If you’re Presbyterian, you may have heard about San Diego Presbytery’s “Essential Tenets and Reformed Distinctives” document. You can download it here. I blogged about it over a year and a half ago here. It’s something that is coming up more and more, and it’s interesting to see other Presbyteries pick up this document, and start to use it as a “gatekeeping” device, basically a ‘theological check-list’ that those coming under the care of that Presbytery will have to be able to check-off. I know that my Presbytery in Idaho has looked into using this document, and I recently saw another southern California Presbytery who basically just took the text of this document, and now are passing it around as their own Presbytery document. Which, from what I understand, is basically what San Diego would love to start happening in Presbyteries around the US.
I’m going to be looking at this in the next few weeks and trying to think more about these “essential tenets” and what a document like this means for those of us who are in the ordination process. PTS seminary professor (PCUSA-ordained) recently mentioned how opposed they were to this document, primarily because it is one Presbytery attempting to assert their confession over the PCUSA’s Book of Confession. What do you think of that statement?