Reasoning Together is designed to allow expression of the variety of views current in the PCA (thus the name), but we do hold to a particular point of view – that it is imperative for the PCA to maintain its unity, and that we can do that by rallying around our historic commitments.

This may bring to mind two questions:

1.  What are the “historic commitments” referred to? We believe they are well expressed in our much repeated motto (which actually predates our foundation as a denomination): “Loyal to Scripture, Faithful to the Reformed Faith, Obedient to the Great Commission.” In the history of the PCA, there has been little controversy about the first and the last of these, but on more than one occasion we have disagreed over what it means to be “faithful to the Reformed Faith.” The viewpoint of this site is that historically and constitutionally, the PCA has chosen a course that could be characterized as one of responsible freedom: it is responsible in that it has set as its boundaries the system of doctrine contained in our Confession and Catechism, yet allows substantial freedom of belief and practice within those boundaries and has made the lower courts the principal arbiters as to where those boundaries stand.  We believe that commitment to that freedom has allowed the PCA to maintain a degree of unity unknown to other presbyterian denominations, which have split when they have become either so inclusive that they have abandoned Reformed (and, often, evangelical) commitments or have become so narrow that others with like commitments have been excluded. We are committed to promoting this responsible freedom in order to maintain our unity.  But this may lead to a second question:
2. Why is it imperative to maintain our unity?  Of course the Biblical (and therefore best answer) is because our Lord commands it – see John 17. But there is also a practical answer which is no doubt a consequence of the first: our unity has allowed us to marshal our resources for a level of ministry far out of proportion to our size, and we want this to continue.

We don’t plan to take a position, pro or con, on issues about which good men in the PCA disagree; but we will take the position that we as a denomination should exercise great tolerance toward those different views. We will argue for this in our “Commentary” posts.

And we invite you to respond to this and future commentary posts. You don’t have to agree with us; we only ask that you follow the guidelines for interaction outlined elsewhere  on our site: be thoughtful and respectful.