Making Straw Men and bowling them over

The Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church responded to the way the Mississippi Valley Presbytery portrayed their teachings. As with almost every treatment, as I have mentioned earlier, those who attack the Auburn Avenue ideas either are incompetent or have ulterior motives. Near the end of the response is a clear plea:

“We find ourselves left with no alternative but to plead with the members of the Study Committee and Mississippi Valley Presbytery to reconsider the statements and accusations in this report. Taken as a whole, the report as it presently stands is altogether inadequate as a fair and faithful representation and evaluation of our position. It is filled with misstatements, misinterpretations and misreadings. We have many times expressed our willingness for brothers to study and interact with our teachings and continue to be open to such critique and discussion. This requires, however, that our brothers be willing to deal with our actual teachings and not those they merely suspect us to hold.”

Doug Wilson was not so kind (in his own sarcastic way) in his article Mystery Theology Theater where he goes through the presbytery’s report and gives “play by play commentary” and near the end concludes:

I would give up some more, but I already did that.

Reply from Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church