Last semester I was in my youth ministry precept (discussion) and a girl made the following statement: “I come from a Presbyterian background, but…you know, one of those Evangelical, we take Scripture seriously, and the Bible-is-important one of Presbyterian churches…”
Those kind of statements just piss me off. I just want to respond with a “WTF?! So are you saying that every other Presbyterian Church that wouldn’t call itself ‘Evangelical’ doesn’t give a damn about the Bible?” [Course, I’m very much a passive-aggressive/not-confrontational person, so I wouldn’t have said that.]
But seriously, those statements just reek of Evangelical-arrogance. If you are an Evangelical or an evangelical (see this for the difference), I think it’s great that you take the Bible seriously. That’s a good thing, I may have problems with some of your interpretations, but I think it’s good that you take the Bible seriously. But don’t even begin to think that you are the only ones who take the Bible seriously. There are other Presbyterians, who wouldn’t want to call themselves “evangelical” who take the Bible seriously. There are liberals who take the Bible seriously. Hell, there are even non-Christians who take the Bible seriously.
So let’s be careful about the language and statements we make concerning our churches and whether they’re “Bible-believing” or not. Many times these statements are just ridiculous…
