Appalachia: The "final" frontier

Bold, hearty and pious. This is the typical description of those hale and hearty Scotch and Scotch-Irish who settled in Apaalachia. Their general deference to Protestant William of Orange (above) is where the term "hillbilly" is believed by many to have originated.

Among the joys I have been blessed to savor in my worship life, one of the more eclectic actually takes place prior to it. There is no landscape on Earth, as far as I'm concerned, as captivating as the Autumn foliage in western Pennsylvania. I know I speak for untold millions in expressing my adoration for it. Settling centuries ago in those hills; some being perhaps unwittingly catalytical in the forging of a new nation. Others would boldly exude the vigilance to this end;either in the temporal or ecclesiastical vein, as the elect are called to do. Brings to my mind people like Lazarus Stewart from the Paxton Boys, who railed for parity in the then Quaker dominated commonwealth. Or Elder Hugh Wylie of Washington,Pennsylvania , who was expelled from the Presbyterian Church in 1809 for sorting mail on the Sabbath!


A rich heritage! Indeed, a most hale and hearty bequest that could only have been the result of Divine favor! Have we always been good stewards of that bequest? Or does the debacle of Presbyterian mission in the 18th and 19th centuries serve as a regrettable blueprint/ harbinger of the tendency of some of our most illuminated and academically inclined to misguage and confuse the methods with the objectives? The latter goes the distance in explaining why our faith is nowhere near as prevalent as it should be in our region.

Braving a relentless barrage of inclimate conditions, sleep deprivation and hostile Indians, itinerant Methodist circuit riders  spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Appalachia. If you believed in the Word of God and knew the mechanics of Scripture, horsemanship and the use of a firearm, you pretty much met the Methodist criteria for mission.

One of the more celebrated of the itinerant riders was a  Methodist cleric named James "Gip" Hardin. Rev Hardin travesed much of the Lone Star state; finally settling in Trinity County, Texas. He would establish a school there in honor of the mortal catalyst in the founding of Methodism, John Wesley.
It's sad that the man's son would become even more well known as the murderous outlaw that once killed a man for snoring.

The Baptist and Methodist traditions thrived in Appalachia due in part to their more practical approach to witness. I admit to a measured envy of their pragmatism.Presbyterians on the other hand were so engrossed in making certain a defender of the Gospel had his accreditative ducks in a row that we missed many a boat- in terms of timely and consistent witness for Christ; who is the SOLE author of all legitimate academia.

 We as Presbyterians pride ourselves on the scholasticism inherent in our walk with God. Consequently, we tend to blur the line between method and objective. I'm not saying we abandon Hosea 4:6. What I'm saying is we should bear Daniel 12:10 in mind a bit more consistently. I praise God that more and more light is being shed to on this and many have been led to a resolve not to perpetuate the near- debacle of centuries past!

Hats off the the Orthodox Presbyterian Church for its extensive grassroots work here at home! The enshrinement of pluralistic thinking has left no less an uncatechised vaccuum than that which exists in the former Soviet block.