I Was Wrong

...about the need for a CN study committee

By Brad Isbell

More than once in this space, I have written about my early opposition to overtures calling for the PCA to form a study committee on Christian Nationalism. I changed my mind, and the reasons for that are laid out in this transcript of my floor speech Thursday night:

Mr. Moderator, Brad Isbell, ruling elder, Tennessee Valley Presbytery. At the risk of sounding like a politician—or Mel Duncan,¹ for that matter—I was against the study committee before I was for the study committee, but this is a speech in favor. Last summer, when presbyters first began talking about the need for a study committee, I was against it. I didn't think it would pass. I didn't think the problem was so widespread, and I didn't think anyone understood it. And I was wrong—I'll get to that.

I just didn't think it was much of a problem in the PCA. I knew it was in some smaller denominations. There were no issues in my church or in the churches of nearly anyone that I knew. Also, I could not define Christian Nationalism. So, again, to evoke a politician from my native state of Arkansas, it depends on what the definition of Christian Nationalism is...is. I couldn't define it, although I thought I knew a lot about it. I'm now convinced that this shifting, multifarious thing that Christian Nationalism is is a good reason for the study committee to help us figure out what Christian Nationalism is, to help define it, and to be a service to our pastors, sessions, and churches. I'm also quite confident that our moderator will appoint a committee that is fair and that is competent, and which will do good and helpful work.

But my main reason for now supporting the study committee is because of the testimony I heard from members of the Overtures Committee—not from one part of the country, but from all over the country—and it became clear to me that while my church was blessed not to have a problem with this, not to have young men coming in with some of these associated ideas, many (elsewhere) were. And the concern and the confusion were and are great. So it is an issue all over the country and, therefore, all over the PCA. The study is needed, and I think we can prayerfully expect that it will be helpful if initiated. Thank you.

You never stick entirely to your notes.

The assembly passed the request (with all the funding committed from a few presbyteries) by a margin of 1008-333. This vote, the next to last, came late in the evening. Some votes earlier on Thursday averaged around 1,900 total votes, topping 2,000 in one instance.

You can watch the speech here, along with many important speeches (if you back up and view the whole video):

Also, don’t miss our podcast from even later Thursday night with Mel Duncan and Nick Bullock.

1. This hopefully humorous reference, far from implying Mr. Duncan is a politician, was a nod to remarks that he (chairman of the Overtures Committee presenting the report we were voting on) had just made that were nearly identical to my own.