THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS
A Public Response to Brian Schwertley
by Greg Loren Durand

Exhibit P:
Greg Durand's 7 April 2008 Letter to Olev Tauts

Crown Rights Book Company
Post Office Box 386
Dahlonega, Georgia 30533

Westminster Presbyterian Church of the United States - Waupaca County
c/o Olev Tauts
E 1575 Johnson Road
Iola, Wisconsin 54945

7 April 2008

Mr. Tauts,

       I am writing in response to your letter dated 9 March 2008, in which you requested information regarding my church membership. I can assure you that my wife and I are members in good standing of a Bible-believing Presbyterian church in northwest Georgia, although a transfer to another congregation in Tennessee will occur as soon as our home here has been sold.
       However, after giving the matter due consideration, I have concluded that I must withhold the requested information for the following reasons:
       1. I was informed by Mr. Schwertley in his email dated 27 October 2007 that proof of my church membership would be required should I decide to bring formal charges against him. I clearly indicated in my letter dated 26 December 2007 that I did not intend to bring formal charges, but that I was merely asking for the ministers of the WPCUS to intervene in my behalf.
       2. Given the appalling lack of integrity which Mr. Schwertley has displayed throughout this affair, I have no confidence that the requested information will not be misused to further damage my good name.
       3. It has recently come to my attention that the session of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Waupaca County unlawfully separated from the Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church at a time when formal charges were pending against Mr. Schwertley. Therefore, your session has no lawful standing to make such a request regarding my own standing in a legitimate church.
       Furthermore, you have held out the promise of an “immediate investigation” as incentive for me to provide you with the above information. Given your relationship with Mr. Schwertley, I entertain no expectation that such investigation will be impartial. The same documentation was sent to Mr. Schwertley, Mr. Riendeau, and yourself that was sent to the presbytery members of the WPCUS, so you all are already well aware of the content of my complaint.
       As far as my complaint against Mr. Schwertley is concerned, I would like to remind you that the Matthew 18 process is only required for personal or private sin between Christians. The sin of which I have complained in my correspondence is that of public slander, and therefore, I was under no biblical obligation to approach Mr. Schwertley within the purview of Matthew 18. I did so solely as a courtesy to him. Unfortunately, he did not return the courtesy by responding to my complaint, nor did he respond to my two witnesses. He further aggravated the situation in his lecture of 16 December 2007 by continuing the slander and adding to it the falsehood that I had “refused to respond” to him. All the evidence thus far indicates that Mr. Schwertley is, and will continue to be, obstinate in his refusal to repent.
       Please understand that I consider the Matthew 18 process to be at an end and I have therefore taken the matter before the Christian public where it should have been taken in the first place. All of the documentation which you have received is now online and it will remain there until Mr. Schwertley has removed his entire series on the judicial law from Sermon Audio and has replaced it with the detailed public retraction and apology that I have requested.
       This information is now reaching a much larger audience than the original series and I intend to include much of it as an appendix in the revised edition of Judicial Warfare on which I am currently working. It would therefore behoove you all to resolve this matter quickly to prevent any further damage to the reputations of yourselves and your denomination.

Sincerely,
Greg Loren Durand
Crown Rights Book Company