It's "normal"

My guess is that the op-ed David French wrote for the NY Times yesterday is old hat to most of us, but if it is, it's a shame because what happened to him--what he tells us happened to him--is far too common. What he wrote may well be "old news," but like so many other occurrences in our churches and culture today, if we consider it "normal," we've lost something precious. 

You know what I mean. Yesterday a former President of these United States met, for the first time, with his parole officer. 

We've lost something if we don't stop for a minute and remark at how shockingly sad that really is. The story Mr. French tells isn't "normal" either, but the frequency by which such stories repeat themselves makes you think, almost, as if it were "normal."

French was a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a denomination inhabiting a theological base not far afield from the CRC. They're often devoutly Reformed, and proud of it. "Their" college is atop a mountain just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Covenant College, where I myself did a stint as a visiting writer. An upcoming issue of Pro Rege will feature a story which includes two short essays, one by me and another related piece from Ed Kellogg, who taught art at Covenant for years and years, and many years ago did a visiting artist stint at Dordt.

Maybe these stories are old hat because they only happen where two political sides in our culture have at least for a time lived in harmony. Maybe, once upon a time, being Reformed has offered more toleration than other fellowships have. Tim Alberta's roots are similarly placed in a Presbyterian denomination that long ago left the mother church (Presbyterian in the United States). The Tim Alberta story is just another David French saga. 

You can read the story Stephen French writes yourself, but let me summarize. He considered himself a good and faithful member of the PCA, but his writing (he worked for the National Review, a mainline conservative mag) where his writing, his politics were aired. When those politics began to conflict with what other church members considered doctrinally (which is to say politically) sound, they let him know in the kind of brutal abundance his family found wearying--notes and letters, social media. 

The lead of the French saga goes like this:

This week, the leaders of the PCA will gather in Richmond, VA., for their annual General Assembly. The Presbyterian Church in America is a small, theologically conservative Christian denomination that was my family's church home for more than 15 years. 

Then this: "It just canceled me."

David French was asked to be a part of a roundtable discussion at the denominational synod. The flak started rolling in--in abundance--until denominational officials deemed it prudent to simply scratch the discussion because even a discussion might inflame the hearts of people who knew going in that David French thinks very, very little of Donald Trump.

Out goes David French. In comes Donald Trump, even in the PCA. That's the story that's old news, but it's also the story we should never begin to think of as "normal."

It would be a blessing to be a fly on the wall of a room where profs drop by for coffee at Covenant College. I'd love--love!--to listen in on what might be said.

I certainly hope they would agree with me--it's sad, and certainly not "normal."