Tenth Presbyterian continues to engage in unethical impression management, even as it defrocks abuser Carroll Wynne

As we continue to monitor the events unfolding at Tenth Presbyterian Philadelphia (PCA), one theme remains a constant. Specifically, despite defrocking several abusive individuals, including Carroll Wynne, the church, its session, and the Philadelphia Presbytery remain unrepentant and abusive on multiple levels.

How can we say that? Isn’t the fact that the church is taking action proof that it’s changing its ways?

We can answer that question by reviewing Presbyterian polity.

A hallmark of Presbyterian polity is that everything is done decently, in order, and with transparency.

In that regard, the Tenth Presbyterian session is handling everything behind closed doors, in executive session. That approach is consistent with the GRACE report that identified multiple abusers in the church; session wanted to keep the report “confidential,” aka secret.

That, in itself, is abusive, and not just due to the lack of transparency and accountability.

Indeed, in his excellent book on church abuse, “Something’s Not Right: Decoding the Hidden Tactics of Abuse–and Freeing Yourself From its Power,” Wade Mullen talks about “strategic secrets” and “inside secrets.” The former is information that, if disclosed, could damage the organization, while “inside secrets” are those that are shared only with insiders, often used to groom victims by making them feel special.

So, how are these secrets abused? Mullen relates that abusive organizations use secrets as components of impression management. In that context, abusive churches use false transparency to avoid actual disclosure.

Here’s an example Mullen cites:

I sat in one [church] meeting where senior leadership acknowledged numerous failures to the rest of the staff. They knew an employee had caused significant harm but did nothing to confront him or have him removed until the staff began writing letters to the board. The staff was upset with the entire senior leadership for enabling the abuse and looking the other way. The senior leadership called a meeting where they presented a catalog of wrongs, which looked like an act of tremendous transparency. They were thanked and applauded for it. But the most disruptive information—the facts that would have disclosed the full extent of the abuse—remained a secret. The audience’s approval was based on a limited view of the situation. It was obscurity disguised as transparency.

And so it is with Tenth Presbyterian.

For years, the Tenth Presbyterian session refused to implement background checks for church staff, ignored complaints of abuse, lied about truthtellers in an effort to discredit them, and shuffled abusers around to avoid holding them accountable. And the same corrupt “leaders” remain in power, including George McFarland. (McFarland lied under oath in the church’s efforts to shut down whistleblower Phil Snyder.)

Relatedly, Tenth Presbyterian has yet to repent of its outrageous and appalling abuse of the legal system in order to try to shut Snyder down. (Details throughout this website.)

Speaking of the legal system, we don’t see any sign that Tenth has reported Wynne to law enforcement. Or the numerous other abusers in the church–including George McFarland himself, who needs to be reported for his perjury.

On that score, we want to be crystal clear: The usual church games of “that happened before I got here,” and “well, I didn’t see it firsthand,” don’t cut it. No one is saying that church leaders need to investigate or assess veracity when criminal allegations come to their attention.

What we are saying is that all allegations of criminal conduct –whether those allegations involve perjury, misuse of funds, wage theft (aka taking unauthorized leave), sexual abuse, or any other potential crime — need to be referred to law enforcement immediately if there is even a small possibility that these allegations are true.

To be clear, our denomination, the Episcopal Church, is famous for ignoring criminal conduct, so we are not picking and choosing when we call out these issues.

Yes, embezzler Ellen Cooke, the former treasurer of the Episcopal Church, went to jail, as does the occasional parish priest. But as a general rule, unless it involves children or large amounts of money, the denomination takes a pass. Think of the allegations of misuse of funds involving Dan McClain or the clear and undeniable evidence of Episcopal priest Bob Malm’s perjury, recounted in this blog and elsewhere. In such cases, the church’s claim to be “loving, liberating and life-giving” winds up being replaced with “lying, losing, leaving,” as in hypocrisy within the church, resulting in saying farewell to almost half of its members over the past ten years.

So, returning to Tenth Presbyterian, Anglican Watch reiterates our previous position: The church remains spectacularly corrupt, and the recent move to defrock Wynne, done in “executive session,” is nothing more than impression management. These efforts are bolstered by having corrupt Phil Ryken, the president of Wheaton College who previously ignored abuse at Tenth, fly the Jolly Roger at the church.

Then, what needs to happen is consistent with Christianity and PCA polity:

1. The entire Philadelphia Presbytery, long little more than a sock puppet for Tenth, needs to resign.
2. Tenth’s session needs to resign, starting with George McFarland and including those who say, “this happened before I got here.”
3. The church needs to remove all abusers from church staff. All of them, including those who traffic in spiritual abuse.
4. The church needs to refer all those who are the subject of criminal allegations to law enforcement, including George McFarland.
5. The church needs to repent of its abuse, publicly and with complete transparency. This repentance includes its criminal conduct towards Phil Snyder.
6. The church needs to make reparations. Every last dollar, every last dime. And it needs to provide counseling to those it has hurt — real, professional counseling, not the chance to hang out with some knucklehead like Liam Goligher.
7. The church needs to pursue amendment of life. As one AW staffer puts it, “This sh** needs to stop!”

Will these things happen? Not bloody likely. Indeed, the Roman Catholic Church is about as likely to choose a member of the Anglican Watch staff as the next pope. We are under no illusions on that score.

So, with real change off the table, our advice is simple: Avoid Tenth Presbyterian, the PCA Philadelphia Presbytery, and the entire lot like the Seven Plagues of Egypt.

In fact, come to think of it, having the Nile turn to blood and being pursued by a swarm of locusts sounds pretty good compared to Tenth Presbyterian, George McFarland, and this brood of vipers.