Reprinted with permission. Original on X here.
Anglican Watch supports Eli McGowan and his opposition to online racism.
As for Pastor Miller, we categorically reject any interpretation of scripture that prevents immediately addressing the egregious sin of racism.
Mr. Lovelady appears to be the owner of Texas Senior Agents, an insurance brokerage in New Braunfels, Texas, which is online here. His license information is here.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church is an American Reformed Protestant denomination with nearly 34,000 members. They rarely gain media attention, and on issues of race spoke out as a denomination in the 1970s to affirm God’s love for all people and to condemn the sin of racial partiality. A few figures in OPC history, like the Rev. C. Herbert Oliver, were recognized civil rights activists.
His awareness of his own guilt and pollution should make a member of one race doubly concerned to approach a member of another race, which has been unjustly treated in the past, in a loving fashion, knowing that he himself is nothing apart from the grace of God in Christ. He should seek vigorously to root out injustices in any organization of which he is a member, especially in the church of Christ. — Report of the Committee on Problems of Race (OPC, 1974).
All off this makes the case of Ruling Elder Phil Lovelady (@TexSouthpresbro), of Heritage Presbyterian Church in New Braunfels, Texas more incomprehensible. A quick perusal of Mr. Lovelady’s social media reveals something out-of-step not just with his denomination, but with core Christian doctrine.
Replying this July to an account that shared a now-removed video of a black person having a public meltdown in a Costco (the post he replies to also uses the racial slur “chimp”), Phil uses part of the known white supremacist slogan “TND,” which stands for “total n***** death.”
Separately, Phil uses a giant “N” GIF in response to a video about a woman removing confederate flags from a cemetery. There’s little doubt what this “N” (with “N world” being destroyed in the animation) was supposed to mean.
These posts and many more that engage in obscenity, antisemitic tropes, and promote the explictly kinist writings of men like Thomas Achord aren’t the extent of his campaign of racism. Even without looking into the locked Pro Gab account he owns, which displays an antisemitic slogan in the bio, one can discover via a Google search that Phil was identified by name as far back as 2019 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, as a leader in Identity Dixie, one of the largest neo-Confederate hate groups in the country, which calls for secession, and via secret online communities coordinates with other explicitly white nationalist groups. It is best known for helping organize the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA. Phil was connected to members of this and other white nationalist groups through his Facebook, including Christopher Cedeno, a white nationalist charged with multiple felonies for assaulting protestors whose own Facebook is filled with many explicit uses of the N-word.
Scripture and the OPC standards are clear on the qualifications someone seeking to be ordained as an elder should have:
For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” — Titus 1:7-8 (ESV)
Those who fill this office should be sound in the faith and of exemplary Christian life, men of wisdom and discretion, worthy of the esteem of the congregation as spiritual fathers. —OPC Book of Church Order, Chapter X.2
Unfortunately, like in other cases of ecclesiastical sin being addressed, even public sin, the blame was quickly shifted to me for addressing these evil public remarks, publicly.
I take John Calvin’s view, from his Commentary on Matthew 18:15, that there is not a requirement that general sins, and public sins, be addressed only privately:
But there is an obvious limitation in the words of Christ; for he does not simply, and without exception, order us to advise or reprove privately, and in the absence of witnesses, all who have offended , but bids us attempt this method, when we have been offended in private; by which is meant, not that it is a business of our own, but that we ought to be wounded and grieved whenever God is offended. And Christ does not now speak about bearing injuries but teaches us in general to cultivate such meekness towards each other, as not to ruin by harsh treatment those whom we ought to save.
Against thee. This expression, as is evident from what we have said, does not denote an injury committed against any one, but distinguishes between secret and open sins. For if any man shall offend against the whole Church, Paul enjoins that he be publicly reproved, so that even elders shall not be separated; for it is in reference to them that he expressly enjoins Timothy, to rebuke them publicly in the presence of all, and thus to make them a general example to others, (1Timothy 5:20).
And certainly it would be absurd that he who has committed a public offense, so that the disgrace of it is generally known, should be admonished by individuals; for if a thousand persons are aware of it, he ought to receive a thousand admonitions. The distinction, therefore, which Christ expressly lays down, ought to be kept in mind, that no man may bring disgrace upon his brother, by rashly, and without necessity, divulging secret offenses.
Others have said public discussion draws attention to scandal and hurts our witness. Christ is not in the public relations business. He is in the business of calling sinners to repentance, and the more often and more publicly we as a church call blatant, wicked sin for what it is, the better. Historically, it has been the opposite which harmed our witness more.
Since his public postings were noticed Mr. Lovelady has responded by boasting about new followers, and posting a selfie, before locking his account, which still includes “Ruling Elder” in his bio.
A source on the session (gathering of Elders and the Pastor) of Heritage confirmed that an effort to call a session meeting about this topic was made but was not successful. I received an email from Rev. Miller also:
I am working to approach the session again, as well as the Presbytery of the Southwest, with properly formatted versions of my concerns about this public sin, and anyone who is already in that church, Presbytery, or the OPC may have more immediate success. I deeply appreciate anyone who takes time to address this, or anyone willing to assist.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing. — 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (ESV).
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