Bible Presbyterian Church
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Bible Presbyterian Church was formed in 1939-1940, predominantly through the efforts of conservative Presbyterian clergyman Carl McIntire.
The Bible Presbyterian Church was an offshoot of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, formed slightly earlier and a continuation of the Presbyterian Church of America (not to be confused with the similar but later Presbyterian Church in America). Once the conservative faction had left the Presbyterian Church of the United States (some would say that they had been invited to leave), they found that there was considerable dissention among the conservatives themselves. Some were more closely bound to conservative modes of worship, theological formulations, and the like; this group remained within the "Orthodox" faction. Others had a conservatism that more of a cultural and political conservatism, and saw the actions of the PCUS as symptomatic of a rejection of long-help principles of conservative Christianity by much of the larger American society. This group became associated with the "Bible" faction, it and McIntire laid the basis for much of what was to come to be called the "Christian right" in American religion and politics.
The Bible Presbyterian Church today is rather small but influential well beyond its numbers; many of its leading members are activists in political circles, particularly conservative Republican ones.
