Why I'm a Presbyterian

I too am a Presbyterian and my dog tags say so. Actually they say "Presby" because there was a limit on the number of characters we could have. I figure that I'm well covered. If I end up in the hospital and a Presbyterian Chaplain comes by, he'll pray for my health, and if a Baptist Chaplain comes up, well, he'll pray for me because I'm a Presbyterian.

The first time I heard that story was in a Baptist church and the minister used it to illustrate how the true membership numbers in the Baptist church may not be as high as they think because there are probably a lot of people who can't spell Presbyterian and simply call themselves Baptist. As we read about the decline in membership in Presbyterian churches I wonder how much of it is due to the fact that some of our members "can't spell Presbyterian". How many people do we have in our ranks really know what it means to be a Presbyterian? How many have left our ranks because they couldn't tell the difference between a Presbyterian Church and any other church or organization?

We are in part responsible for our own problem. In the years past we seemed so focused on being open and inviting that we may have lost some of that which makes us uniquely Presbyterian. Not that there is anything wrong with being open and inviting, we are called to be open and inviting, but I believe that anyone who becomes too accepting of all ideas soon becomes someone who has no beliefs at all. How many have left our church because they do not know what we collectively believe?

Trinity has members from many areas, several backgrounds, and lots of different churches. Some came because they liked the minister, some because the church building looked nice, some because they had friends who attended and invited them and some because it was a Presbyterian Church. I came for several reasons but one of the major reasons was because it was Presbyterian.

Being Presbyterian means many things. It means that we have a form government that is fair and open. Having grown up a Baptist I have many experiences with their form of congregational church government. Having experienced a Baptist church I certainly understand how the democracy in Ancient Athens failed. I remember a business meeting with the entire congregation that lasted for several hours discussing how wide the concrete sidewalks should be. I also remember the time when some deacons met in secret, lined up their votes, and then without notice, called a congregational meeting one Sunday morning and fired the preacher. I not only liked that preacher but I was friends with his children and to this day believe he was treated unjustly. I have never understood how such a thing could happen in a church of people professing Christian love. So when I became I a Presbyterian, I became one because of the form of government and because we can not fire preachers like the Baptist.

Presbyterians have a reputation of being educated and questioning. I grew up in an understanding Baptist church that actually encouraged me to ask questions (not the same church that fired the preacher) so I was well suited for questioning. Questioning is not always a good thing though. There are times when I think we Presbyterians start to think we are little smarter than we really are. We can never know all that God knows and the time does come when we have to accept some things on faith alone. I think we forget that sometimes.

And we are terrible at letting people know we are Presbyterian and how many of us are famous. Did you know that Billy Graham was at one time a Presbyterian? And how many know that Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers fame is an ordained Presbyterian minister?

We also tend to let our politics get in the way. Given that I am one of the token Republicans at Trinity, I am probably one of the few who knows that our National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice is a Presbyterian and her family has been Presbyterian ever since her grandfather found out that he could get a scholarship at Stillman College were he to choose to be a Presbyterian minister. As Condi says "her family has been college educated and Presbyterian ever since." You would think that having such a powerful person in government who also happens to be female and black would be held up by our church as an example of how all races and genders are welcome, but there has been little mention of her in the mainstream Presbyterian publications.

Some months ago the Presbyterian Layman ran an article on Dr. Rice and only gained criticism from someone in California for referring to her as "black". Forget the fact that she refers to her self as black, as does Colin Powell. Our California member had her politics out in front of her religion and was more concerned about the differences between being "black" and being "African-American" that she missed the point that perhaps the third most powerful person in the world is a Presbyterian. In times of declining membership, feelings of disenfranchisement by minorities, and troubled times in world politics, I would think that our church would be shouting from the highest mountaintop that we had a black woman of faith in a very high position and that she was Presbyterian.

In a Washington Times article last month, there was an article about a Sunday School class Condi Rice taught at National Presbyterian Church. The article describes a little of her faith journey and how she got back in church after moving to California and how important her faith is to her now. She mentions that "...it's a wonderful White House to be in because there are a lot of people who are of faith, starting with the president. When you are in a community of faithful, it makes a very big difference not only in how people treat each other but in how they treat the task at hand." But again, we have yet to see any of this in the mainstream Presbyterian publications.

What we do see in our publications are statements well-suited to personal political beliefs but not in touch with reality. In the UpFront section of the September issue of Presbyterians Today the editor mentions that the National Council of Churches recommended that churches host open houses for our Muslim neighbors on the first anniversary of Sept. 11. They seem to ignore the fact that September 11 had nothing to do with the Muslim religion anymore than the bombing of an abortion clinic has anything to do with the Christian religion. What really disturbs me about the editorial is the sentence that followed. Eva Stinson, the editor, went on to say "If only the spirit behind these efforts would trickle up to leaders of the US war on terrorism." My prayer is that the spirit and courage shown by our country's leaders would trickle down to the leaders of the PCUSA. I pray that they would be more understanding and realize that we can have honest differences of opinion on how to best handle the affairs of this world.

Personally I have some serious differences with the leadership of our larger church. I believe that they are, among other things, out of touch with their membership. I believe they play a great role in our continuing decline in membership by their inability to separate their political opinions from their religion and in how easily they confuse the two. They have angered many over their attitude towards September 11 and their silence on the deaths that occurred on the USS COLE, in Beirut, at the Khobar Towers, and at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They have been quick to criticize their own country and call for a deeper understanding of the Muslim religion while they have completely ignored the fact that over the years, thousands of innocent people have died at the hands of these terrorists.

True, I have many issues with the national leadership of the PCUSA but it is still my church. It is still the church where we can disagree, question, and explore. It is still the church where we can have heated debates in Session meetings and walk out as friends. It is still the church I love. There is still room for me, others, and even a few more ideas. It is still Presbyterian and that, after all, is why I joined.