Unbounded Hubris and the Pastoral Office

https://byfaithonline.com/sjc-issues-decision-in-te-burk-parsons-appeal/   

Reading about Burk Parsons and his disciplinary issues with the PCA, I'm reminded again as to why I rejoice in the fact that I escaped Presbyterianism. To be fair, it's not just Presbyterianism but largely a question of denominations and their politics. The Presbyterian system is particularly odious to me as its bureaucratic labyrinthine way of doing things is galling, made doubly so in that they absurdly insist that it's all Biblical. In reality it's as degenerate as the worst forms of episcopacy - the very point John Milton tried to make.

What is irritating in this case is the way leaders like Parson brow-beat anyone who doesn't bend to their rules (often confused with personal preferences) and accuses them of the heights of hubris should they fail to submit. But then when it comes to them, the rules don't apply. When the pressure builds or they're called to account, or they don't get their way, they pull up stakes and leave. The rules don't seem to apply to them as they are (it would seem) indispensable.

The great irony that I've always pointed out to these men, and have never gotten a good answer is the fact that most people come to their churches because they've left some other ecclesiastical background. They questioned what they were being taught and the authority of the leadership of that congregation on the basis of Bible study and examination. But then when they 'arrive' at the Reformed church in question, they're supposed to dispense with the Berean spirit and simply submit, and they will be castigated if they don't or if they dare to do anything other than fully conform.

I'm also reminded of Joe Morecraft who got into a fight with the RPCUS and consequently left and joined the Hanover Presbytery.

I found one website reporting on this with a comment that just makes my head spin -

Joe has no bigger fan than this one. I have listened to every single sermon he has preached for the past 6 years– most of them multiple times– on Sermon Audio. But of what use is the Presbytery if you remove yourself from the process– the BIBLICAL process– of redress? What is it but bullying and together cowardice?
If only we had a godly civil government to return him to stand and to answer.
I am sick of it.
Don’t preach if you can’t live by your own words. Don’t take your living by those who you will abandon or shun when the going gets rough.
Non-Christians are often bigger men than our very best.
It is a sad day for me.

I share in his disgust but I do not share his Theonomic wish for a government that would force pastors to submit to their denominations. What a nightmare.

But we would expect Morecraft (and men like Parsons) to live by their own words. On that point, he's spot on. But when they run into trouble, their egos kick in and they won't submit to anyone. They leave and offer their pulpit-for-hire services to someone else. They do this convincing themselves that their greatness is in service to the Church. Again they are indispensable or so their hubris has convinced them.

Parsons had a teacher in RC Sproul who shared a similar mindset. He stayed in the PCA and thus within the regional presbytery even while his congregation (St. Andrews) was independent. It was a little bureaucratic game that allowed him to keep others from looking into his books and they put up with it (I'm guessing) because he was RC Sproul, a celebrity in the Reformed world.

However it's not just Presbyterians it would seem that have superabundant egos - Steve Lawson was a major figure in the New Calvinist movement. He had a ministry, was plugged in with others, and was a regular on the conference circuit. That is until he was caught in adultery in 2024 and was removed from all his positions and status. Many have remarked on the fact that he hasn't gone public with some kind of apology and/or expression of repentance. Some don't count his 'Tweet' in the spring of 2025 as sufficient.

Just recently this changed. Lawson wrote a book explaining what happened and how you can learn from his mistakes. He must be hard up for income indeed, because he decided to cash-in on his repentance. You can buy his book on Amazon for $14.99.

That's not repentance. That's arrogance, and it's also a refusal to submit to the fact that you're not qualified to be a teacher in the Church. He still wants to teach though he has no standing to do so. He had it all (from a worldly perspective). A big ministry, nice income ($150,000 a year) reported on OnePassion's form 990. In reality he was making a lot more than that (this doesn't include all the ministry perks), in addition to the conference circuit and his position with John MacArthur's Master's Seminary. He was quite comfortable I'm sure and now is probably scrambling to maintain his home and lifestyle. Often house, car, and much else are tied to the 'ministry' and so when that goes south, these guys have little more than what they've squirreled away in bank accounts and investments.

Or consider RC Sproul Jr. who was set up to be the heir of his father's empire - or at least the rather lucrative Ligonier Ministries. I'm sure the board would have loved to have another Sproul at the helm. Instead, Jr. fell into patterns of misconduct. He got himself into trouble with the RPCGA, a tiny Presbyterian group that broke off from the RPCUS (which was the group Joe Morecraft founded and then left when they turned against him). Sproul Jr. wanted to divorce his Highland Study Center from church oversight and set it up as a 501c3 even though he had preached against such things. But worse, he used tax ID (EIN) info from another church which was against the law. He ended up being defrocked but somehow continued on in his 'ministries' by means of other denominations - and it would seem from the Doug Wilson circle.

After his name was on a list of leaked visitors to the Ashley Madison adultery website, he was suspended from Ligonier. After his first wife's death, he remarried in 2016, but was shortly thereafter stopped for drunk driving - aggravated by the fact that he had two of his children in the car with him. At that point he was done, everyone disowned him, even Ligonier. Sproul Sr. would die the following year in 2017 and Jr. must have been cut off from his father's millions as he sought legal redress against his own family.

But that wasn't enough. After trying out some other secular job opportunities (one of which became awkward when his peculiar Theonomic views and past troubles were called out), Sproul Jr. decided to go back into ministry and found a pathway via an Anabaptist denomination - which given his penchant for Theonomic doctrine, this was odd choice to say the least. But since then it looks like he's started another church but I can't seem to find out anything about it. He does have a website and a Facebook page. He will not acknowledge that he's disqualified to teach or hold church office.

In his case, one does not have to be a psychologist to wonder if there's some father-son dynamics at work in terms of what is motivating him. As such, he's eligible for some pity - I did not say empathy.

But for all of these men we can be thankful. They are lessons in hubris and some like Parsons seem to exude this in the way they treat others. It's pretty clear there's a lot of people that are really put off by this guy and his imperious manner. How some of these unqualified men ever got into these positions to begin with is a real question. The answers are found in misguided thinking about the Church, esteeming things as 'gifts' which may not in fact be gifts. When possessed in conjunction with the wrong spirit they can become liabilities. And then of course the way the denominational and seminary systems function is also a problem. Additionally there is the broken ecclesiology model which relies on 'the pastor' as opposed to the Biblical model of a plurality of elders. The Presbyterian model of Teaching and Ruling elders is somewhat farcical and though they try to make a case for it, the couple of passages they appeal to don't stand up to scrutiny. They don't in fact teach this model - or much of anything found in Presbyterianism for that matter.

This is the result - megalomaniacs and sociopaths shepherding Christian churches leading to bitterness and broken fellowship, occasion for the enemies of Christ to mock and blaspheme, and in some cases people have departed from the faith as a result of their abuse. They are wrong to do so of course, but these men do bear some responsibility and the Scriptures are clear - they will answer for it. You would think that would make them tremble. I don't think some of them are capable of that kind of introspection. What does that say about them?