuals, asexuals/aromantics, women “assigned female at birth,” mixed-orientation heterosexual marriages where one spouse remains same-sex attracted, and celibate partnerships where those who are same-sex attracted but celibate live together. In Side B circles, those are called “spiritual friendships.” Other affinity groups were categorized by race: BIPOC for black or indigenous people of color and AAPI for Asian American or Pacific Islanders.

Y’all, this is not an I told you so moment.

It is a moment to point out that many of my friends in the PCA, willing to deal Biblically and compassionately with people struggling with sin have opened the door to those who do not want to struggle with sin, but normalize sin to make the sin no longer a sin.

There is not a lot of difference between this and the pagans around the early church trying to weave the spiritualism of the age into Christianity or the gnostics trying to twist Christianity. There is not a lot of difference between the Germans of the nineteenth century weaving the German zeitgeist into Christ. Even Albert Schweitzer could figure out that the Germans seeking to find the real Jesus had created a Jesus exactly like the people seeking him. Then Schweitzer, the most brilliant man on the planet, did exactly the same thing. It is what these people are doing now.

This is not going to end well, and I really and truly hope my friends in the PCA are willing to put down the pastels now and pick up some bright colors to draw bright lines that need to be drawn, lest the hospitality and winsomeness of the denomination is overrun by those seeking to twist truth straight into lies.

There is no great difference between Revoice, which some in the PCA tried to excuse, and Matthew Vines who those in the PCA rejected. Just because Revoice started in a PCA Church should not give it and those who seek to mainstream it a pass.

Those who seek to normalize that which Revoice would normalize should not be in the pulpits of the PCA.