Protestant Truth Society
The Protestant Truth Society (PTS) was founded by John Kensit 1889, to 'take a stand against the growing influence of Romanism within church and nation.'[1] It was and remains a strongly Protestant organisation dedicated to combatting what it claims is the influence of the Catholic Church in public life and pursuing moral conservative campaigns to defend the institutions of the family and heterosexuality.
The Society gives the following account of its position today:
- Today, our world is very different from that of 1889. Britain no longer 'rules the waves', and she no longer has an Empire, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Political, social and technological change is continual, but the needs of men's hearts are still the same, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is still the only hope for a weary, sin-sick world.
- Romanism is still at variance with the gospel, but so are false religion, irreligion, atheism and all those philosophies and ideologies which set themselves against the truth as it is in Jesus, and enslave the hearts and minds of men and women.[1]
In 1898 the first band of Wickliffe Preachers was appointed. In 1905 the Kensit Memorial Bible College was established in Finchley, to train the Wickliffe Preachers in their work of 'declaring the gospel and defending the faith.'[1]
As of 2012 the PTS is based in Fleet Street, London.
History
1914
On the decision of the British government ot open diplomatical relations with the Vatican in 1914, many Protestant organsations complained and protested including the PTS. In a letter to the King on December 23, 1914 via the Home Secretary (Rt Hon Sir Reginald McKenna):
- from the President and Secretary of The Protestant Truth Society: "We your Majesty's most loyal subjects". They suggested that the appointment of Sir Henry Howard to the Holy See had offended the United Kingdom electorate, the overseas Dominions, the Italian nation, the anti-clerical element of France, the Czarist Russians, and European politics in general.
- In short, "it is altogether inconsistent with national welfare to•parley with the system of Romanism; all nations coquetting with Romanism as a political power have suffered grievous upheavals; the political intrigues of Romanism may be charged as an underlying cause of the present War."
- The principal charge, as to the last point, was that the Vatican courted Germany and Austria as the best hope for Catholicism in contemporary European politics.
- "The declared hope by Romish Ecclesiastics (is) that a European conflict would open the way for Austria to restore again the Temporal Power of the Pope." So it goes on; until it comes to an end with an invocation of some not unfamiliar words from the economist, Adam Smith: "The Church of Rome is the most formidable combination that ever was formed against the authority and security of civil government as well as against the liberty, reason and happiness of mankind."[2]
2010
On the visit of the Pope to the UK in 2010 the PTS was amongst those groups (also including Christian Watch) which mounted protests. In a leaflet also sponsored by other Protestant groups (Association of the Continuing Church Trust, British Council of Protestant Christian Churches, Christian Watch, Church Society, Protestant Alliance, Protestant Reformation Society, Spirit of ’88, Trinitarian Bible Society, United Protestant Council) they claimed:
- We reject the Pope’s pretensions to power over governments and churches. The Pope does not owe his present status as monarch of the Vatican City State to God but to a treaty with Mussolini. We reject his blasphemous claim to infallibility. God alone is infallible. The recent scandalous revelations over child abuse demonstrate the corruption of the papacy.[3]
Affiliations
Keep Marriage Special an 'expressly Christian pro-marriage campaign', which 'originated with both the Protestant Truth Society and Church Society' in January 2012.[4]
Contact
The Society is registered at Companies House as the Protestant Truth Society (Incorporated), company number 00166825
- 184 Fleet Street
- EC4A 2HJ
- London
- Telephone: 020 7405 4960
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Protestant Truth Society History, accessed 21 April 2012
- ↑ Alberic Stacpoole No more 'no Popery'? Catholic Herald, 24th September 1982, Page 5, accessed 22 April 2012
- ↑ Protestant Truth Society Should we welcom the Pope?, London, 2010
- ↑ Protestant Truth Society Prayer Letter for April 2012, Accessed 12 April 2012
