Failing To See The Log In One's Own Eye

Apparently there is a struggle going on in the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). That denomination is a conservative Presbyterian denomination that holds to Christianity's fundamental beliefs as identified by past conservative scholars like J. Gresham Machen. Only the PCA understands those fundamental beliefs within a Reformed Theological context provided by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the conservative Presbyterian standards such as the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. But that is not all, the PCA has also been described as a 'big tent' denomination that includes others who are not as well trained in those traditions. 

And so when one adds to the mix calls from those inside the denomination to update how the denomination should respond to new cultural perspectives and societal challenges, if not a perfect storm, then a very good size one is brewing in the denomination. A traditionalist perspective of the rumblings in the denomination has been reported in the Reformation21.org blog (click here for the article). The battle within the denomination appears to be between Reformed Theology traditionalists vs. Progressive Christianity.

Dr. Harry Reeder (click here for a bio), a minister at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama wrote an article about the struggles in the PCA (click here for the article). The article is important to read even though it has some glaring faults such as a failure to provide both clear definitions of at least one key term and a sound logical argument. The article, however, is important to read because it provides a perspective on how Christian traditionalists are attempting to address some of today's problems.

Reeder's partial solution to the problems within the PCA involves distributing J Gresham Machen's book Christianity and Liberalism. a book that helped provide a clear distinction between conservative Christianity and the theological liberalism of the day. Reeder holds Machen up as a theological hero because of his resistance to compromise the Christian Faith with the then modern demands of the time and cultures of his own time. At the forefront of those demands was the then scientific approach to the Scriptures and the Christian Faith--a point that is under appreciated by Reeder's article.

Reeder attacks Progressive Christianity as being willing to compromise some foundational beliefs for the sake of cultural relevancy. And so when Reeder distributes and promotes Machen's book to counter the influence of various progressives in the denomination, as demonstrated in the title, he is contrasting what he calls 'Biblical Christianity' with a Progressive Christianity, with the latter seeming all to be too eager to be relevant to the culture.

Now we could go through the article and show why it needs to provide a least one well-defined term and sound logic, but there is another point to make. That point is that, all too often, my fellow Christian traditionalists are blind to how cultural influences that modified the views of their theological and religious heroes. And here we will take J. Gresham Machen as the key example.

Perhaps Reeder is not aware or perhaps he forgot that Machen exhibited significant personal racial prejudices against Blacks. Dr. R. Scott sadly and honestly acknowledged the presence of those racial prejudices in Machen and attributed them to the cultures in which Machen lived (click here for Clark's article). Here we must remember that Machen grew up and lived during the Jim Crow era. In addition, according to Clark, Machen grew up in the South and was raised in a family that was economically privileged. Now the point in saying that is that Machen's views of Blacks and integration, the latter being an important cause so some workers for social justice, were more influenced by some of the cultures of his day than by the Scriptures.

Jemar Tisby, in his book The Color Of Compromise, lists some similar influences on Edwards which Machen experienced which influenced Edwards into not only accepting the American slavery during his life, but he owned slaves as well. This is another example in which a conserative theological hero, whose beliefs would be described as well-representing Biblical Christianity, was  more influenced by the culture of his time than by the Scriptures.

BTW, what did Machen say that was so racist? Using archives of Machen's writings from Westminster Theological Seminary, Timothy Isaiah Cho reported the contents of letters Machen wrote to his mother about both attempts to integrate Princeton Seminary dorms and those who promoted that integration (click here and there). One can read those article to see what Machen wrote. What he did write was strongly racist.

Having noted Machen's racism, what else did Machen say or even teach that was influenced by the cultures in which he lived? Was it his political leaning to libertarianism. That certainly colored some of his perspectives. And we might ask the same of those who wrote standards of the Reformed  denominations.

But pertaining to the article that is being partially reviewed here, we find that the Progressives in the PCA are not the only ones who have been more influenced by culture and are trying to appease it. Apparently the problem is that all Christians are vulnerable to and suffer from time to time. Thus Reeder's contrast between Progressive Christianity and those theologians whom Reeder portrays as representing Biblical Christianity is not as great as Reeder supposes. And, just perhaps, in Reeder's apparent total rejection of those Progressives and their causes, Reeder too is trying to appease at least the cultures in which he resides.

References

1. https://gospelreformation.net/historic-biblical-christianity-contemporary-progressive-christianity/
2. https://harryreeder.wordpress.com/about/
3. https://timothyisaiahcho.medium.com/j-gresham-machen-warfields-views-are-black-republicanism-f44fa49c7bff
4. https://threader.app/thread/1037419431108829184
5. https://theaquilareport.com/machens-letter-to-his-mother-or-what-to-do-with-dead-sinners/
6. https://heidelblog.net/2018/09/machens-letter-to-his-mother-or-what-to-do-with-dead-sinners/
7. https://faithfullymagazine.com/tale-of-two-machens/
8.