Monday, July 23, 2012

One More Post On Ross Douthat and Liberal Christianity

In the week or so since New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote his column on Liberal Christianity, there has been a ton of responses from Progressive Christians on the issue- most of it taking umbrage at Douthat's article.  Because Douthat is a political and social conservative, many progressives easily wrote him off and saw his critique as another in a long run of conservative rants against the mainline. As I've said before, we in the mainline should take Douthat's words to heart and not simply brush them off, but many of us still remain in denial, thinking that we are on the cusp of a new progressive renaissance.

Instead of regurgitating what Douthat has already said, I want to share my own observations concerning progressive Christianity from spending 20 years on the inside.  There is a lot that is good about the mainline church, which is why I remain here and why I chose at to enter into ministry.  There is a certain amount of theological roominess that I didn't find in the churches of my youth.  I like the emphasis on social justice.

But I also think there are issues with progressive Christianity that have caused it to crash that we refuse to address.  Because we aren't owning up to our shortcomings, the downward spiral continues.

Keep reading...

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