A trial into a Presbyterian pastor's comments about slavery and other social media comments led to his indefinite suspension, agitating an ongoing conflict in the influential Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) about a faction that embraces more right-wing political views.
Rev. Zachary Garris, pastor of Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Mexico, faced two charges in a trial, one for comments about slavery and the other for “unwholesome speech” in other social media comments. A court comprised of Garris’ colleagues within a regional governance body found him guilty of the second charge but not the first.
Garris declined to comment “due to pending litigation,” he said in an email. However, the verdict set off a wider debate across the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and other conservative evangelical Christian circles that are Reformed, also known as Calvinist, amid deeper political divisions.
“The PCA is a joke,” Joel Webbon, a controversial and well-known right-wing Reformed pastor and podcaster, said in a social media post.
The PCA, an Atlanta-based denomination of about 400,000 members, is one of the most influential evangelical groups and has been at the center of high-profile debates over politics in the church. At its upcoming legislative gathering in Louisville, called the PCA General Assembly, a study committee is expected to present a report on Christian nationalism.
PCA General Assembly moderator Rev. Kevin DeYoung, a critic of Christian nationalism, appointed the members of this study committee. In response, Garris co-authored a book with Stephen Wolfe and Rev. Sean McGowan called “Reformed Christian Politics.” Wolfe is the controversial author of “The Case for Christian Nationalism.” Garris, Wolfe and McGowan have proposed their new book as an alterative report to the study committee’s findings on Christian nationalism.
Garris is also the author of the books "Masculine Christianity" and "Honor Thy Fathers: Recovering the Anti-Feminist Theology of the Reformers."
Garris' social media posts
Oversight in the PCA mimics the secular court system. Its book of policies outlines a process for a presbytery to investigate whether to charge a minister, indict that minister, and then hold a jury trial to evaluate a conviction and sentencing.
In a series of social media posts in June 2024, Garris said that “the Bible does not condemn chattel slavery per se, and therefore neither can we” and that Presbyterians “opposed abuses and wanted to get rid of slavery, but they rejected abolitionism because of the Bible’s teaching.”
Copies of Garris’ tweets were in an indictment letter from the Rio Grande Presbytery, or the regional governance body for PCA churches in New Mexico and parts of Texas, that The Tennessean obtained from Tennessee pastor Ryan Biese, an ally of Garris.
According to a screenshot of a different social media post, Garris denied that he supported slavery and said the transatlantic slave trade was "wicked, grievously sinful."
But Garris’ tweets about slavery were not the basis of his suspension. Rather, it was other social media posts in which Garris said to Michigan professor Anthony Bradley that “sometimes things are more complex than a PhD can handle” and "You started by misusing a Bible verse and then calling others 'biblically illiterate'. But arrogance can't tolerate banter." Bradley, who’s Black, has been a critic of Garris and some of his supporters.
Biese said the Rio Grande Presbytery’s trial of Garris was not fully impartial because one of Garris’ accusers participated in the process that led to Garris’ suspension. Biese, speaking from his own experience, said, “we absolutely attempted to avoid such situations in which a known critic or opponent would be allowed to sit in judgment on a person.”
The Rio Grande Presbytery did not respond to a request for comment.
Garris will likely appeal the decision in order to halt his suspension until a higher court in the PCA takes up the case.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media @liamsadams.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: PCA pastor suspended after trial over slavery, other online comments