Me Died Blue
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
One thing that has come to really fustrate me is the general public's mental definition of "Presbyterian" today, caused by the PCUSA. Up until less than 100 years ago, if one called themself a "Presbyterian" it identified them with at least the [i:b19bfb52fd]broad[/i:b19bfb52fd] Reformed faith. However, today the term is virtually meaningless except in describing one's view of church government. A Unitarian Universalist friend of mine who I was recently talking to asked me what Christian camp I associate myself with, and I told him "conservative Presbyterian." He replied by saying, "But Presbyterianism is pretty liberal as far as Protestant denominations go, isn't it?"
I then had to go into an explanation of how that perception of his comes from the PCUSA, and how they have completely departed from the historic definition of the term "Presbyterian." But because they are by far the largest "Presbyterian" denomination today, that is the perception the general public has of the label "Presbyterian"! Before I had ever studied Reformed theology, I didn't even know there was more than one "Presbyterian" denomination, and my opinion of Presbyterians was solely based on what I didn't know was the PCUSA. And after I had converted to the Reformed faith, and once I learned the truth about the denominations and the history of Presbyterianism, when I told my parents that I planned to join a Presbyterian church once I went to college, they replied by basically saying, "But even though you disagree with a lot of the Assemblies of God, Chris, Presbyterians certainly have much more error than us, in their practices like ordaining homosexuals, supporting abortion and the like." Even they didn't know that the term "Presbyterian" presently or historically meant anything different from what the PCUSA represents!
How do you all briefly answer people (Christian and non-Christian) when they ask you what Christian camp or denomination you are part of? I can't see going into the above historical explanation every time someone asks me about what denomination I'm in. Furthermore, I don't just want to describe myself as "conservative Presbyterian," because that doesn't convey the association with Reformed theology, but rather, to many people, that would just mean a generic evangelical who happens to not agree with a lot of the liberalism in many PCUSA churches. How do you all feel about what the PCUSA has done to the term "Presbyterian" in today's culture, and how we can clarify the historical truth? It makes me sick.
In Christ,
I then had to go into an explanation of how that perception of his comes from the PCUSA, and how they have completely departed from the historic definition of the term "Presbyterian." But because they are by far the largest "Presbyterian" denomination today, that is the perception the general public has of the label "Presbyterian"! Before I had ever studied Reformed theology, I didn't even know there was more than one "Presbyterian" denomination, and my opinion of Presbyterians was solely based on what I didn't know was the PCUSA. And after I had converted to the Reformed faith, and once I learned the truth about the denominations and the history of Presbyterianism, when I told my parents that I planned to join a Presbyterian church once I went to college, they replied by basically saying, "But even though you disagree with a lot of the Assemblies of God, Chris, Presbyterians certainly have much more error than us, in their practices like ordaining homosexuals, supporting abortion and the like." Even they didn't know that the term "Presbyterian" presently or historically meant anything different from what the PCUSA represents!
How do you all briefly answer people (Christian and non-Christian) when they ask you what Christian camp or denomination you are part of? I can't see going into the above historical explanation every time someone asks me about what denomination I'm in. Furthermore, I don't just want to describe myself as "conservative Presbyterian," because that doesn't convey the association with Reformed theology, but rather, to many people, that would just mean a generic evangelical who happens to not agree with a lot of the liberalism in many PCUSA churches. How do you all feel about what the PCUSA has done to the term "Presbyterian" in today's culture, and how we can clarify the historical truth? It makes me sick.
In Christ,