Reason for Rebellion

Re Westminster Confession Considered, September
I need to read this book by that A. Clarkson, but I’ve been pondering this particular article over the past couple of weeks, perhaps from an historical reference. As noted, Norman Bethune was a bit of a rebel from his family. But if one reads John Moir’s Enduring Witness (the third edition is the official history of the Presbyterian Church in Canada) the interpretation of the Westminster Confession in a Canadian context is what took the PCC in this era to the status of being Canada’s largest Protestant denomination before many (including Rev. Malcolm Nicholson Bethune the very year he died) went into Church Union (the United Church of Canada).
Likely the “China context” was a regular discussion around the Bethune dinner table as young Norman grew up in manses in places like his birthplace (Gravenhurst), Beaverton, and Blackheath, for starters. The elder Bethune, a descendant of the first Presbyterian minister in Montreal and later in Glengarry Counties, was a first – year theology student at Knox College when he and his peers raised funds to send a graduating newlywed student Jonathan (and wife Rosalind) Goforth to Honan (modern day Henan Province in China). And a year later they sent their linguistic tutor, Donald MacGillivray to Shanghai.
Whether there was personal correspondence, or just news and reviews coming from journals such as the Presbyterian Record, these people and places were more than mere names in this household. The theological conviction at this time was more on evangelism at home and abroad … Whether he fully agreed with the pietistic outlook in late 19th century manses, or whether there were larger issues as a “rebelling preacher’s kid” who perhaps saw tensions between the minister and congregation, minister and presbytery, etc., there could be many other suggestions for his rebellion than just the Westminster Confession, the Shorter Catechism, etc.