I don’t plan to post every church newsletter column, but this one seems blog appropriate.  Whatcha think?

Pastor’s Column, November Newsletter

A church member asked me on Sunday if I knew anything about a historic link between Presbyterians and public service.  She had heard that Presbyterians more often hold elected office than those of other denominations and wondered what wisdom I had on the subject.  Well, at the time, I didn’t contribute much at all.  “Ummmm,” I think I said.  But since, I’ve did a bit of research and found that, indeed, Presbyterians are very well represented in elected office, surprisingly so.  Another question then follows: why?

First, though, a bit of history.   Ten Presidents of the United States have been Presbyterian, and twelve Vice Presidents have claimed the denomination.  So, roughly 25% of our country’s Presidents or Vice Presidents have been Presbyterian!  Presbyterians nowadays make up roughly 2% of the U.S. population, and even accounting for a higher percentage in years past, we have been extremely well represented in the White House.  Today’s U.S. congress includes 44 Presbyterians, 11 Senators and 33 Representatives.  Not bad at all.

Why such a high proportion?  Well, I can only speculate, but here I go.  First, Presbyterians tend to be of higher socio-economic classes and have access to the strong education and means to run for public office.  Second, though, and more compelling is the fact that Presbyterians have always made a strong connection between faith and action.  Presbyterian tenets of faith tend to be public, not just matters of the heart but about how to live one’s life too.  This makes us a thoughtful and active bunch.  Third, and maybe this is a stretch, but our doctrine of sin holds that we all sin and fall short of God’s best intentions.  We can’t fix that, it’s just who we are.  Maybe our strong view of sin makes us want to work to help organize society in ways that mitigate sin’s effects on the world.  And what better way to serve those goals than by holding public office?

That’s all conjecture, but I do know for certain that the way our church government functions is very similar to how our national and many state governments function.  Presbyterians send commissioners to our gradually larger governing bodies – session, presbyteries, synods, and the General Assembly – sort of like government representatives in a town, a state, and nation.  An individual church can offer a resolution (sort of like a piece of legislation) that can affect a presbytery, synod, or even the national church.  This means each governing body is connected to the other.  It also means church wide decisions are made by the body as a whole rather than by one bishop or pope.   Church governance is almost, then, like democracy in action.

Presbyterians aren’t just active in government; they serve God in many vocations.  Some are a bit more famous than others – like Mr. Rodgers (a Presbyterian minister), John Wayne, Andrew Carnegie, or Pam from The Office TV show– but we all seek to serve God together.  So thanks for the question last Sunday.  It got me, and I hope you, thinking.