{"id":15122,"date":"2026-06-05T13:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=15122"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:56:23","slug":"pca-pastor-zachary-garris-suspended-indefinitely-over-online-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/06\/pca-pastor-zachary-garris-suspended-indefinitely-over-online-exchange.html","title":{"rendered":"PCA Pastor Zachary Garris Suspended Indefinitely Over Online Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Conversations That Matter YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The indefinite suspension of a pastor within the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) has brought up debate over proper social media usage for pastors and clergyman. Pastor Zachary Garris, the pastor of Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church in White Rock, New Mexico was indefinitely suspended for \u201cunwholesome speech\u201d by the Rio Grande Presbytery, the regional governing body overseeing Garris\u2019s church. According to a post<\/a> from PCA minister Sean McGowan, a friend and supporter of Garris, Garris had faced two charges for posts he made on social media in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n

In one of the charges, Garris faced criticism for comments he made regarding chattel slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Screenshots<\/a> of an interaction between Garris and Lamont English, a black official in a PCA mission agency, in 2023 show English pressing Garris on whether or not chattel slavery in the US was \u201cabsolutely sinful.\u201d While Garris agreed that Presbyterians at the time \u201copposed abuses\u201d within chattel slavery, \u201cthey rejected abolitionism because of the Bible\u2019s teaching.\u201d Garris claimed that the Bible \u201cdoes not condemn chattel slavery per se, and therefore neither can we,\u201d and cited Israel\u2019s own use of chattel slavery in the Old Testament as an example. Garris made a distinction between being against slavery, which he stated he was, and supporting abolition, something he said was not a historic belief of the Presbyterian church. Despite the criticism of Garris\u2019s position, he was found Not Guilty of racism.<\/p>\n

The second charge came from an exchange between Garris and another black member of the PCA, Dr. Anthony Bradley. While the original comments from Bradley during that exchange have been removed, the charges from the PCA outline two comments<\/a> Garris made against Bradley in 2023. In one, Garris criticized Bradley on X saying \u201cEven here you only speak on \u2018some\u2019 situations. Sometimes things are more complex than a PhD can handle.\u201d In another comment, apparently referring to Bradley, he stated, \u201cYou started by misusing a Bible verse and then calling others \u2018biblically illiterate.\u2019 But arrogance can\u2019t tolerate banter.\u201d Garris was found guilty of violating Ephesians 4:29, which states, \u201cLet no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspension earned criticism throughout X from pastors and evangelical commentators, with some accusing the PCA of doubles standards. Christian commentator Megan Basham noted that Dr. Bradley has attacked her on X in the past. \u201cAnthony Bradley has said much worse about me. This man just one example of an about a half dozen,\u201d she wrote<\/a>, sharing a screenshot where Dr. Bradley called her \u201clow IQ.\u201d \u201cIt seems that @ZacharyGarris has essentially been disciplined by his presbytery for sarcasm. If that is the case, I wouldn\u2019t last a day,\u201d wrote Keith Foskey<\/a>, a Calvinist pastor who makes tongue-in-cheek videos about the differences between evangelical denominations. The PCA has not offered broader context to Garris\u2019s suspension, nor has it listed any details for any path to restoration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The indefinite suspension of a pastor within the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) has brought up debate over proper social media usage for pastors and clergyman. Pastor Zachary Garris, the pastor of Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church in White Rock, New Mexico was indefinitely suspended for \u201cunwholesome speech\u201d by the Rio Grande Presbytery, the regional governing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":15125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPCA Pastor Zachary Garris Suspended Indefinitely Over Online Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PCA pastor Zachary Garris was suspended over social media posts, sparking debate on clergy speech, discipline, and standards online.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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