“Here’s what we know so far. An activist lesbian musician/educator, in an open lesbian relationship, has been invited by South City Church (PCA) to instruct them on how to “mourn the tragic deaths of trans folx,” and this is being done on the Lord’s Day, in conjunction with the church’s MLK commemoration. The speaker concerned is Jay-Marie Hill. Her website says, “Jay-Marie is originally from Oakland, CA. but now works out of St. Louis, MO building a very Black, very Queer life with their incredible partner, Kayla.” You should watch the pronouns there, which might lead you to conclude that there is more than one of her, which could conceivably play havoc with the honorarium and the 1099. But perhaps, like Whitman, she contains multitudes.”
The caveat:
“But I do want to issue a cautionary note from the other direction. I have read one comment online that reports back to us that the initial response by the session to this news has been along the lines of “we didn’t know the nature of the event” and “yikes” and “furthermore.” So it is conceivable (to me, barely) that the church will respond appropriately, which is to say, cancel the event, sack all those who were responsible for it in the first place, have them flogged in the church parking lot first, and seek forgiveness from the world for giving the unbelievers occasion to blaspheme. And also for thinking that what the PCA needed right now was a few more lessons from an active lesbian on how to treat trannies.”
One of many concessions to come from the PCA in 2019 I think.
Doug is better dealing with the problems and errors of the CREC. Doug is eager to help, but he’s a secondary source. Stick with primary sources who have skin in the game and have been at this work for decades, dear brother. Stay tuned. With love,
“hateful and harassing attitudes directed towards any of God’s image bearers—including LGBT+ people—are to be repudiated“
But they do not repudiate the sin of people who so despise God’s creation that they must add a + to their identity of rejection, like a negative infifinity symbol.
“Upon being informed of the details of the event, the session and pastoral staff met and determined that some of the planned elements within this particular event appeared to be inconsistent with South City Church’s theological convictions.”
Some?!? Some what exactly?
Their denial of knowledge and distancing themselves from Faith for Justice, is laughable given the following.
“The event is being sponsored by a group called Faith for Justice, which had as one of its founders the pastor’s daughter, a woman named Michelle Higgins. Her father, the pastor, serves on the board of the group. The pastor in question is named Mike Higgins, and he is also an adjunct professor at Covenant. So then, we start with this baseline—the optics are just terrible.”
Covenant can’t get this straight. He’s actually listed on the straight-up “Faculty” page rather than the “Adjunct Faculty” page, but then he has another page (the one referenced by brother Lamb just above) where he is pictured with his wife and labelled “Adjunct Faculty.” Nevermind, he’s the Dean of Students, so he’s as Covenant as Covenant can get. He was brought to St. Louis to be Covenant’s Dean of Students and the church call was an add-on. Here’s his CV. One thing to note is that he was an Assoc. Pastor at New City in Chattanooga—which is to the PCA’s efforts toward racial reconciliation what Redeemer is to the PCA’s efforts toward contextualization.
Mike’s problems go way deeper than the MLK celebration their church was hosting and is now distancing itself from. That distancing is a joke. They had to say it, but their hosting comes out of longtime deep commitments.
To be clear, I was quoting Douglas Wilson’s article there. But I think the barrage of smoke screens you are pointing out surrounding his connection to Covenant is pretty indicting.
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