Douglas J. Douma's Blog, page 13

State References in Townes Lyrics

Singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt hailed from Texas, but often spent time in Colorado, Tennessee, and other U. S. states. Liking his music as I do, I’m apt to recall his lyrics whenever I travel to a state he mentions. So I’ve looked through his lyrics to find his references to various states. Here’s what I’ve found:

Arizona:

“Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land.” – Ira Hayes

Colorado:

“My home is Colorado, with her proud mountains tall.” – My Proud Mountains

“I’m going out to Denver, see if I can’t find that lovin’ Colorado girl of mine.” – Colorado Girl

Georgia:

“My brother died in Georgia some time ago.” – Marie

Minnesota:

“Now to Minnesota where the rippling water fall.” – Wabash Cannonball

New Mexico:

“New Mexico ain’t bad lord, the people there they treat you kind.” – White Freightliner

Ohio:

“Lefty split for Ohio.” – Pancho and Lefty

Tennessee:

“She told him to take care of me, she headed down to Tennessee.” – Waiting ‘Round to Die

“I said no deal; you can’t sell this stuff to me, no deal, I’m going back to Tennessee.” – No Deal

“Maybe we’ll move to Tennessee” – Pueblo Waltz

“She’s a girl from Tennessee. She’s long. She’s tall.” – Wabash Cannonball

Texas:

“I got to kiss these lonesome Texas blues good-bye.” – Colorado Girl

“She lives way out the d train, but she’s Texas as can be.” – Brand New Companion

“Texas loving laying on my mind.” – Greensboro Woman

“Leave these Texas blues behind. See Susanna and Guy.” – Pueblo Waltz

And, an extra country bonus:

Mexico:

“Pancho met his match, you know. On the deserts down in Mexico” – Pancho and Lefty

2018 Gordon H. Clark Philosophy Symposium

Here the video (and audio) of my speech at the 2018 Gordon H. Clark Philosophy Symposium at Covenant College. Since the videographer erred in not recording the sounds, the Covenant College Audio/Video department had to sync the video with audio recorded at the same time from another source. Its not perfect, but it is the best we’ve got.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KoPin-TnQ2QGafuvYUKnf9Bfb7y_0jHx/view?usp=sharing

Historical Research Oveturns the Legend of Spanish Cave

While a student at Sangre de Cristo seminary I often ventured into the mountains of the Sangre de Cristo range. With my trusty Bernese trail dog, Henry, I explored trails with names including Rainbow, Horn Peak, Venable, Comanche, and the Phantom Terrace. While I never made it up Marble Mountain to Spanish Cave, I heard the legends about it from locals and from my own readings.

The legend, as legends do, seems to have gotten more fanciful over time. But the basic story usually tells of Elisha P. Horn (a true figure – a former Confederate captain who first settled in the area and who Horn Peak is named after, and who provides an easy choice for the lazy legend-maker to attribute a story to) finding Spanish Cave with its painted red cross near the opening and there discovering a skeleton clad in Spanish armor with an arrow through it. And, so the story goes, various other skeletons and artifacts and probably gold too were discovered in the cave.

The problem is . . . the story is complete rubbish. Horn was only in the area for a short time before moving to Denver with his son who needed to be put in a sanitarium. Arrows don’t go through Spanish armor. Spanish armor doesn’t get left sitting there when natives passed by for centuries. There is no gold, nor even marble, at Spanish cave.

I yet had hoped that there might be something true of the legend. Almost all internet searches on the topic result in re-told stories of the legend of the cave. Almost nothing is written by a skeptical inquirer. That is, almost nothing except that by Donald G. Davis.

I found Davis’s writing “No Old Gold or Bones?, A Skeptical Review of ‘Caverna del Oro’ Legendry” in the 1992 Journal of Spelean History, reprinted from Rocky Mountain Caving. http://caves.org/section/asha/issues/092.pdf (scroll to page 77 to find the article) Yes, “spelean” like “spelunking.” Davis looks in to the actual history. I cannot recommend his article enough. It is fascinating.

I recently came back to thinking about this article, re-read it, and realized that it left off with a note of “future opportunities” to improve knowledge of the history. This opportunity was in scanning the microfilm of historical papers of the area for any additional stories.

I was fortunate recently to get in touch with Davis, who still writes for Rocky Mountain Caving. He informs me that he did do a follow up article to the story in the Autumn 2013 issue of Rocky Mountain Caving. It is titled “The Discovery of Spanish Cave, New Historical Revelations.” There, with the help of the internet he didn’t have in 1992, Davis found articles and letters to the editor from the 1889 Silver Cliff Rustler which tell of the actual discovery of the cave and make clear that certain artifacts (a ladder, a winch) that were “discovered” in later years were not centuries-old Spanish mining equipment, but exactly what was brought on the 1889 exploration. I’ve got a pdf copy of the follow-up article, but if someone has an online link to it, I’d be glad to add it here.

Review of An Introduction to Christian Apologetics by Edward John Carnell

An Introduction to Christian Apologetics by Edward John Carnell, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948, Fifth Edition 1956, 379 pp.

While Carl Henry and John Robbins might be the first two to come to mind when thinking of notable students of Gordon H. Clark, Edward John Carnell deserves mentions as well. (Though I believe John Robbins most consistently followed Clark’s philosophy, he was never a student of Clark’s in the classroom.) And it is upon this basis — Carnell as a student of Clark — that I believe study of him is in order. The question is, how “Clarkian” was Edward Carnell?

There is perhaps no better to place to start looking for an answer to this question than in Carnell’s An Introduction to Christian Apologetics. I happened upon a free copy of the 1956 printing, fifth edition of this book at a library purge at Graham Bible College in Bristol, TN. While there might have been some substantial changes in this later edition as compared with the original 1948, I will assume that this edition still largely reflects an early Carnell. The reason I distinguish an early and later Carnell is because, among other reasons, letters between him and Clark, published in Clark and His Correspondence: Selected Letters of Gordon H. Clark, evidence a Carnell of the 1950s and 1960s growing philosophically further and further away from his teacher.

That this early Carnell was influenced by Clark is evidenced in, for example, a letter Cornelius Van Til wrote to a friend shortly after the publication of Carnell’s An Introduction to Christian Apologetics. There Van Til commented that the book was “Clark through and through.” But to what extent did the early Carnell follow Clark’s philosophy? And if he did follow Clark, might there be some comments in An Introduction to Christian Philosophy that could help one understand something of Clark’s thought that is less well detailed in his own writings?

Carnell notes the influence of Clark on him in the preface to the first edition. He writes,

“The author acknowledge an incalculable indebtedness to his former professor, Dr. Gordon Haddon Clark of Butler University, whose spiritual kindness, fatherly interest, and academic patience made the convictions which stimulated the penning of this volume possible.”(p. 12)

There are numerous minor points in Carnell that are shared by Clark. And Carnell quotes Clark regularly. I want to focus, however, on just a few points that stood out to me. Carnell certainly emphasizes logic, truth, and systematic consistency. He even, like Clark, calls himself a “Christian Rationalist.” (p. 151, 152) He critiques pure empiricism. (p. 64 ff) He even has two chapters on the Problem of Evil which mostly follow Clark’s thought on the matter. In one place that might have been what upset Van Til, Carnell argues, like Clark, that analogies rest upon having a univocal element. (p. 147) Carnell also argues in favor of Clark’s view of Romans 1:20. (p. 149 footnote 18) He argues along lines similar to that of Clark’s axiom. (p. 174) And his discussion of “common ground” (p. 211 ff) matches Clark.

The early Carnell it seems was philosophically much closer to Gordon Clark than say Robert Reymond later was. Carnell writes against empiricism, and emphasizes innate knowledge and illumination. Despite this, it seems to me that the early Carnell was somewhat Kantian in his overall philosophy. That is, he accepts innate knowledge or categories, which he calls rationes, but then claims that these make it possible for man to acquire knowledge of the world. Even though he notes the role of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the illumination (p. 64) of man’s mind there seems yet to be an idea in Carnell that there are “facts of nature” which man discovers. He writes that “sense perception is a source for truth.” (p. 49) But he never explains in this volume how exactly that works. That is, he does not explain how man might distinguish between valid and invalid inferences from perception. Although he does not write specifically about it, it seems to me that Carnell might have held to something like Kant’s preformation theory, the theory that man’s mind was designed by God to be able to learn from the natural world. As Clark did not hold this theory, Carnell diverged from Clark at that point.

Overall the early Carnell was closer to Clark than I had expected. The influence is very strong. But Carnell seems to lack that essential reliance on God for man’s acquisition of knowledge. He becomes perhaps more of a Kantian than a supporter of the theory of divine illumination. Carnell is generally less clear than Clark; less consistent and less thorough. I don’t see that he has made any contributions that advances Clark’s philosophy. Still, this book is a generally valuable read and shows that at least the early Carnell should be considered very much a student of Clark.

Review of Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy

Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy, Founding West Point, ed. Robert M. S. McDonald, Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2004, 233 pp.

My good friend Ben House sent me a free copy of this volume on condition that I write a review of it. As I am not by any means a Thomas Jefferson scholar, perhaps one should not rely much on my review, but read those of experts in the field.

Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy is a collection of eight essays on the relationship of the third president and West Point. As one largely unfamiliar with the details of the history, much of the book was enlightening to me. While I found the third and fifth essays, respectively, rather boring and/or written in dry academic style, the other essays were quite interesting and insightful. The editor probably could have done a better job preventing some of the redundancies in the book. That is, the essays overlap each other in places and repeat some of the same material.

Two regular items of discussions in the book are (1) how Thomas Jefferson switched from being an opponent of forming a military academy in the 1790s to promoting it during his presidency in the early 1800s, and (2) how Jefferson’s legacy as a founder of the school was overlooked for a time and is now coming back into view. As for the first issue, as the essays make clear, Jefferson was opposed to a military academy when the Federalists were in control of the government because, at least in part, they would have solidified the already Federalist military as even more Federalist with an academy. But, when Jefferson becomes president he sees the creation of an academy as an opportunity to appoint Republican leaders to it and to train Republican students. Part of his desire was to have a meritocracy rather than finding military leaders from the wealthy families as had been the historical norm. Then, to the second issue emphasized in the book, various political circumstances in later U.S. administrations along with Jefferson’s somewhat lacking interest in West Point (as compared to the University of Virginia for example) lead to his being largely forgotten as a founder of the school.

I particularly enjoyed Don Higginbotham’s essay on “Military Education Before West Point.” He discusses the tutorial or apprenticeship method of officer training which was prominent and promoted in the 18th century and prior. His essay well sets the stage of the history before military schools in the United States.

The book itself is a worthwhile read, written by experts in the field of Thomas Jefferson studies.

Review of Creative Historical Thinking by Michael J. Douma

Creative Historical Thinking by Michael J. Douma, New York: Routledge, 2018, 168 pp.

Creative Historical Thinking takes the reader into the mind of an historian, and what you find is almost certainly not what you would expect. Writing history turns out to be more about creativity, metaphor, entrepreneurship, and networking than memorizing facts, being accepted by elite journals, or sewing elbow patches on your tweed jacket. You can almost hear students applauding when the author notes,

“Unless an event can be seen to have an impact on your life, you are probably not going to remember it, and demanding the recall of unimportant historical facts is counterproductive to the study of history. There is good reason why I don’t know who won the Ohio gubernatorial election of 1876: it seems like such a ridiculous thing to need to be told to know.” (p. 21)

The 168 page book has a high content-to-syllable ratio. The author explains that history does not need to be taught linearly, but may be done thematically. He notes,“No good story is ever directly linear.” (p. 30) And while, “In the United States, the failure to learn the proper historical facts is seen not as just an intellectual failure but also a cultural or patriotic sin” (p. 38), the author refers to this as “The fetishization of facts” which “has long clouded the view of what a historian does.” Also, he explains, “Creative Writing” courses tend to “put words before ideas” and thus lack creative content. (p. 57)

But the author does not merely explain how to be a creative historian, he displays it in a chapter on the history of his own house, and three chapters on creativity in the classroom. This includes one chapter on the surprisingly challenging discussion of “Why Men Stopped Wearing Hats.”

Throughout the book the author is winsome and personal, sharing stories from his own experiences and encouraging the reader to make use of their own experiences in improving their understanding of history. This is no dry-as-dust history nor, even worse, an arid <shudders> historiography. It is a treatise on passionate historical writing by one who is a passionate historian. The material is advanced at times, but the presentation, complete with pictures, graphs, and figures makes it accessible. With all of the valuable content plus a Question and Answers appendix addressing novice historians, this book should be of incredible value to undergraduates and really to true students in all places.

And when the student completes the book they will have the opportunity to improve the world by living up to “The Creative Historians ‘Histocratic’ Oath” in Appendix B:

“Repeat after me:

I swear by Clio the muse of history, and by Herodotus, Thucydides, Leopold von Ranke, Ken Burns, and Eric Foner that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and indenture.

That I will use my historical knowledge to teach the youth to treat history as a creative discipline through lectures interesting and various, material culture exercises, field trips, debates, and research projects, but never with a view towards requiring them to remember particular facts. Neither will I administer tests that ask merely for the recall of information.

On my honor, I will do my best to not be just a chronicler or plagiarist. I promise not to write another unnecessary biography of a founding father. I promise to help genealogists even when I don’t really want to. I promise always to be curious, to be dutiful in my footnoting, and never fail to listen to multiple sides of a story.”

Using God’s Money for Man’s Kingdom

Using God’s Money for Man’s Kingdom

A Short History of a Financial Scandal

by Rev. Douglas J. Douma

Perhaps the greatest financial scandal in Presbyterian history—the failure of Cornerstone Ministries Investments (CMI)—saw the loss of over 100 million dollars. Yet the story of this scandal seems to be largely unknown to members—and even to ministers—of the denomination which it most affected, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Years before the scandal broke, it was the long-running but not particularly well-known paper, The Christian Observer, which nearly alone sounded the alarm of concern regarding related developments.1 In the wake of the 2008 Great Recession and subsequent financial crash of CMI—complete with evidence of mismanagement and “self dealing” at the corporation—a few newspapers ran short pieces on the events. But to date no summary of the whole story has been written. This article, therefore, seeks to provide a summary account of this episode’s history; overlooked by most, but never to be forgotten by those who lost much of their life savings in the scandal.

The major events of this story fall generally into two periods fifteen years apart. First, in the early 1990’s the PCA opted not to make available to members of its General Assembly a report of a legal audit of the PCA’s corporate structure. Included in this legal audit was an entity belongingto the PCA called the Investor’s Fund for Building and Development (IFBD)2, which later changed its name to the Presbyterian Investor’s Fund (PIF) and finally became Cornerstone Ministries Investments (CMI). Though the PCA itself divested from IFBD in 1994, many PCA churches continued to use its loan services and many individual members of the denomination continued to invest there. Following a decade and a half period of relative quiet, the second act of our story resumes when the 2008 recession proved the failure of CMI’s investments and the corporation filed for bankruptcy. An examiner for the bankruptcy court then discovered that the leaders of the corporation had benefitted considerably through deals they made between CMI and other companies they had personally founded and had ownership in.

In the interest of justice it is natural to ask what the results have been of the legal prosecution of the individuals involved. But for the church and its members the question that raises to the forefront is this: “If the PCA’s legal audit had been made public, could the bankruptcy of CMI have been avoided?” But let us start with the history.

Part I: The PCA’s Legal Audit

In 1993, at the 21st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, the Committee of Commissioners on Administration voted thirteen to five not to make available a report on a legal audit of the corporate structure of the PCA.3 They gave as their reasons (1) a warning that the report could be used to sue to the denomination if it fell into the wrong hands, and (2) that the report was property of the firm that produced it. The five member minority4 wrote a report noting that with respect to the audit they “believe there are serious matters that may need to be dealt with by this General Assembly.” Among the concerns was that numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations were all using the same address at the PCA’s headquarters and that the same few men made up the boards of most of these organizations. The minority, however, withdrew their report after meeting with the director of the Investor’s Fund, Cecil Brooks. According to one source, “Brooks met with the minority and broke down in tears during an emotional speech to the Assembly.”5 Rev. Dr. Carl W. Bogue wrote of the situation:

“During the past two years a situation has emerged that just seems too incredible to believe. … The 20th General Assembly required all committees and agencies to participate in a Legal Audit. … The legal audit was completed in the Spring of 1993 and sent to the heads of the various committees and agencies. Upon request, a few men were allowed to see parts of the audit, after which further access was denied. Some who saw portions of the legal audit believed there were some serious matters that deserved the attention of the General Assembly. The Committee of Commissioners on Administration sought all during the 21st General Assembly to have access to the audit. No credible reason was given for denying the General Assembly access through this Committee of Commissioners. A Minority Report was prepared to instruct those in possession of the audit to make full disclosure to the Committee and thus to the Assembly itself. At the last minute, that report was withdrawn, partly due to the fact that the Assembly was nearing completion and partly due to some expectation that full disclosure would be forthcoming, albeit late and unwilling.”6

Before the 22nd General Assembly of the PCA in 1994, at least thirty-four PCA elders sent requests to the then stated clerk Paul Gilchrist to see the legal audit. Joining in this request, three presbyteries submitted overtures to the General Assembly requesting to make the legal audit public. Despite these requests the audit was never seen but by the Committee of Commissioners on Investor’s Fund. This, according to one lawyer, was against the bylaws of the corporation (the PCA) which makes all teaching and ruling elders to be members legally entitled to “request and require” from the stated clerk copies of such documents as the legal audit for their review.

The Committee of Commissioners on Investor’s Fund at the 1994 General Assembly did review the legal audit and adopted by unanimous vote (21-0) a statement which read:

“We are not allowed to discuss the details of the Legal Audit. We questioned the IFBD staff, trustees, and members of the permanent committee about the different items referred to in the legal audit. We also read the response to the Legal Audit by the legal counsel of the IFBD. We found nothing in the IFBD portion of the Legal Audit, in the response of legal counsel, in the response of IFBD staff, or in the IFBD trustees to cause concern of anything amiss. In summary, from the information given and received, we found no substance to rumors that have circulated that there is impropriety in the IFBD.”7

Though this statement might not have satisfied those elders and presbyteries who believed they had the right to see the legal audit, The Christian Observer noted that, “provisions to make the audit available to neutral observers and the decision to distance the denomination from the IFBD calmed the situation.”8

Despite the pronouncement that there was nothing of concern in the legal audit, the 1994 General Assembly voted to divest the PCA from IFBD. The adopted recommendation noted that the IFBD had been “incubated” by the GA, but “now has reached the time when, because of its size (more than $10,000,000) it must stand on its own.” It further noted, “The potential legal, regulatory and moral liability IFBD represents to the GA is enormous.”9 Shortly thereafter (July 1, 1994) the independent corporation changed its name to the Presbyterian Investor’s Fund Inc. (PIF). In 2000 PIF merged with Cornerstone Ministries Investments (CMI), a corporation founded in 1996 by the same men leading PIF. The merged fund took the latter name.

Without the oversight of the church, investors in PIF/CMI would now have to rely on standard market and legal forces to safeguard their investments. At the time of the fund becoming independent of the PCA, Roger Schultz then asked in an article in the journal Contra Mundum, “Will money—contributed by PCA members for the purpose of funding Reformed works—be used for its intended purpose?”10

The Christian Observer and Edwin Elliott Jr.

There is a side-story also in this first act. When the Committee of Commissioners struck down one of the overtures at the 1994 General Assembly to “Make the Legal Audit Public” they declared “that the characterization by the Christian Observer of the Stated Clerk’s actions in this matter as ‘hiding’ the audit is erroneous;” and they requested that the editors of The Christian Observer “publish this declaration at its earliest convenience.”11 Against this point, four commissioners (Robert Peterson, Carl W. Bogue, Charles L. Wilson, and Bob Burridge) requested that their negative votes be recorded.

Though a month later Edwin Elliott Jr., the editor of The Christian Observer, covered the events of the General Assembly in an article titled “Presbyterian Church in America Assembly Meets in Atlanta,” nowhere in it nor in any subsequent article did he fulfill the request of the Committee of Commissioners to make a retraction of the early statement about Gilchrist.12 Elliott did, however, run an article by Kennedy Smartt who came to the defense of Stated Clerk Paul Gilchrist’s actions.13

For being a whistleblower, Elliott found himself opposed by some in the PCA. He had left the PCA himself in 1986 and joined the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States. As an outsider perhaps he had less to risk than PCA ministers in calling out the stated clerk. But, the current editor of The Christian Observer, the Rev. Bob Williams notes, the PCA led “a campaign to urge PCA subscribers to the Christian Observer to cancel or otherwise not renew their subscriptions.”14 These events led to the loss of about half of their subscribers.15

Part II. T he Bankruptcy of the Cornerstone Ministries Investments and Its Fallout

On February 10, 2008 Cornerstone Ministries Investments declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This got the attention of Presbyterians Week and even Christianity Today each of whom published articles on the story.16

Following the filing for bankruptcy protection, CMI was examined by Pat Huddleston who was appointed by the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Georgia Gainesville Division. In a forty-five page examiner’s report filed on March 16, 2009 Huddleston reported that,

“Through a tangled web of non-profit and for-profit corporations and limited liability companies, [Cecil A.] Brooks and fellow Cornerstone board member, John Ottinger, Jr., profited from real estate development. Beginning with churches, they expanded – in the late 1990’s – to senior housing facilities, single family housing, and multi-family housing. Through disclosed and undisclosed ownership interests in related companies, Brooks and Ottinger reaped substantial income over and above the salaries disclosed in the Cornerstone Ministries Investments, Inc.’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”17

Further, he noted,

“The Examiner’s investigation has given him a sound basis to describe the sequence of events that led to [Cornerstone’s] shift from making loans to churches and non-profit organizations to making loans to for-profit developers. … The evidence gathered by the Examiner demonstrates that the “shift” took place as early as 1999. … It is difficult to conclude that Cornerstone had any interest in financing churches between 1999 and 2006.”

And finally, he noted,

“the Examiner has found evidence that Cornerstone’s shift to making loans to for-profits was ‘characterized by self-dealing,’ at the very least.”

The two major points of concern then from Huddleston’s report are the shift in investment strategy and the “self-dealing” of Brooks and Ottinger.

The shift from making loans to churches and non-profit organizations to making loans to for-profit developers almost certainly would have increased the risk of their investments. The same year (1999) that this shift occurred, CMI (then still called Presbyterian Investor’s Fund) ran an advertisement in Multiply, a magazine associated with the PCA’s Mission to North America. This advertisement included an offering to participate in a “Church Development Fund.” But, as Huddleston noted, in the following years “it is difficult to conclude that Cornerstone had any interest in financing churches.” Further potentially contributing to a false sense of security of the investors is that the magazine’s editor referenced the Presbyterian Investor’s Fund as the “PCA’s Investor’s Fund” despite the denomination having divested from it five years prior.18 The business of CMI following the shift then led the law firm who later handled the claims associated with the collapse of CMI to refer to it as a “[US]$140 million Ponzi scheme.”19 And, as Huddleston noted from the witnesses he interviewed, Cornerstone’s move to loans to for-profit borrowers was not motivated by a dearth of churches looking for financing. The shift occurred and, by it, opportunities for self-dealing were made more possible. Though CMI’s letterhead proclaimed “Using God’s money for God’s Kingdom,” following the shift it appears more accurate to say that the leaders of CMI were using God’s money to build their own earthly kingdoms.

The self-dealing (the taking advantage of one’s corporate position to seek personal gain rather than acting in the best interest of the shareholders)—is an illegal (and certainly unethical) form of conflict of interest. And this self-dealing was done all the while both Cecil Brooks, who was the “Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer” of CMI and John T. Ottinger Jr., the “CFO and Secretary” of CMI, were PCA-ordained ministers.

All of this was made possible because Brooks controlled the Cornerstone board of directors. (Huddleston, p. 7) In the early years of the IFBD, Brooks recruited Ottinger with whom he had pastored a church (Trinity Presbyterian Church in Miami, FL) in the early 1980s. According to the witnesses Huddleston interviewed, “many of the directors are elderly, had longstanding friendship with Brooks, were not inclined to challenge him, and never did challenge him.” (p. 7)

How much did Brooks and Ottinger benefit through the years? According to the examiner’s report, the self-dealing benefitted Brooks and Ottinger considerably. At one point they used CMI funds to pay themselves $250,000 in consulting fees through a separate company they started. From one deal between CMI and another company they had ownership interest in they each received $6,200,000. In another instance they, with two other men, each received distributions of $170,894. And, in 2006, all employees, including Brooks and Ottinger, received bonuses of $57,000. All the while they were “spending lavishly” with CMI’s money. With all that Huddleston uncovered, he believed that “bondholders have valid causes of action against broker-dealers, Cornerstone directors, and others.”

The Fallout

Through the United States Bankrupcy Court a committe of creditors appointed the law firm of Glass Ratner to liquidate CMI’s assets and distribute the proceeds. Each Ottinger and the estate of Brooks (Cecil Brooks having had passed away in 2009) reached settlements with Glass Ratner to pay $1,350,000. A payout from an insurance policy added $2,000,000 to the total recovered. From these funds, plus the liquidation of CMI’s assets, some creditors recieved distributions of 6% of their claims. From a private actions trust some creditors received an additional 4% distribution.

While Cecil Brooks’s death prevented any church discipline case to be brought against him, The Christian Observer noted that in mid-2010 several CMI investors appealed to the PCA Metro Atlanta Presbytery to institute church discipline against John T. Ottinger Jr. who was a member of their presbytery.20 The presbytery, however, chose not to pursue church discipline in this case, their commission on the matter finding “insufficient grounds” “to discipline TE Ottinger for the sins of which he is accused by the complainants.”21 One of the investors that signed the complaint to Metro Atlanta Presbytery writes that “I was told by a PCA Elder formerly of that presbytery that it was nothing but a union for teaching elders. I am now an independent Presbyterian. I consider ‘PCA’ to stand for the ‘Presbyterian Corruption Association.’”22

If the PCA’s legal audit had been made public, could the bankruptcy of CMI have been avoided?

Though CMI’s shift from making loans to churches and non-profit organizations to making loans to for-profit developers did not occur until 1999, the findings of bankruptcy examiner Pat Huddleston as to the self-dealing activities of the executives (primarily Brooks and Ottinger) from that time forward bring suspicion to their honesty in general. One wonders then if a wider viewing of PCA’s legal audit years before might have saved many in the church from investing in the fraud. Twenty-five years have now passed since the legal audit was conducted and it has been more than five years since the statute of limitations expired on any legal cases related to the CMI scandal. What is there to lose in releasing the audit?

 

1The Christian Observer traces its history back to 1813 and continues today in digital format on its website, christianobserver.org.

2IFBD began under the PCA’s “Mission to North America” (MNA) as a means of financing the building of churches. The PCA General Assembly in 1986 approved the incorporation of IFBD under a Board of Directors elected by the GA. Even then, there was dissent registered by two elders regarding the church being connected to the fund.

3The Committee of Commissioners on Administrations in 1993 consisted of the following members: George R. Caler, Rod Whited, Carl G. Russell, Charlie H. Probst, Charles V. Meador, Strother Gross, John D. Greaves III, Ronald Davis, Robert E. Hays, S. Michael Preg Jr. [Chairman], Virgil B. Roberts, Dane Scott Schnarr, James R. Simoneau [Secretary], William H. Smith, Henry Bishop, Thomas C. McKowen IV, David A. Crabtree, J. Arch Warren, William McKay. Minutes of the Twenty-First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, June 7-11, 1993. p. 182.http://www.pcahistory.org/ga/21st_pcaga_1993.pdf

4The five members of the minority were George R. Caler, Ron Davis, Charles H. Probst, Carl G. Russell, and Virgil B. Roberts. See “The Legal Audit” by Susan Alder, The Presbyterian Advocate, April & May 1994, p. 11.

5“Gilchrist Hides PCA Audit” by Darrell Todd Maurina, The Christian Observer, May 20, 1994, pp. 7-10. http://christianobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Gilchrist%20Hides%20PCA%20Audit%20May%2020%201994.pdf

6“How is the Gold Leaf Peeled Off” by Carl W. Bogue, The Presbyterian Advocate, January, February, and March, 1994, Vol. 4, No. 1&2, p. 8-14.http://christianobserver.org/how-is-the-gold-leaf-peeled-off/

7The Committee of Commissioners on Investors Fund in 1994 consisted of the following members: Steve Morley, Bill Thrailkill, John Hudson, Charles McArthur, Ron Clegg, John Thompson, Jr., R. B. Gustafson, Jr., Steve Wallace, Edd Cathy, Mark Duncan, J. Edward Norton, Leon Pannkuk, Jim Harrell, Daniel Horne, Raiford Stainback, James T. Collins, James Dallery, Arnold Frank, Jack Waller, Michael Alsup, Mike Kennison, Jim Lehan, James H. Phillips, James R. Baird. – Minutes of the Twenty-Second General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, June 6-10, 1994. p. 189, 192.http://www.pcahistory.org/ga/22nd_pcaga_1994.pdf

8“Presbyterian Church in America Assembly Meets in Atlanta” The Christian Observer, ed. Edwin Elliott Jr., July 1, 1994, p. 9.http://christianobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Presbyterian%20Church%20in%20America%20Assembly%20Meets%20in%20Atlanta%20July%201%201994.pdf

9Minutes of the Twenty-Second General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, June 6-10, 1994, p. 190.

10“Where is Sherman When You Need Him?: The 1994 PCA General Assembly” by Roger Schultz, Contra Mundum, No. 12, Summer 1994, p. 38-47.http://www.contra-mundum.org/cm/pdfs/cm12.pdf

11Minutes of the Twenty-Second General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, June 6-10, 1994. p. 269.

12“Presbyterian Church in America Assembly Meets in Atlanta” The Christian Observer, ed. Edwin Elliott Jr., July 1, 1994, p. 9.http://christianobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Presbyterian%20Church%20in%20America%20Assembly%20Meets%20in%20Atlanta%20July%201%201994.pdf

13“The Truth About Cecil Brooks and the Investor’s Fund” by Kennedy Smartt, The Christian Observer, August 5, 1994, p. 10.http://christianobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Truth%20About%20Cecil%20Brooks%20and%20the%20Investors%20Fund%20August%205%201994.pdf

14“Unfinished Business for the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)” by Bob Williams, The Christian Observer, March 15, 2011.http://christianobserver.org/unfinished-business-for-the-presbyterian-church-in-america-pca-2/

15“In Testimony to The Rev. Dr. Edwin Powers Elliott, Jr. 18 June 1947 – 11 October 2009” by Bob Williams, The Christian Observer, Oct. 31, 2009.http://christianobserver.org/in-testimony-to-the-rev-dr-edwin-powers-elliott-jr-18-june-1947-–-11-october-2009/

16“Cornerstone Falters, Real estate investments bankrupt Presbyterian-affiliated group.” by Ken Walker, Christianity Today, July 10, 2008.https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/august/6.17.html?start=1and “PCA-Affiliated CornerstoneMinistries Investment (CMI) Files for Bankruptcy” Presbyterians Week, July 23, 2008.http://presweek.blogspot.com/2008/07/presbyterians-week-headlines-1-pca.html

17Examiner’s Report of Cornerstone Ministries Investments, Inc. by Pat Huddleston for the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Georgia, Gainesville Division. Case 08-20355-reb, Doc 520.https://www.bmcgroup.com/restructuring/DocView.aspx?ClientID=143&DocNumber=530&CaseNo=2-08-bk-20355

18https://pcamna.org/multiply/multiply1999/winter%201999/winter99.htm#Presbyterian%20Investors%20Fund

19“Cornerstone Ministries Investments Bankruptcy Liquidation Plan Administrator Selects Special Counsel to Pursue Claims Arising from “[US]$140 Million Ponzi Scheme”http://christianobserver.org/17-march-2010/

20http://christianobserver.org/unfinished-business-for-the-presbyterian-church-in-america-pca-2/

21Letter from James W. Wert Jr., Moderator, Metro Atlanta Presbytery to Bob Wildrick, May 8, 2010.

22Bob Wildrick to Doug Douma, August 6, 2018.

Gordon H. Clark Praying at His Grandson’s Wedding

Review of For a Testimony by Bruce F. Hunt

For a Testimony, The Story of Bruce Hunt Imprisoned for the Gospel by Bruce F. Hunt, First published 1966, Banner of Truth Trust, Reprinted in 2000, Philadelphia: Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 150 pp.

For a Testimony is Presbyterian missionary Bruce Hunt’s first-hand account of his imprisonment in Manchuria in the early 1940s. This was an era when the Japanese had control of Korea and were on their way to conquering parts of China in the lead up to World War Two.

Hunt was certainly a man of conviction. He left the liberal Presbyterian Church USA for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, but he would not leave his mission in the lead up to war, choosing instead to suffer with the indigenous Christians. Being sent to prison, he proudly wore a number 22 badge assigned to him by the Japanese jailers marking him as a Christian. His biggest “crime” was not worshipping the Japanese gods and the emperor but believing that Jehovah alone is the true God.

Hunt’s discussion with the Japanese judge presiding over his case (pages 86-92) is strongly reminiscent of the Apostle Paul’s own argumentation at Mars Hill. Hunt’s quoting the Scriptures and use of logic to argue his case from those passages is simply marvelous.

Being let out of jail, he was however told he was going to be deported. Hunt, believing that God had called him to the region, told the Japanese officers that he would leave only if God wanted him to go. The very next day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, war had begun, and Hunt was sent back to jail; not a pleasant place, but he got his wish to stay. Following some difficult months in jail and losing thirty pounds or more he finally was released in a prisoner exchange and sent home with his family to America.

For a Testimony is a very interesting and encouraging short read. It is definitely to be recommended.

Rushdoony to Robbins on the Clark–VanTil Controversy

R. J. Rushdoony wrote on May 3, 1995 to John Robbins:

“Van Til had told me that the Clark case was a put-up job (and others confirmed it).  INSTEAD OF TACKLING THEOLOGY DIRECTLY, A FEW MEN URGED Clark, who was an OPC pulpit supply, to seek ordination in order to make a personal case out of it.  They did not care about the hurt to Clark and Van Til.  It was a heartless step, and Clark was deeply hurt, as was Van Til.”