Wee Free

[1] The Wee Free in modern usage is used, usually in a pejorative way, of any small group who because of their, arguably obscure, religious principles choose to remain without or separate from a larger body.

A Wee Free attitude might show as a preference for being part of a smaller but ideologically pure group rather than a larger compromised one.

[3] In the years leading up to 1900 the Free Kirk and the more theologically liberal United Presbyterian Church aligned themselves with each other, with full union as the goal.

This led to Declaratory Articles being passed by their General Assemblies, changing or clarifying their doctrine so that there would be no barrier to union.

Eight years later when Scotland's second and third largest Presbyterian denominations formally unified, a small group within the Free Church chose to stay outside the union.

David Robertson, a Free Church minister, uses a version of it in his blog[17] after being called a flea by a well-known atheist.