A former teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), who was critical of the way the Central Indiana Presbytery handled allegations brought against Dan Herron, is now facing seven charges and possible excommunication.
“The charges are a clear retaliation by [Teaching Elder John] Peoples and others as revenge for my seeking justice and speaking the truth in Central Indiana Presbytery since 2020,” said Pastor Steve Marusich, who denies all charges.
Marusich believes that complaints about Herron, a pastor from Indiana who was accused of sexually harassing several women, have been mishandled for years by presbytery leaders, who knew of them yet either ignored them or gave false assurances of “taking steps to correct” the issues.
“One of my chief takeaways from this whole thing has been that one of the problems in the PCA is that people are willing to have private conversations, but then when that information needs to come out, they don’t want to speak,” Marusich said.
Kim Roberts | “Presbytery Brings Charges Against Pastor Who Defended Accusers” | February 9th, 2024
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Sounds like sour grapes based on this article. Jumping ship and running from process leaves him in the contumacious category.
It’s hard to tell without knowing the whole picture. It sounds like the higher courts were refusing to help those in need at all, or to even follow the process of appeal. It’s hard to appeal if the process of appeal will not be followed.
I’m only speaking of Marusich. It appears that he resigned from the Presbytery during the process and before his trial. That is contumacy.
No that’s who I’m speaking about to. It sounds like his presbytery wasn’t following due process and the trial was potentially a sham trial. An unwise move to resign, but without knowing the full picture it could be contumacious or it could be the only move left to him.
It is never” the only move left” to quit the process. Especially when we have very recently seen the SJC return appeals to the Presbyteries for correction and most recently overturn Presbyteries such as the case of the “Jonesboro Seven”.