MY TURN: Standing by Pastor Paul

I’d like to take the opportunity to respond to the Jan. 17 editorial, “Who knew reconciliation is evil?” The editors took aim at my friend and fellow pastor Paul Van Noy of Candlelight Christian Fellowship. While the editors write with disdain for Pastor Paul, it should be noted that he has labored faithfully within our community for more than 25 years as a pastor and community leader. For about 20 years he has led the Kootenai County Ministerial Association which, despite the claims of the editorial, consists of a broad range of Christian churches within our community with varying convictions — Evangelical, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Nazarene, Independent, Assembly of God, Baptist, Non-denominational, Friends, Church of Christ, Reformed, Anglican — hardly a list that “precisely mirrors” Pastor Paul’s own views.

While the editors clearly denounce Pastor Paul, they commend Councilman English for trying to “reconcile” the deteriorating relationship “between religious and governmental entities.” But Pastor Paul has also been laboring for this. The question is not whether Pastor Paul or Councilman English want reconciliation but the terms of that reconciliation. It was the City Council that passed the so-called anti-discrimination ordinance in 2013 over the vocal opposition of the faith community. It was the City Council that sanctioned Pride in the Park in 2022 which Councilman English was proud to support with a booth and that featured a drag queen exposing himself to young children. It is the City Council that seems to be defending pornographic materials being made available to the youth of our city at our local city libraries. And it is the City Council that in 2023 rejected the long-standing precedent of the Ministerial Association organizing the invocations for the City Council meetings.

Thus, when Councilman English sets out to instruct our community on “reconciliation” it is clear to some of us that “reconciliation” means abandoning our historic Christian moral vision and getting on board with a more “progressive” vision for our community. So I wanted to take this opportunity to stand alongside Pastor Paul and to declare that sometimes reconciliation is evil. To reconcile oneself or one’s community to lower standards, to sexual degradation, to moral relativism, to physical and sexual abuse — what is this but cowardice and compromise? “A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well” (Proverbs 25:26). It is precisely this type of compromise that many local pastors including Pastor Paul have been laboring against and to which we will refuse to be reconciled. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

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Stuart W. Bryan is the pastor of Trinity Church in Coeur d'Alene.