Tenth Presby Philadelphia running $900k in the hole

There’s a great story about the meltdown at Tenth Presby in Philadelphia, after Liam Goligher resigned amidst a wave of scandal, over at friend Dee Parson’s blog. We encourage readers to check out her comments.

Anglican Watch has long had a special interest in the case, because Liam Goligher’s efforts to falsely paint whistleblower Phil Snyder as threatening so closely mirror the experiences of our editor, Eric Bonetti, and perjuring priest Bob Malm’s fabricated claims that writing about Malm’s misconduct amounts to “domestic terrorism,” and “stalking.”

Much like the continuing implosion at Bonetti’s former church, Grace Episcopal Alexandria, we learned from Dee that Tenth is facing a $900K shortfall.

That’s hardly surprising as our experience is that PCA members tend to take their faith seriously. The waves of corruption and abuse under Liam Goligher, together with his ability to portray himself as an angel of light, would make most PCA members take a pass.

Episcopalians, on the other hand, love their clericalism and, like some of the childish and hateful pro-Goligher posters whose comments we nuked, will usually blame the whistleblower, talk about how he or she is “demented,” and other indicia of an organizationally narcissistic response.

Thus, our question is this: Will Tenth Presbyterian have the backbone to do what’s right, sit down with Phil, and make restitution for its misconduct? Or will us bloggers have to keep tugging until, like Samson, we pull the temple down around us? We strongly hope the church will have the integrity to fix its own problems and to show a sincere faith.

Otherwise, Tenth Pres is nothing but the Calvinist version of the Episcopal Church: Lots of Jesus-babble about love and forgiveness, but zero substance and no accountability.

We strongly suspect that, if the church comes clean, does a reset, and acts with integrity, it will find that the money is there. But if it “pulls a Piskie” and tries to ignore the situation or make excuses, it is doomed.

Feel free to quote us.