Sunday, September 26, 2004
SBC + REC = PCA?
Deep Thoughts from the Shower
by Jon Amos
I've been trying to think of a way to describe the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) to Episcopalians and others whose only exposure to Presbyterians has been mainline. It occurred to me in the shower today that the PCA could be understood as, "what you would get if you bred the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) with the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC)." A self-conflicted offspring, no doubt.
As the actual, relative sizes of the SBC and REC would indicate, this offspring's overall ethos would more resemble "conservative, popular evangelical" (SBC), but with a hint of "separated catholic" (REC). As I see it, the SBC has come to epitomize conservative, American evangelicalism, and the REC - traditional, liturgical Protestantism that wants to retain some catholicity despite a separatist history and identity. I think it's fair to say that most of the PCA wants to be known as evangelical in a baptistic (but not Baptist) sort of way, and a smaller part of the PCA wants to be evangelical in a catholic (but still separated) sort of way.
Hey kids, try other denominations in this equation! For example, EFree + OPC = CRE?
jon :: link :: comment ::
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