Helpful post on how churches protect evil

This came out today on a blog I follow:

https://graceformyheart.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/why-do-they-protect-evil/

Some insightful tidbits:

While these churches would be very careful to deny any hope of salvation by works, they still teach that our relationship with God depends on good performance. Good performance, by this teaching, can be measured and compared. Thus, some people are more spiritual than others, some are closer to God than others, and some are more assured of Heaven than others—even within the church.

What’s the primary fear of those involved in the performance system? No, it’s not sin. It’s exposure. The greatest fear for many who consider themselves Christians is that others will find out the truth of their compromises. The draw toward sin is just part of the daily battle, but exposure of sin is shameful and humiliating. The risk of others learning the truth is the risk of weakness and failure. To be seen as weak is to become unworthy, even to be rejected. To be rejected is to lose honor, privilege, and power.

First, exposure of the individual’s sin is exposure of the system’s weakness. The truth is that performance spirituality, the attempt to find acceptance with God through the law or works, does not change the heart. The compromises of the flesh continue to reign in the hearts of those who follow the system. Sin is hidden, but not overcome.

So, when the abuser is found out, the failure of the system is exposed. If the sin of the abuser can be covered however, the failure of the system can also be covered.

But there is another part of the answer, one that reveals even more of the evil of the performance system. The flesh admires strength. Which person appears stronger, the victim or the abuser? A man who has abused women and has been able to cover his sin for a long time will be regarded as both strong and smart by those who look through the flesh. Victims, on the other hand, are considered weak and gullible by the flesh.

Now, I happen to think that restoration of pastors and church leaders who abuse is the wrong goal. Losing a ministry, being out of a job, suffering humiliation from others: these things are small losses under grace. We know that selling insurance or managing a fast food restaurant is not less spiritual than being a church leader. The right goal is repentance, subjection of the flesh, and walking with Jesus. If that means a person can no longer be in ministry, that’s okay.

Please go and read it for yourself. There is much more wisdom there, but this is what I found especially applicable to the RPCNA system.

First off, we see how legalism is wrapped up in the gospel - although the RP church would claim that we are all saved by grace and that our works have no merit, they fall into the trap of measuring people by their performance and alternatively praising those who measure up and condemn those who don't. Or, stated a different way, praise those who cover up and lie about their inadequacies and condemn those who are sincerely trying to conquer sin and grow.

Second, we see how much performance is wrapped up in the image of the church. That is why much of church discipline, especially discipline of pastors and elders, is hidden behind closed doors. The most legalistic of sessions are those who are continually pushing against the requirements for open meetings.

Third, we see how domineering and abusive ministers and members are lifted up in front of the people, rather than condemned. They are powerful vs. the weak victims, and exposing them would expose the church as no better than other "lesser" denominations.

RPC Scotland issues declaration to fast...

https://www.rpcscotland.org/2020/03/24/a-call-to-a-solemn-fast/

The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland calls its members to observe Saturday 28th March as a day of solemn fasting so that we might humble ourselves before the Lord and plead for Him to lift this recent judgement from our land. It is evident that Covid-19 is a pestilence sent from God and we must heed His voice.

Not surprisingly, the RP view of God is one of an omnipotent and omniscient abusive father. Why is it when good things happen in the world, it's a result of God's patience and grace (not his blessing, mind you), but when bad things happen God must be personally displeased? We should not ascribe to God what belongs to the enemy!

The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.” (Job 2:3)

 We only know the reason for some plagues in the Bible when the Biblical authors pulled the veil and let us see into the mind of God. When Joseph saved Egypt from seven years of famine, there is no mention of the source of the famine. We know that Satan caused the evil to happen in Job's life, despite Job's righteousness. We don't know why Naomi's husband and sons died - nothing is mentioned.

So, it is presumptive to believe that COVID-19 is meant to be a judgment, it is even more presumptuous to put words in God's mouth and claim to speak for him!

We call on our nation to repent of breaking its historical covenants (National Covenant 1638 and Solemn League and Covenant 1643) which began our apostasy from God and from the achievements of the Reformation; to repent of its disregard for the Law of God to pass heinous laws; to repent of the desecration of the Sabbath Day; of its lack of compassion for the weak and vulnerable, particularly in slaughtering the unborn in the womb; for its abuse of the Biblical institution of marriage; and numerous other grievous sins. Our nation has become a hater of God and an inventor of evil things (Romans 1:30).

So, now we know! COVID-19 is God's punishment on the world because Scotland forsook the National Covenant, and thus the rightful state Church of Scotland, the RP church!

How would a good RP then pray? As with the RPCNA, the call to public confession tends to be one of sanctimony. The RPCNA called a day of fasting in June 2015:

The Heritage Reformed Congregations (HRC), member of NAPARC and with whom we are developing a relationship, have invited the other member churches of NAPARC to consider joining them in a day of solemn fasting and prayer before the Lord. The reasons motivating this desire are the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision regarding marriage, and the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision allowing euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide. (Minutes of Synod, 2015)

At least RPC Scotland calls its members to confess personal sins. The RPCNA is all about fasting and prayer as a show of public condemnation, which is a divergence from their own doctrine, which I think is pretty good.

Religious fasting is an ordinance of God in which the believer voluntarily abstains from food for a season for the purpose of seeking the will of God, strength for service or deeper spirituality. It should be accompanied by meditation, self-examination, humiliation before God, confession of sin, repentance and renewed dedication to a life of obedience. (RP Testimony 21:7)

So, fasting is something I, personally, do to strengthen my personal relationship with God, or to seek his will, or to ask for strength to overcome sin. I don't read anywhere in scripture that fasting is some sort of public hunger strike to try and cajole or manipulate God into action. It is not a bunch of Pharisees organizing a rally and abstaining from food so that the obviously unrighteous tax-collectors can get their acts together. Read carefully! It's not a bunch of leaders telling their subordinates to fast. That's why it is so noteworthy when, for example in Nehemiah, so many get together fasting and mourning their own personal sin after the law is read.

It shouldn't be surprising that by 2010, the time of the approval of the new RPCNA Directory of Public Worship, the idea of fasting being an authoritarian top-down decision is permanently cemented and the idea of personal fasting for personal reasons is a mere footnote.

Special days of fasting, humiliation and prayer are particularly appropriate when God’s judgments are evident in the land, or when corporate sin in church or nation provokes the Lord and invites His judgments. It is appropriate that such days be observed in connection with services preparatory to the Lord’s Supper or on days designated by Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods for this purpose (DPW 4:2)

How sanctimonious of the RPCNA/RPC to declare a public fast so that OTHERS can repent. Seriously.

RPCNA response to COVID-19

This is mainly to allow a distinct discussion of how the posters of Gentle Reformation have engaged in vigorous navel-gazing with respect to the current Coronavirus outbreak. The issue hits at the heart of where the RPCNA has positioned itself in the pantheon of Christian religions.

Authoritarianism (aka churchianity) - RPCNA leaders believe themselves to be the vicars of Christ within their local institutional body. When they put on their "office hats", they speak authoritatively to the Christian. The pastor says "thus saith the Lord" from the pulpit. The elder says "The Holy Spirit has made me aware of this sin in your life". That authority is at its climax in the public assembly, where the pastor, enlightened by the Holy Spirit preaches to a congregation assembled in public worship.

That is why, for example, the membership vows include:

 To the end that you may grow in the Christian life, do you promise that you will diligently read the Bible, engage in private prayer, keep the Lord’s Day, regularly attend the worship services, observe the appointed sacraments, and give to the Lord’s work as He shall prosper you? (Covenant of Church Membership #5)

and the first disciplinary form for members is the Certificate of Dismissal for an Indifferent Member: 

The session certifies that you, _______ [name of the member]_________, have not participated in the worship and fellowship of the ____ [name and location of the congregation]__________ Reformed Presbyterian Church for an extended period of time. We are deeply saddened that we must remove you from the church because of your neglect of the ordinances as of this date: ________________________. We remind you that, outside the visible church, there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. (2B)

So, it is intriguing that some RP congregations have maintained smaller gatherings so as not to exceed the CDC recommendations, some have resorted to audio or video livestreaming, and some have cancelled services and pointed members to SermonAudio recordings.

I'm sure that there will be a lot of "grace" applied for RP pastors who have had to cancel by those who assert that gathering is necessary, but this is simply keeping up appearances.

Means of Grace - A theme that has swept through authoritarian denominations is the concept of "means of grace" - meaning that God confers grace (I think what they mean by this is essentially spiritual growth) through means, which the Westminster Confession attributes primarily to what is done by the pastor in public worship. For example, the new Directory for Public Worship says:

 The main purpose of worship is to bring glory to the triune God, particularly for His work of redemption through Jesus Christ. However, God, in His benevolence, also invites and commands His people to draw near to Him to experience all the benefits of their redemption, to declare their dependence on Him, to enjoy His appointed means of grace, to encourage one another, to celebrate their union with Jesus Christ and to be transformed, more and more, into His image. (ch 1 #2 - emphasis added)

or the WLC #154:

Q. 154. What are the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation? 

A. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to his church the benefits of his mediation, are all his ordinances; especially the Word, Sacraments, and prayer: all which are made effectual to the elect for their salvation. 

With such elevation of the minister and the public worship assembly, it is understandably hard for the RP pastor to have any sort of allowance for forsaking the assembly, so we see such claims as:

Yet, at this time of crisis, with mortality at a peak, the last thing we should consider is giving up our Church. Let me give you a number of reasons for summoning self and dragging others to God's House. (https://gentlereformation.com/2020/03/13/the-church-and-corona/)

but then we see the same pastor (Andrew Kerr) suddenly backpedal so as not to condemn himself and his authoritarian friends. I'm sure we just took his earlier post out of context (SMH):

What I think I am saying is this: Hebrews 10:24-25 should not be applied to this circumstance as implying we should meet when pestilence is about! I hope if you are troubled about worshipping on-line that this will ease your mind that you are not letting your Lord down. At this time of crisis Christians should be seen to be sane. It would be a great pity to reduce a great Gospel opportunity to distaste or disdain, in some well-meaning insistence that we must meet boldly and bravely in the midst of plague in order to honour our Lord - this is what I am sure is what all my brothers intend, even if we disagree!(https://gentlereformation.com/2020/03/19/do-not-forsake-the-assembly/) 

It's not surprising that there have been a flood of articles on Gentle Reformation trying to thread the needle on churchianity + authoritarianism + means of grace, happily condemning the rest of the Christian pantheon for their lack of conviction, yet finding justification for RP pastors with the same practices.

Personally, I am thankful for a gracious God who tells me the Sabbath was made for me, not me for the Sabbath. While I mourn the loss of physical Christian fellowship, I'm thankful for the various technologies now available by which I can fellowship virtually with real people. One thing my pastor said that I don't think I would hear from an RP pulpit. "This is the work of the enemy. When we deny the work of the enemy, then we accuse God of terrible things and this is exactly what we're seeing coming out of the church." It would not surprise me to see Gentle Reformation articles suggesting that the COVID-19 outbreak is God's judgment against [insert public sin here].

RP conversion stories and hidden mental illnesses

In researching some of the "Masterson group" of mental illnesses, I found a very interesting summary in Wikipedia:

In line with stressing the importance of maternal availability, Masterson argued that the personality disorders crucially involve the conflict between a person's two "selves": the false self, which the very young child constructs to please the mother, and the real self. The psychotherapy of personality disorders is an attempt to put people back in touch with their real selves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_F._Masterson 

This reminded me of many conference campgrounds where we heard testimonies and conversion experiences from RPs who had gone before. The stories would go something like this:

When I was in high school, I had two lives - at home and church I was obedient and godly, but at school and elsewhere, I swore, I hung out with the wrong crowd, I was mean to other students, I cheated on my homework [etc]. I finally came to the point where I needed to decide which me was me, and thanks to Jesus, I was able to decide to be obedient and godly.

Now, we were taught that this was a wonderful conversion experience. Someone had turned from their "[RP] messed up life" and had embraced Jesus and the gospel and had repented and turned back to the righteousness they were taught.

Unfortunately, I think this is more a story of pervasive mental illness. For those who grew up in the RP church, righteousness was about maintaining a perfect image. It was about keeping the outside of the cup clean. While we were taught that the image represented what was in our hearts, people were not concerned about what was in the heart; instead, external righteousness was all that mattered.

I've heard it described as "the wall" - RPs like to portray an impenetrable wall of exterior righteousness, while inside the wall is a person longing to be respected and loved. RP teaching rarely gets at the heart, except to say that whatever is inside "the wall" must be denied and hated so that the wall can be preserved. That is, a child is told that obedience must be "instant, unquestioned, and heartfelt." An RP adult is told the same thing about God and his ordained representatives - pastors and elders. Heartfelt meaning that a person's "real self" emotions are secondary to the authority's "false self" expectations of emotions. Thus, members in the RP church learn quickly that the church is not a safe place for their real self, leading to these behavioral disorders.

Let's look at this another way. As our children grow up, we can either focus on the internal or the external. If we focus on the internal, we are less concerned with the meltdowns and the blow-ups and the external behavior, because we are training tools to deal with the powerful emotions inside. We accept the positive and negative emotions and we help them understand and express those emotions through more and more positive means. If we focus on the external, we are more concerned with the meltdowns and blow-ups and the socially unacceptable behavior, but we are basically telling the children to "bottle up" their powerful emotions. We are telling them it is not okay to be angry, or sad or upset because those lead to unacceptable behaviors.

This can lead to certain behavioral disorders. Masterson studied disorders like Schizoid and Narcissist, which all have to do with the dichotomy between the "real" and "false" self, and I think, both of these types end up being attracted to or developed by the RP church

The Narcissist has a fragile real self, but a strong desire for validation, and seeks it by portraying perfection in the false self. The overt Narcissist does everything for recognition, cannot lose and cannot accept anything but 100% affirmation. The real self, however, is perpetually on the defensive from criticism. The covert Narcissist still wants perfection, but does so by being associated with the right people. They're on a first name basis (real or imagined) with all the top pastors in the denomination and are constantly bending over backwards to ingratiate themselves with those people. Narcissists, especially male Narcissists are going to find a solid home in the RP church. They can rise to church leadership by demonstrating their perfection, and then they receive the affirmation and support they crave by being part of the elite RPs. Especially since the RP church is small, there is more recognition and affirmation than being part of a large denomination or church. The size also helps covert narcissists because it is easier to be known and recognized by an RP celebrity pastor.

The Schizoid has a strong real self and a desire for connection, but finds connection dangerous and exhausting. The Schizoid has buried his emotions because emotions were never acceptable. Like the Narcissist, the Schizoid portrays a perfect false self, but not to get attention. Instead, the Schizoid wants an image of self-reliance. The RP church can encourage Schizoid behaviors by its reliance on rationalism and discouragement of emotions - as they seem more "Charismatic". Schizoids can be attracted to the RP church for the same reasons - the doctrine eschews emotions, the services are plain and dry, the preaching is cerebral.

In this sense, the "dual self" conversion stories represent people who believe they have jettisoned their unrighteous self in the name of Jesus, but have instead repressed that self. We pray that God works on that repressed self to remove the trauma and allow full self-expression, but I think we fear that the "real self" cannot be repressed so easily, and that becomes a significant danger to these people if the self is turned inwards (Schizoid), and to the church if the self is turned outwards (Narcissist).