# ARP Church Report On Its Racial History



## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jun 14, 2016)

One of the actions of the committee I chaired for Synod this year (Theological and Social Concerns) was a report on the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and its own history with Race Relations and its current activities in that regard. I noticed this morning that the Aquila Report had published it and wanted to share it on the PB. 

http://theaquilareport.com/arp-synod-approves-report-on-race-relations/



> The Theological & Social Concerns Committee of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church presented an extensive report at the Synod, which met June 7-9, 2016, on the issue race relations and the ARP. In addition, the following motion was also approved overwhelmingly: “We, the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, do confess the sinful failings of our church in the past in regard to slavery and racism. We reaffirm that all people are made in the image of God. We also reaffirm our historic stance that the Gospel should be offered freely to all sinners regardless of race or ethnicity through the preaching and teaching of God’s holy, inerrant, and infallible Word.”


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## tangleword (Jun 14, 2016)

Very informative, especially the early history of the church in relation to slavery.


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## Edward (Jun 14, 2016)

I would challenged at least a portion of the report. "Many Presbyterians were large land owners (plantations)." Presbyterians tended to settle in the uplands, where land holdings were smaller, not the lower south where the large plantations were located. (Those areas tended to have been settled by the Anglicans/Episcopals and later had strong Methodist presence). "Some" or "Few" would probably be a much more accurate statement there. 

Of course, slaveholding was not unusual among the smaller landholders - they generally had chattel holdings commiserate with their land holdings, and urban slavery also existed. So "Many Presbyterians were slaveholders" might also work there. 

A quick Google search would turn up, for example, average farm size and slaveholding in North Carolina in the 1850 -1860 time period. (In North Carolina between 255 and 30% of families owned slaves; more telling is the map at this site http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-antebellum/5347 (Large plantations and slaveholdings toward the lowland east.)


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## Beezer (Jun 14, 2016)

Interesting article. I appreciated the historical summary of the denomination.

If you don't mind me asking, what was the impetus for discussing this at the Synod? The PCA has been engaged in similar discussions and it made me curious whether there are any factors that contributed to the timing of events? 

My wife, who is Korean, asked me why there seems to be a recent trend of these racial reconciliation statements coming out of the PCA and ARP the past two years and I really haven't had a sufficient answer I don't think. I'm aware of the heritage of the Presbyterian denominations in the south...I just don't quite understand the timing I guess. I'm a California native born and raised in Los Angeles. Yes, I live in Virginia, but I've never self-identified as a southerner and I guess that makes it hard to "own" the sins made by predecessors in my denomination.

Thanks!


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Jun 14, 2016)

The ARP was reacting to the work in the PCA. 

Our brothers had taken this up and it was felt that we could learn what our own history was and then give a report thereof.


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## Beezer (Jun 14, 2016)

Thank you Rev. Glaser! I learned a lot from it.


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## Marrow Man (Jun 15, 2016)

Edward said:


> I would challenged at least a portion of the report. "Many Presbyterians were large land owners (plantations)." Presbyterians tended to settle in the uplands, where land holdings were smaller, not the lower south where the large plantations were located. (Those areas tended to have been settled by the Anglicans/Episcopals and later had strong Methodist presence). "Some" or "Few" would probably be a much more accurate statement there.



I lived in coastal Georgia for a number of years, and it was part of the local history that there were more than a few Scottish communities there (settled by Frasers and McIntosh among others, If I recall correctly). There were also a number of plantations as well (rice plantations in Liberty County, Georgia, for instance). There is a chapter in Iain Murray's Heroes where he talks about a Presbyterian minister (forget his name) who went to seminary at old Princeton and came back with the conviction that he would be a missionary/pastor to the slaves in the area.

Perhaps it is too broad of a generalization, but there were Presbyterians who settled in the south and who had plantations and who did own slaves.


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## Edward (Jun 15, 2016)

Marrow Man said:


> There is a chapter in Iain Murray's Heroes where he talks about a Presbyterian minister (forget his name) who went to seminary at old Princeton and came back with the conviction that he would be a missionary/pastor to the slaves in the area.




Don't forget the Presbyterian, Thomas Jackson, who before he became 'Stonewall', taught a Sunday School class for the black children on Sunday afternoons.


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