Evangelical vs Progressive Christianity

What do they actually believe?

Part nine: LGBTQ Inclusion

This is the 9th (and last) 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 eight blogs.

1. Foundation of Faith
2. The Trinity
3. God’s Relationship with Humanity
4. Nature of Salvation
5. Humanity’s Relationship With God
6. Spiritual Practices
7. Purpose of Spiritual Community
8. Social Responsibility

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…

LGBTQ Inclusion

Evangelical:

Progressive: Most churches in America make an exception to the full embrace of God by excluding LGBTQ-identifying individuals. From our evangelical roots, the full inclusion of LGBTQ people was a radical departure. We set out to embody a “new normal’ of what a church family should look like — LGBTQ and Straight individuals and families worshiping and learning together in shared community.

Enough said!

Point for Progressive! 9-0

Summary

“Everything in this strange system (Christianity) is the reverse of what it pretends to be. It is the reverse of truth, and I become so tired of examining into its inconsistencies and absurdities, that I hasten to the conclusion of it, in order to proceed to something better.” Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason 1794.

Everything in evangelicalism is the reverse of what it pretends to be.

With that in mind, let’s sum up the major differences between these two churches. Evangelicals says they believe that salvation is not the result of any human effort or merit, but when you read their mission statement there really is a lot of trying to please God.

Becoming a christian and being “saved” may be a free gift, but being a christian requires a great deal of “effort”. Staying in God’s good graces is essential and the responsibility for maintaining a good relationship with God falls entirely on humanity. The evangelical mission statement focuses on the effort (works) that must be observed in order to stay right with God. However, they never actually mention God’s love, (not even once). Let’s look at what the evangelical requirements really are for being a good christian.

A serving of christianity with a side of works:

• We are a group of people trying to figure out what it looks like to live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus today.
• It is our privilege to rejoice in the assurance of our salvation. While our assurance is secure, this assurance must not become an occasion for sin.
• Learning grace is the process of transformation. We are convinced transformation happens by grace as we align our lives with the gospel.
• We participate in worship, prayer, scripture reading, memorization, sabbath, generosity, silence, solitude, and more. (Works)
• We long to be formed into the image of our Lord and Rabbi, Jesus.
• The gospel is hope for healing all things.
• Jesus models what it means to be a whole human being and we long to live in his way.
• We long to become more like Jesus.

As you can see much of evangelical’s mission statement expresses a desire to be like Jesus. Admittedly, it’s an honorable and lofty goal, but totally unattainable. If a person believes that Jesus was perfect and gave himself as a “sinless sacrifice”, then trying to live up to that standard of perfection can only lead to a lifetime of failure and the accompanying feeling that you are a constant disappointment to God. Who wants to live like that?

Conversely, the progressive view of humanity’s relationship with God is one of love and acceptance (no transaction is required, no club to join).

Progressive: God’s love is eternal, always welcoming, and does not require any transaction on our part. 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.  As a faith community, our call is to accept that we are already accepted by God, and to live a life imitating God’s love.

Progressive don’t have a list of things they must do daily to please God, because they believe that they are already pleasing to God. Imagine that!

However, they do have a list but it’s a rather short one.

• do justice,
• love kindness
• walk humbly with God.

I sometimes wonder how my former evangelical friends would react to the progressive view of God. Would an unconditional loving God be too much for them? Apparently so.

 

What’s baffling to me is that with all the talk of “God’s love” in their mission statement, the progressive congregation still receives hate mail from conservative christians. One such hate letter was taped to the front door of the progressive church and called them “false prophets”.

 

What becomes clear, while reading this hate message, is that its author knows practically nothing about the progressive church and what they actually believe.  It’s obvious that he has never read their mission statement nor ever spoken to anyone associated with the church. It’s probable that the only things he knew about them is that they are an inclusive church, welcoming the LGBTQ community, and that they have women pastors.  Even though the author uses scripture to support his condemnation, there is little evidence to suggest that he actually understood the random verses he quoted.  If it weren’t such a blatant expression of ignorance and bigotry it might be considered humorous. This will be the topic of my next blog.

Coming next: Evangelical hate mail

Beware of False Teachings: For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ…

This should be interesting. So, until then, thanks for reading. If you found this blog series helpful in some way, feel free to share it with someone who would also benefit from it. And check out my YouTube video regarding the Reform Presbyterian Church’s condemnation of the LGTBQ community.

 

 

From Where I Stand

Dale Crum

mt.toll@comcast.net