Category: Culture
Reformation of Liberal Christian Theology
In a recent sermon I wondered(1) out loud if the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation(2) might be a time for Christendom to ask, again, “In a time such as this would Christianity be a better arbiter of good news by living in the parables that Jesus told rather than focused on what is believed about the motivations of God in a risen Christ?” In a previous post I offered a sermon snippet that was a synopsis of that thought. This is how it fleshed out and was offered from a pulpit. The scripture text for that sermon is Ephesians 3:1-12.
What is the mystery of gospel? All Christians have a response to the question. The answer is often based in a theology that centers on a cross and a risen Christ. It is an orthodoxy that has the kingdom of God heaven based. But, Jesus of Nazareth, whom we claim as Christ, preached that the kingdom of God was at hand. We Disciples of Christ like to say that the kindom of God is already here, but not yet fully realized or lived in.
This year, Catholic and Protestant Christians will celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. Maybe this year the reformation anniversary can invite Christians to work the parables that Jesus told and apply what we learn to our time in history. Maybe that is an answer to the mystery of gospel for a time such as this.
Like Paul, we are all working out of our own personal epiphanies of Christ. Maybe we need to seek the epiphanies that come from right action instead of right belief.
Jesus, we are not afraid to listen, reason, and follow: “when you have done this for the least among you, for any among you, . . . you have done it to me.”
Maybe it is a good idea in a time such as this, to seek that epiphany in the simple and commonplace experiences of life.
What could be a lens for the reformation of liberal Christianity? Pardon the aside for definition, but it is an important reference point. Some people would prefer the adjective form of “progressive” instead of “liberal,” but I did not attend a progressive arts university. Merriam-Webster helps with definitions.
Liberal [noun]: one who is open-minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional, or established forms or ways.(3)
Progressive [noun]: one believing in moderate political change and especially social improvement by governmental action.(4)
Conservative [noun]: one who adheres to traditional methods or views.(5)
Our culture, political parties, and the media most often use the words conservative, progressive, and liberal as adjectives rather than nouns. There are no verb forms. Moreover, the words are used based on their simple definitions for kids, rather than for thinking adults. Visit Merriam-Webster.com and look the words up for yourself. You will find adjectives listed first.
People that consider themselves liberal or liberal Christians are thought of or portrayed as licentious. Sometimes we might deserve that label. Depending on your listening habits or political leanings you will hear liberal, progressive, and conservative used as insults, or a way to demean, or a reason to quit listening. Partisan-ism for profit relies on it. I’m guilty. You? This part of our culture has seeped into congregational life and into Christianity at large. It has made congregational life more tribal, gated, and confrontational. I’m a liberal. I have a moral center and know self restraint. I know conservative and progressive persons, religious, nones, and atheists, that can make the same claim. I’ve witnessed it in their living. For me, that is an important exegetical key for relationship as well as the study of scripture.
If you have three plus hours one day that you can spend with a movie, I suggest watching Kingdom of Heaven. The film will provide some insight for what a worldview based in nationalistic, conservative religion can do to culture and those that represent religion and governing. That same day or the next, also watch, The Sum of All Fears which I think puts into perspective the current alt-right nationalism rising across Europe and America. Both will dramatize what persons of good will can do to stop extremists as well as the cost of doing so.
Reflecting on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the movement he helped lead, it seems to me that the civil rights era applied the parables of Jesus to the civic contract that binds Americans together. The movement didn’t require non-Christians, creedal Christians, Protestant Christians, or Evangelical Christians to believe a specific claim about the risen Christ to participate in working out the meaning of “love your neighbor as yourself” in our civic contract. The movement applied the lesson, “when you have done it for the least among you, you have done it to me” to persons of all colors within the framework of secular life. I don’t think King desired to describe America, or make America, a Christian Nation juxtaposed to a Jewish Nation or a Muslim Nation or a Communists Nation. The great experiment that is America is secular. It treats all breathing citizens, and non-citizens in our land, with a basic equality and expects government at all levels to a set rules and referee the rules that apply to everyone no matter what religion or no religion one may claim, or into what capitalist caste one may be born. I think that is the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That is the riddle many citizens, and even those elected to govern, don’t get about these United States that makes it exceptional most of the time.
The reformation of a liberal Christian theology is essential for a time such as this. A Christian theology based in the parables that Jesus told would serve to balance orthodoxy, and it could be a bridge to conversation with those practicing a Christian salvation rooted in, “what Jesus can do for you.” Though Pope Francis has not altered much of Catholic teaching and doctrine, some of his statements can be understood as a bridge to conversation about what Christians, his specific brand of Christians, can be doing in public life that embraces a kinship of humanity rather than proclaiming a kingdom that must expanded, defended, and have ownership of all human souls. Believe what you wish about the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth and what roots your experience of him as Christ. When one work’s the parables one gets an idea of what the kindom of God is like already: and not yet. For me, it is the parables that help a person find and follow the internal moral compass that points the way to being good news for stranger, kin, and in one’s own life.
What parable that Jesus told, or attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, grounds the way you practice Christianity in public? What fruit would an individual Christian or church or denomination that is rooted in the parables of Jesus bare in a time such as this? My guess is that kind of Christian theology and practice would be dangerous for the Christianity that bargained with the Empire for at the feast of power and control.
That kind of Christian theology is liberal and would benefit a time such as this. It might be a kind of religion, the kind Christianity, some Boomers, Gen X’ers, Millennials, De-Churched, None’s, and Un-Churched are seeking.
Notes
- Subtle plug for Worship and Wonder program for children. http://www.docfamiliesandchildren.org/cww
- Learn more about the Reformation by reading the Westar Institute’s brief overview of the Reformation. https://www.westarinstitute.org/blog/500th-anniversary-reformation-david-galston/
- “Liberal.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.
- “Progressive.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.
- “Conservative.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.
Can we revive the melting pot?
Now that the modern Archie Bunker character has been elected President many are reviewing the game tape to learn and point fingers about failure. It is ‘whitelash’ that elected the #BigotinChief? Somewhat, but it is more than that I think. Fear works on people no matter your skin color or religion or lack of religion. Rational self interest is distorted into the most extreme ‘us and them’ on can imagine. Our politics have been based in that for most of my lifetime. The grand oratory of Kennedy has given way to Twitter rants. Education looks more like an above ground oil storage facility of large and small silos between public schools, religious based schools, and the home schooled. Trusted journalism is ideological too. There is no Walter Cronkite figure, but there are plenty of characters and ways to reach them.
America has embraced the image of Mulligan Stew instead of melting pot. Confessionally, I like in a gated community that I’ve discovered is more diverse than I thought. What my neighbors are realizing is that the gates invite people to climb over to see what is inside. The sense of security is only psychological. When will reporters start following the money in politics and in the many conflict of interests that surround the President Elect and those that are filling out his cabinet. In the end you can count on one thing: Donald J. Trump is only concerned with his brand, his bottom line and his, his, his. As the video shows, he will say anything to create the mob that chants his name and increases his power.
How will the President Elect handle the mob when it really acts out having been given the license of mainstreamed White Nationalism and of the KKK. Is this how fascism begins? The prosperity Gospel and ‘me and my Jesus’ theology helped elect Archie Bunker. He will happily use evangelical white Christianity’s desire to reign like the Taliban did or does, while giving those same evangelicals the scapegoat to blame for their economic and self esteem problems. They have tied themselves to the new Empire at their peril. Christianity is not a minority voice in our country. Evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity is well represented in our Congress and in my own State House. Now, this group is empowered by a President Elect to really go to work on our culture because it benefits him and his bottom line. If is didn’t benefit Trump, he wouldn’t pay evangelicals any attention. No, this is not a new reality, but it is a reality practiced by Trump with impunity. The Republican Party is set up to reign for at least an election cycle at the federal level, but it could be longer if the notion of Mulligan Stew America is allowed to flourish. In the States there is much more work to do.
I was at an event where Rev. Dr. William Barber spoke. He spoke not of red and blue America, but of an America that has a moral conscious. The working poor and middle class have more economic interest that are similar than they have pigment or religious differences. We’ve got to dust off our Nation’s moral compass if we are to survive the 45th Presidency of these United States. Maybe mules do kick the hardest near the end. If that it true then we are in for some serious thrashing about. The New York Times offers a couple of reads that I found helpful as I review the game tape and formulate a plan about my next steps. They are worth a read.
The End of Identity Liberalism by Mark Lilla.
We need a post-identity liberalism, and it should draw from the past successes of pre-identity liberalism. Such a liberalism would concentrate on widening its base by appealing to Americans as Americans and emphasizing the issues that affect a vast majority of them. It would speak to the nation as a nation of citizens who are in this together and must help one another. As for narrower issues that are highly charged symbolically and can drive potential allies away, especially those touching on sexuality and religion, such a liberalism would work quietly, sensitively and with a proper sense of scale. (To paraphrase Bernie Sanders, America is sick and tired of hearing about liberals’ damn bathrooms.) Click here to read more.
And
I am a Dangerous Professor by George Yancy.
Well, if it is dangerous to teach my students to love their neighbors, to think and rethink constructively and ethically about who their neighbors are, and how they have been taught to see themselves as disconnected and neoliberal subjects, then, yes, I am dangerous, and what I teach is dangerous. Click here to read more.