Evangelical vs Progressive Christianity

What do they actually believe?

Part five: Humanity’s Relationship With God

This is the 5th in a series of blogs where we are comparing the mission statements of an evangelical congregation with that of a progressive congregation. By scrolling down you can find the previous four blogs.

1. Foundation of Faith
2. The Trinity
3. God’s Relationship with Humanity
4. Nature of Salvation

They are located below in reverse order (newest to oldest). Feel free to read them in any order you choose, but they might make more sense if you read them in order. For what it’s worth.

Also, I need to interject here that I do not believe in the theology of either congregation. But I do have an opinion about which dogma or which view of God is healthier for humanity. Once again, what matters here is how each congregation views… 

Humanity’s Relationship With God:

Evangelical: The gospel is hope for healing our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and all creation.  Learning grace is the process of transformation. We are convinced transformation happens by grace as we align our lives with the gospel.

Progressive: We cannot create our union with God. It is objectively given. As Father Richard Rohr says, “There’s nothing we can do or not do to increase or decrease God’s love for us.”

So, let’s take a look at what the evangelicals are saying here. Once again, their statement is so vague and so ambiguous, that it causes me to wonder if they actually know what they believe. Read the first part of this statement again.

The gospel is hope for healing our relationships with…

1. God,
2. others,
3. ourselves,
4. and all creation. *

First off, let’s define “the gospel”. If it’s the source of so much hope and healing, then it would be helpful for us to know exactly what is meant by it.  According to Marriam-Webster the “Gospel” is “the message (or good news) concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation”.

I can accept that definition but, I’d like to know more specifics about how “the gospel” actually heals our relationships with God, others, ourselves and all creation. For evangelicals, the phrase “the gospel” is like a silver bullet or a panacea.

For what it’s worth

Saying that the gospel can heal our relationship with all creation is a pretty bold statement which is not backed by any further thought or action. In reality it’s a simple and seemingly magical solution to the complicated problem of climate change.

Most conservative evangelicals choose to deny the science surrounding global warming. So, would this statement include healing the world from our (their) neglect? It’s as if evangelicals are saying, “Don’t worry about climate change, the gospel will heal the earth”.  (See endnotes below for more thoughts on this issue.)

Grace?

The second part of evangelicals’ statement is even more interesting.

Evangelical: Learning grace is the process of transformation. We are convinced transformation happens by grace as we align our lives with the gospel.

This definitely makes no sense. So, let’s dive deeper into what they are really saying. According to Britannica the definition of Grace in “Christian theology, is the spontaneous, unmerited gift of the divine favor in the salvation of sinners, and the divine influence operating in individuals for their regeneration and sanctification.”

So, let’s focus on two words in the definition; spontaneous and unmerited. So, if “Grace” is spontaneous why do Evangelicals refer to it as a “process of transformation”? In addition, if “Grace” is an unmerited gift, why do we have to earn it by aligning our lives with the gospel? And what exactly does it mean to align our lives with the gospel? That’s not quite clear, is it?

So, I thought if we could perhaps replace some of the key words from the evangelical statement with the actual definitions, the meaning of this statement might be clearer, or not.

Coming to know the spontaneous, unmerited gift of divine favor is the process of a series of actions, or functions that bring about change. We are convinced change happens by the spontaneous, unmerited gift of divine favor as we line up our lives with the message (or good news) concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation.

That didn’t help much, did it. What is clear, however, is that the Evangelical’s statement is actually saying the exact opposite of what they think they are saying. Once again, evangelicals focus on how man earns God’s favor; “we must align our lives with the gospel”

According to their statement…

Grace is neither spontaneous, nor unmerited.

A healthy alternative

Now, compare all this with the Progressive view of our relationship with God.

Progressive: We cannot create our union with God. It is objectively given. There’s nothing we can do or not do to increase or decrease God’s love for us.”

Once again, Progressives focus on God’s love, (something evangelicals have yet to do). For Progressives God’s love is not spontaneous, because it has always been there and will always be there, yet it is indeed unmerited and unconditional. It seems to me that this is a better way to live.

“There is nothing we can do or not do to increase or decrease God’s love for us.”

Point for Progressive! 5-0

 

Coming up next, we will be looking at…

Spiritual practices

Evangelical: We participate in worship, prayer, scripture reading, memorization, sabbath, generosity, silence, solitude, and more because we believe actively training ourselves through healthy spiritual rhythms directs our whole selves toward being formed in the image of our Lord and Rabbi, Jesus.

Progressive: Our mission is… “to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.” We believe that when we embody this mission, we will be an extension of God’s welcome in the world.

End note: Christians and Climate Change

Bob Inglis was a conservative congressman from NC who, after joining a junket to Antarctica and seeing for himself the truth behind the science of global warming, decided that it was his christian duty to speak out for the stewardship of taking better care of this earth. His conservative constituents disagreed and voted him out of office by a landslide.

Merchants of Doubt: A documentary that looks at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change.

Biologos:  Why Should Christians Care for Creation? “As bearers of God’s image, all people have the responsibility and privilege of caring for God’s creation.”

 

 

From Where I Stand

Dale Crum