Progressive Christianity

I've taken the conservative side of the Christian faith to task several times here. Not without good cause, I believe. The other side of that equation is Progressive (or Liberal) Christianity. Before I go any further, I should voice a disclaimer. It's going to be retroactive too, and cover those things I've already said. On all sides of this discussion are good people, trying their best to live like Christ. I just disagree with the ways that some of them do it. Now, onto today's subject. First of all, Progressive or Liberal Christianity are actually two different things. Liberal Christianity grew out of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. This was a time of great cultural change, helped along by the successful rebellion in the United States against the British Empire. This affected everything and religion was no different. Some the tenets of Liberal Christianity include: a) rejection of the inerrancy doctrine of the Bible; b) non-traditional views of heaven and hell; c) wider scope of views about salvation (including universal salvation) ; personal view of God. There are more, but I think you get the picture. Progressive Christianity is a bit more like the accepted view of the word "liberal". One of it's most identifying aspects is social justice. I've got nothing against social justice, in fact, I try to support it whenever possible. In fact, Wesley was almost a fanatic on the subject. The problem is that it can be the first step onto the proverbial slippery slope. All to often, Liberal or Progressive morphs into the Social Gospel. The Social Gospel takes Christian ethics to social problems. Nothing wrong with that, in on of itself. Unfortunately, it can on a life of itself and you stop attending church and end up going to social activism meeting. I've seen that happen in the youth group I work with. We did a lot of things for the homeless, the hungry and those in need and very little religious education.

Worship tends to get a little stale with this model, especially with young people. Add in the reluctance of some adults to listen and reach out to those younger than themselves and you'll see young people either leaving the church or sitting around bored because someone else made them come. Not good. Combine this with the fundamentalism of the conservatives and it can really get ugly. It was only matter of time before someone stood up and said "This ain't workin, we need to find a new way". That's what this is about, finding a new way. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to change everything, that would be stupid. There are so many good things we're already doing on both sides. However, the current model has it's flaws. I see it in my own church. We've just moved to a new building and are experiencing a growth like I've never seen before. But, that growth is all families in their 30's and 40's, mostly with young children. Now, this is normal. Folks that haven't been to church in a while start a family and gravitate back toward the church because they want their children to be brought up the way they were. While that's good, why don't we try and reach them before they get to this point? That's going to require changes of us, the old farts; something we're not that good at. But, I think the result will be well worth it. Who knows, we might even find we like it.