People suck

In an online article by Dolan Cummings I found this pithy definition of Calvinism (or Reformed Theology): "People suck, and God saves us from ourselves."

Here's the whole quote:

"One of the most successful and dynamic emerging churches in the US today is Mars Hill in Seattle, founded by pastor Mark Driscoll, who stands firmly in the reformed tradition. As he explains in his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev, 'If you don't know what that means, the gist is that people suck and God saves us from ourselves'. Driscoll is a twenty-first century Calvinist."

You can read the entire article at the following site:

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7264

So now you know how to describe our Presbyterian theology: "People suck, and God saves us from ourselves."

Of course there is more to it than that. But that one sentence pretty well sums up our emphasis on the dual reality of human sinfulness and God's liberating grace.