What do Trotsky and ARBCA have in common?

Out-of-favor Stalin-era communists like  Trotsky  were “disappeared" from official Soviet photographs, as if they never existed. Similarly the name Association of Reformed Baptists Churches of America (ARBCA) has been discarded by many former proponents and champions, as if it were a coronavirus carrier. This is in light of the scandal in which an ARBCA pastor and highly respected ARBCA theologian and author, with friends and family in ARBCA high places, was accused of bare-bottom spanking boys as a gateway to further abuse. The pastor was the beneficiary of an ARBCA “internal investigation”  rather than, as was required, a notification of police authorities. After surviving the ARBCA investigation, the pastor was later foisted (as pastor) upon an unknowing church seeking entrance to ARBCA. 

The pastor is now serving prison time for child abuse and molestation.   

One judge involved in the proceedings stated that if ARBCA had been on trial, they would likely have been found guilty. Guilty that is, of a cover-up

That (scandal) is the formal cause for the self-destruction of ARBCA, which has gone from more than 80 churches to 17, and which has seen the biggest names in ARBCA resign their positions and withdraw their churches from the association and wipe clean any ARBCA references in their biographies.  Peruse the website of IRBS, the seminary once boastful of its ties to ARBCA, and you’ll no find no extant mention of a connection. Erased. Quarantined.

By the way, the seminary itself, according to this post which I find credible, has not always been forthcoming.

Improperly handled scandal is the formal cause of ARBCA’s inglorious fall, but arrogance is the material cause.  ARBCA is a textbook example of why parachurch organizations are profoundly dangerous. The leadership becomes so certain of their positions that they become tin-pot dictators. And, inevitably, the ends of their holy mission justify, in their eyes, the means. Their rise and fall was more or less right out of central casting:

• Let’s start with a good idea. Let’s get back to the true reformed theology. 
• As our doctrinal statement, let’s take a lengthy confession.
• Let's be sure to say the confession is not scripture, but don’t allow  for  dissent, which makes it effectively infallible, i.e. effectively scripture.
• A pastor is misbehaving! Let’s deal with this quietly. That is justified, because what we are doing is too important for the kingdom.
• We are going strong! Let’s demand adherence to more doctrine, doctrine that is not even discussed in our confession. Let’s require all ARBCA churches affirm our version of the Divine Impassibility. If we lose a couple of churches for the sake of doctrinal purity—no big deal, we are growing! (At this point ARBCA became, in my opinion, a denomination, with the ARBCA leadership as its episcopate.)
• Uh-oh, that scandal we failed to deal with (legally or biblically) is coming back to haunt us, with trials and bad publicity. We apologize—but only after the conviction of one of our own.
• You know the rest of the story—sinking ship, rats, etc.

As another sign of their arrogance and/or ineptitude, a few years back I searched their website in vain to see whether they allowed women deacons for their member churches. They didn't (don't) but they felt the need not to advertise that position, for reasons I can only speculate were related to public relations, not doctrine. I confirmed their position only through talking to former ARBCA pastors.

The problem that is rarely mentioned is the collateral damage caused by a rogue denomination like ARBCA. A lot of people and churches, even if they didn’t (for whatever logistical reason) join ARBCA, drank freely of the ARBCA Kool-Aid. 

And that, in many cases, was truly unfortunate.