One of the stranger things about Andy Webb’s history of the FV business in Louisiana was his assertion (twice) that it was not possible for charges to originate from within the presbytery.
Apparently Andy has now said that Louisiana “refused to allow charges” when a motion was made in 2002 (and was defeated) to begin an investigation of Steve based on the public accusations made in the RPCUS, a different denomination. Louisiana declined to do this because of the deplorable lack of process in what the RPCUS had done. But a refusal to begin its own investigation on the basis of an attack from outside is not the same thing as prohibiting one of its own members from filing charges. There has not been any such prohibition.
So here it is again. No one in Louisiana Presbytery has ever brought charges, and the way was open for them to do so. Steve has repeatedly implored anyone to bring charges if they believed that he was in violation of the PCA’s standards. No one has done so. This is not because the entire presbytery is in Steve’s back pocket — seven members of the presbytery filed a complaint with the SJC regarding him. But the advantage of a complaint like this is that it requires someone else to do the heavy lifting. Those members of the Louisiana Presbytery who thought Steve was out of compliance with the Westminster Confession should have filed charges, and then made their case. Instead, they waited until the dogpile was safely mounded before they jumped on it.
So it appears likely that a number of the members of Louisiana believe that charges against Steve would be fine, so long as somebody else does it. This is not how things are supposed to operate. This is why words like irregular were invented.
But the point about what they should have done is a side point. The main point here is that Andy Webb’s contention that charges were not possible is false. Charges could have been filed at any time, and they were not. Why weren’t they?