Editor:

I suspect that I am more troubled by the “tone” of Dr. R. Milton Winter ’s article, “Presbyterians and Separatist Evangelicals: A Continuing Dilemma", than I am by general thesis. I say that because, like Winter, I disagree with those who hope to find greener pastures by leaving the Presbyterian Church. At the same time, however, I am intellectually offended by his treatment of my Presbyterian evangelical brothers and sisters.

Let me begin by saying that I do not consider myself to be an evangelical. As a matter of fact, I go out of my way to tell people that I am not. When asked to describe myself theologically, I say that I am Reformed. Or, I call myself orthodox (small o). And yet, I am clearly evangelical. That is to say, I am a Protestant with a high doctrine of scripture, and I believe that there is life changing good news to be proclaimed about Jesus Christ. When speaking about myself, therefore, I take pains to use “evangelical” as an adjective and not as a noun.

So what’s my beef with Winter’s article?

Simply put, he has taken a “meat axe” approach to his subject with all of the lack of subtlety and intellectual vigor that marked Lewis Daly’s discredited, "A Moment to Decide" (published in 2000). He makes specious accusations, and when he cannot back them up with data from within the Presbyterian family, he quotes a Southern Baptist, or points to Jerry Falwell – as if everyone who calls himself or herself an evangelical is cross-denominationally exactly the same. He also fails to recognize the richness and diversity of evangelical opinion within the Presbyterian Church; he seems to assume that The Lay Committee, The Coalition, The Forum, PFR, et al. walk in ideological lockstep. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth – as those who have seen some of them go at each other in print can testify. Then, there are the factual errors. For example, not only are the Presbyterian renewal groups not para-church organizations (the Clerk has properly identified them as advocacy groups), but their members do not find their primary fellowship or expression of worship within them. The members of the various renewal organizations are first and foremost members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) who, like Dr. Winter, participate regularly in the life and ministry of their local congregation.

I could go on to quibble with his use of the term, neo-fundamentalism, to argue that few if any of the self-described evangelicals I know are concerned about inerrancy, to suggest that liberals are every bit as much ideological as evangelicals, to recount the fact that I have openly disagreed with positions held by the majority of renewalists and have never found myself to be ostracized because of it, to point out that there are as many evangelical Democrats as Republicans in the renewal movement – and that none of the Republican evangelicals that I know want anything to do with Falwell and his ilk.

Suffice it to say that the Presbyterian Church deserves better than this from one of its official publications.

Robert D. Dooling
Mountain View Presbyterian Church
Loveland, Colorado