Do evangelicals shun Rogers, or vice versa? The Layman Volume 35, Number 1 Posted February 8, 2002 Jack B. Rogers General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers, who has frequently said evangelicals in the Presbyterian Church (USA) will not give him a forum, apparently doesn’t accept the offers when they do. Last year, he and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick declined an invitation by the Presbyterian Coalition to debate representatives of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, an organization he has labeled “militant fundamentalists” and compared to Osama Bin Laden. In October, the Evangelical Network of the Beaver-Butler Presbytery, where the Confessing Church Movement was born, issued an open invitation for Rogers to meet with the group at his convenience. The Network’s Harper Brady, pastor of Concord Presbyterian Church in Baden, Pa., said Rogers did not respond, so a follow-up letter was sent in January. “To date, there has been no response whatsoever from the moderator,” Brady said just before The Layman went to press. The Evangelical Network publicly disclosed its invitation to Rogers only after more than a month had lapsed without a response. “Dr. Rogers’ track record since his election clearly speaks for itself,” Brady said. “He has proven to be a moderator for only a portion of the denomination, while continuing to antagonize a constantly growing number of Confessing Presbyterians. ... However, at the very least, it would seem that a moderator should respond to personal mail which includes invitations, even if it is to decline the invitation.”

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