Talk:Evangelical and Reformed Church

Stub removal

I removed the stub on Lutheranism because the article isn't really about Lutheranism. There is already a link to Lutheranism in the article anyway. QUESTION: Should this article be a stub at all? It already has links to articles that provide additional details. --Jim Christensen 02:07, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Decline and defection section

I deleted the following paragraphing because it is unsourced. I agree that there is a perception of E&R as conservative but I am not sure there is adequate documentation of the below narrative that would not violate WP:OR.

For most of the early years of the UCC, the Evangelical and Reformed heritage remained quite visible, especially in its historic territories, as traditional practices largely continued unfettered in most places; it was considered the more tradition-minded constituency of the two merging entities. But as ethnic neighborhoods or rural villages began dying out in the late 20th century (due to white flight in the former instance and the closing of many family farms in the latter), many former Evangelical and Reformed congregations found themselves unable to adjust to new circumstances, with many of the remaining members increasingly elderly and resistant to change. In many cases, they reacted negatively to the denomination's dominant Congregationalist cultural and theological composition and to the new UCC's strong stances on social justice and liberal politics; these platforms often did not sit well with a group whose members frequently prided themselves on their ability to assimilate into American society, which to many meant uncritical support of American foreign policy and free enterprise.

These events pushed some Evangelical and Reformed-heritage congregations to the right, often joining "renewal" pressure groups such as the Biblical Witness Fellowship or schismatic bodies such as the Evangelical Association, founded in 1999 by pastors from Texas and Alabama. The UCC General Synod's passage of a resolution in 2005 endorsing same-sex marriage instigated many of these conservative congregations, increasingly led by pastors from fundamentalist backgrounds, to depart the UCC entirely, rendering the Evangelical and Reformed tradition far less visible in the present UCC. Although not all defecting congregations came from an Evangelical and Reformed background, the largest historical component of withdrawing churches was from the Reformed tradition, with non-metropolitan parts of Pennsylvania and North Carolina hit the hardest.

Still, numerous other Evangelical and Reformed-heritage churches remain active and vital participants in the life and mission of the UCC to this day, even though many of them are largely composed of converts rather than individuals reared in that tradition. This is likely very similar to the experiences in recent decades by other Protestant churches of non-English origin, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Reformed Church in America.

Please feel free to add it back in if you can find sources. MPS 18:10, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Minor change

I changed the fourth paragraph of the Reformed Church in the U.S. section in the last sentence. It did read, 'influenced by a scholastic interpretation of the Heidelberg Catechism and the rise of American fundamentalism;'. I thought it more important to be specific about the area of fundamentalism that affected them because it is not the movement in general. They did speak German, and were not that well intergrated into American evangelicalism. I think the changes more in line with what I have read on the subject. --LeeTripleJ 01:21, 7 November 2007 (UTC)