1 August 2018

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“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]

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Presbyterians Week Headlines

[1] Geneva College December 2017 Projecting Hope Film Festival Included Apostate Movie The Shack

[2] A Church Sex Scandal Meets the First Amendment

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[1] Geneva College December 2017 Projecting Hope Film Festival Included Apostate Movie The Shack

The editor was recently referred to a November 2017 news release from Geneva College announcing the December 2017 Projecting Hope Film Festival that included the 2 December screening of The Shack, widely considered to be an unbiblical depiction of Christianity.

Lisa Schwartzbeck penned an 8 March 2011 article in her Berean for Him blog titled “Apostasy in The Shack” described the book of the same title upon which the movie was based as “full of false doctrine, the worst being the trinity represented here isn’t the Trinity of the Bible.” Schwartzbeck cites several specific instances of this apostacy:

— Christ’s death on the cross is compared to a Native American pagan ritual sacrifice to demonic “god’s.”

— The “Great Spirit” described in The Shack is not the Jehovah God of the Bible. He is a Native American, pantheistic god, that is embodied in everything. This concept more closely resembles the Hindu Brahman belief.

— The character Mack meets “God” who is portrayed by an African American woman who goes by the name “Papa”. Schwartzback found this to be an interesting choice on the author’s part, especially considering the fact that there is a very real Polynesian goddess that also goes by the name “Papa”. http://www.powersthatbe.com/goddess/papa.html

Schwartzbeck’s article describes several other apostate aspects of the book/movie that continue in the same pagan, new age, and occultic manner.

At the risk of stating the obvious, The Shack is blatantly unchristian, and has no place in the activities of a Christian and Reformed college that purports to be a “Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor.”

The editor respectfully urges Geneva College and the RPCNA to thoroughly vet future student programs and activities so that inappropriate material such as The Shack are rejected in no uncertain terms.

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+ Geneva College, 3200 College Avenue, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania 15010, 724-846-5100, Fax: 724.847.6696, pr@geneva.edu

+ Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), 7408 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15208, 412-731-1177, Fax: 412-731-8861

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[2] A Church Sex Scandal Meets the First Amendment

A 20 June 2018 The Enquirer article by attorney Jack Greiner titled A Church Sex Scandal Meets the First Amendment reports on a recent Iowa Supreme Court decision regarding Covenant Reformed Church in Pella, Iowa, and their former pastor Patrick Edouard’s sexual misconduct with several female members of the congregation.

The victims eventually filed a civil suit against the Church, contending that the Board of Elders (Consistory) negligently responded to the sexual abuse claims made against Edouard, and that the Consistory negligently supervised Edouard.

The court decided in favor of the church regarding the way the sexual abuse claims against Edouard were dealt with by the Consistory, saying that the Consistory’s actions went “to the very heart of religious decision-making” and for that reason, was protected by the First Amendment right to freely exercise religion.

The court decided in favor of the plaintiffs regarding the Consistory’s supervision of Edouard, saying that the Consistory members “owed a duty to its parishioners to supervise Edouard. Indeed, failing to hold religious employers accountable for their failure to supervise their employees would grant immunity to religious figures, which the state may not do.”

Jack Greiner concluded “In short, the separation of church and state cuts both ways. While a court can’t punish a church for following its doctrine, a church doesn’t get a pass for failing to stop foreseeable criminal conduct.”

The editor reminds the reader that the phrase “separation of church and state” does not a appear anywhere in the First Amendment or anywhere else in the U.S. Constitution.

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+ The Enquirer, 312 Elm St # 20, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, 513-721-2700, president@enquirer.com

+ United Reformed Churches in North America, c/o the Rev. Bradd Nymeyer, 227 1st Avenue Southeast, Sioux Center, Iowa 51250, 712-722-1965, statedclerk@urcna.org

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