This section of the report has sought to provide a thorough, fair, and constitutionally grounded analysis of the relationship between the PCA’s Constitution and the various positions held
under the heading of “Christian Nationalism.” Based on this analysis, the Committee offers
the following conclusions:

1. The PCA’s constitutional standard on the civil magistrate is the 1788 American revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith. This revision represents a substantive change from the 1646 original, particularly with respect to the magistrate’s authority in matters of religion. Officers in the PCA are bound to the 1788 text by their ordination vows.
2. The 1646 Westminster Confession’s view of the civil magistrate, including the establishment principle, is a historic and honored position within the Reformed tradition. It was held by many Reformed theologians and churches from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It is currently held by some sister denominations within NAPARC. While at variance with the PCA’s constitutional standard, it’s not heterodox, sub-Christian, or outside the bounds of the Reformed tradition.
3. “Christian Nationalism” isn’t a single position and shouldn’t be treated like one. The spectrum of views bearing the label ranges from positions that are fully consistent with the PCA’s constitutional standards to positions that are clearly in tension with them. Pastoral wisdom requires careful attention to what a person actually believes, not to the label they use or the label others apply to them.
4. Any form of Christian Nationalism that incorporates ethnic partiality, racial superiority, or the idolatrous conflation of national identity with the kingdom of God is contrary to Scripture, to the Westminster Standards, and to the gospel. The PCA has spoken clearly and repeatedly on this point, and Sessions and Presbyteries should enforce these Standards with conviction.
5. PCA officers who hold to the establishment principle or to other positions that entail the civil magistrate’s authority in matters of faith must declare these as stated differences from the Standards. Presbyteries and Sessions must evaluate these differences in accordance with the “Good Faith Subscription” framework in BCO
   21-4.
6. PCA members aren’t required to subscribe to the Westminster Standards, and their membership can’t be conditioned upon agreement with the PCA’s constitutional other views associated with Christian Nationalism, are welcome as brothers and sisters in Christ, provided they live peaceably within the congregation and submit to its government and discipline.
7. Visitors are welcome regardless of their political theology. The church’s mission is to proclaim the gospel to all people, and no one should be turned away from our doors because of their views on church-state relations.
8. The spiritual nature of the church’s mission, properly understood, protects both the church from politicization and the state from ecclesiastical overreach. It does not prohibit individual Christians from engaging in political life or from bringing their convictions to bear on public questions. Sessions and presbyteries should teach this doctrine and resist both the temptation to weaponize it against prophetic witness and the temptation to abandon it in pursuit of political influence.
9. Pastors and Sessions should invest in thorough, regular teaching of the PCA’s Standards on the civil magistrate, religious liberty, and the relationship between church and state. In a time of cultural ferment and political polarization, the church’s greatest asset is a congregation equipped with deep theological resources for engaging these questions with wisdom, conviction, and charity.
10. The PCA should approach this entire discussion with humility, recognizing that our own tradition has evolved significantly on these questions and that Christians of good faith continue to disagree. The unity of the church is not founded on political agreement but on our common confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. Our constitutional standards provide a framework for navigating disagreement with integrity, and our calling is to use that framework faithfully as we seek to be a denomination that is both confessionally faithful and pastorally wise. Read more»

David Strain, Chair; Drew Martin, James Wood, Steve Dowling, Paul McNulty, Lance Kinzer, Jay D. Green | “Partial Report of the Ad-Interim Committee on Christian Nationalism” | June 4, 2026

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