There are those within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who despise the Presbyterian Layman and others who value it highly. The controversial publication is the major vehicle through which the Presbyterian Lay Committee (PLC) has made its voice heard in the 2.9 million-member denomination. (See “Gadfly Group Has Grassroots Appeal,” p. 61.)
Even those who don’t agree with the attitudes and viewpoints emerging from the PLC find the Layman a valuable source for denominational news. At the very least, the publication could never be accused of pulling any punches.
The September/October issue of the Layman exemplified the PLC’s no-holds-barred style of journalism. Ostensibly, the 12-page tabloid told the story of Kansas farmer and Presbyterian elder Wilbur Smith’s battle with the PCUSA bureaucracy.
According to the story, Smith received a tip in 1987 from a fellow farmer that his pastor had been frequenting a topless bar in Topeka in the guise of a heavy-equipment salesman. After Lewis and two other elders issued a complaint to the local presbytery, they were assured these visits to Topeka would stop.
But later, Lewis had reason to believe they had not stopped. He paid a private investigator to make sure. For $600, the investigator produced a report detailing the activities of Smith’s pastor, whom the Layman did not identify by name. Those activities, according to the Layman, included “inserting money inside the strippers’ G-strings” and “voicing cat calls when they removed all of their clothing.”
Lewis claimed in the Layman article that the minister in question confirmed the accuracy of the investigator’s report. But this minister defended his behavior as part of his “bar ministry.” The Layman article went on to detail Lewis’s frustrated attempts to work through church channels to take action against his pastor, who eventually moved on to another church.
Ministry Barroom Style
The Layman quoted Albert Cook of the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of Northern Kansas as saying that “Professor Paul Jones of the St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, under whom [the minister in question] undertook the bar ministry in the first place, has supervised these ministries for more than twenty-five years, with amazing results.”
But the Layman quoted Professor Jones, after hearing portions of the investigator’s report, as saying, “He didn’t learn that from me.” Jones told the Layman that ministers who go to bars should wear clerical collars, should not drink alcohol, and must act in a manner above reproach.
Defending the church’s handling of the case, Cook said Presbyterian officials acted as responsibly as they could in addressing Lewis’s complaint. Cook said the Presbyterian system is representative, but acknowledged it is also “cumbersome,” particularly in the geographically huge Presbytery of Northern Kansas. “At every step, Mr. Lewis wanted action yesterday,” said Cook, who charged that Lewis had run-ins with the three previous ministers at his church as well.
Cook said he had no doubt the minister in question was sincere in wanting to have a significant and positive impact through his bar ministry on the lives of those connected with the barroom scene. “This was not a case of someone getting his jollies from watching the jiggle show,” Cook said, adding that the minister’s bar ministry was both known to and supported by his family and several members of the congregation.
Cook said there was no reason to doubt the details in the investigator’s report regarding the minister’s specific activities. He said this behavior was never endorsed by the church at any level and that the man in question had been rebuked for conduct unbecoming a minister. He added that Lewis was out of line for bringing the issue to light as he did.
Indeed, Lewis, claiming he was frustrated at the denomination’s response to his complaint, resorted to mass mailings of the investigator’s report to Presbyterian ministers. In May, he was found guilty by the judicial commission of disturbing the peace and unity of the denomination. He has filed an appeal to the Northern Kansas presbytery’s synod.
