Why I Believe Liberal Christianity is Doomed

2 Thessalonians 2:15 ESV “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter”

To put it bluntly, I believe Liberal Christianity is doomed.

Many have claimed rather infamously that the future of Christianity is Liberal Christianity. Looking purely at satitistics, it is hard to see how. It is a very well known fact that Christian denominations that have adopted liberal stances, with a few notable exceptions, have experienced a dramatic, free fall drop in church membership.

Now, this is not to say that church membership alone is a great indicator of the health of a Christian community, but, at the same time, without members there is no community, and if things continue to go as they are now, many Christian denominations, especially the mainlines, will cease to exist in this century.

Look at it from any perspective you want, memberless communities, and communities who fail to attract new members to their communities, are hardly the “future” of Christian communities.

Healthy Christ-like Communities Must Be Attractive

Reading the gospels, it is hard to deny that Jesus had some sort of attraction. We see in the gospels, especially in the gospel of Mark, that crowds followed Jesus wherever he went.

We can be cynical all we want and say that was because Jesus performed miracles, fed the crowds, and because the crowd all expected their military liberation from oppression from Him, and while all of this is probably true, I do believe there was something beyond that that attracted people to Him.

We shouldn't ignore how people were attracted to His teaching and the way He taught with “authority” unlike the Pharisees and the Scribes. We must not ignore how his character of compassion and attention to the poor were also things that attracted crowds, especially the poor and the oppressed.

I say with trepidation what I'm about to say, and I know it will sound harsh, but I feel it's true to my limited experience: whenever I go to a “liberal” congregation, it is usually not filled with the poor or the oppressed, but with people with power and privilege talking about, well, power and privilege.

That alone tells me there is something seriously wrong with these congregations.

What's more, the church, who is the bride of Christ, should be attractive! This attractiveness is described in revelation, where the church is a “spotless” bride, one who has been washed by the blood of the lamb.

Also, Jesus describes us as “light of the world”. One charateristic of “light” is its attractiveness.

If your congregation is not attractive, then a question that should be asked is “is that congregation Christ-like?

I'm not a Liberal. I am a Progressive

That might be surprising to some of you who know me and know what I stand for.

Some people might confuse and use the words Liberal and Progressive intercheangebly, as if they were the same thing. Some, filled with cynicism, may say that Progressive is just a new word for Liberal, a new marketing spin to clear a bad name.

I do believe there is a substantial difference between the two, and while I think that there is no future for Liberal Christianity, I do believe there is a future for Progressive Christianity.

Liberal, by definition is: open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.

Using this definition, it is hard not to see why Liberalism is not compatible with Christianity. A central tenet of Christianity is the “passing down” of teaching from the Apostles, and the calling to “stand firm” on those teaching.

This “passing down” and receiving is just another way of saying “tradition”. The greek used for tradition in Tessalonians 2:15 can be translated not only as “tradition”, but also as the passing down or receiving a message.

As Christians, we are pleaded to pass down faithfully, to the next generation, what we have received. This goes in contradiction with the Liberal value of being “willing to discard tradition”.

This is evident in many Liberal congregations that I have been, where many people in authorities and responsible to pass down and keep the faith (like Bishops) are willing to discard, reinvent and innovate on many Christian traditions.

Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, but this is a myth that offers the hope of new life and new beginnings in our everyday life.

The Trinity is really just an ancient understanding of God, and we need not see God in that way.

Jesus is really not “Divine” but had the “divine” in Him.

Jesus didn't really die sacrificially for our sins, and His death on the cross has no atonement power, but He was simply killed by the system to give us a new model of non-violence to fight the system.

There are many other examples of how Liberal Christians are willing to discard traditions that have long been held universally by all Christians, but these suffice.

Progressive Christianity, on the other hand, is one preocuppied with the poor, stands alongside them, and advocates for their needs.

Progressive Christianity is involved in social justice, but should do so not just in solidarity with the poor, but joins the poor in their struggles and fights the system alongside them.

Progressive Christianity is not a willingness to discard traditions, but instead to stand firm in the tradition of Jesus to do His ministry with the poor. Jesus didn't come to serve the poor from a suburban, privileged place in Palestine. He came from Nazareth (what good can come from Nazareth?) had no place to lay His head. 

He ate and lived with the poor. He didn't serve the poor from a distance and didn't find refuge in a comfortable place of privilege after a long day of ministry with them. Rather, He “emptied Himself and took the form of a slave” and served alongside them.

Progressive Christians should not only talk about serving the poor, and about power and privilege, and fighting the system, but should talk about ways of emptying themselves of their privilege and power, and serve the poor in proximity, not from a place of privilege.

I believe Christianity has become a religion of privilege, of empire and of power. Liberal Christianity, despite all the talks to the contrary, it is still a manifestation of this kind of religion.

I want to see, instead, a Christianity that is Christ-like, willing to live and serve with the poor, willing to give away all their riches in service to the poor, willing to advocate and fight the system with all who are opressed.

I want to see a Christianity that empties itself and takes the form of a slave. When Christianity does this, then it will be truly Christ-like. Its light will attract all the nations, and the name of Jesus Christ will be glorified. Amen.