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As our world continues to reject the traditions that seemed to fail previous generations, Christianity was inevitably going to get swept up as well. With each passing year, we’ve seen the core tenets of Christianity compromised, or outright abandoned, in favor of something that’s easier for the secular world to accept.
Extreme efforts are made to reduce Christianity’s offensive, rigid, or old-fashioned values. This idea of Progressive Christianity, where we “progress” past outdated ideas and more toward more modern discoveries or beliefs (especially those that promote social reform), is wildly popular in the world. More and more people embrace a version of Christianity that lines up with the world around it, and it seems like the old ways of Christianity are fading away.
However, despite its popularity, Progressive Christianity also has no choice but to fail. Not only will it fail the individuals who rely on what it promises, but its lack of a foundation will also see it drift so far from any hint of Christianity that it will inevitably fail as a belief system. This series will explore just a few reasons it can’t sustain itself, why it’s so popular, and conclude with hope for Christ’s followers who want to stand for the truth in a world that grows more hostile to them.
What is Progressive Christianity?
Something worth noting is that we can only define the features of this belief as it stands today. As we’ll discuss, Progressive Christianity’s beliefs are an ever-shifting thing, with its definition from a decade ago seeming more intolerant compared to today. That being said, these are many of the features that both skeptics and groups like ProgressiveChristianity.org would agree are common to this belief system:
- Focuses on our actions more than our beliefs or motivations
- Elevates the basic goodness of people, believing that if people are encouraged to do better then there’s no need to talk about sin
- Teaches tolerance in the form of acceptance
- Insists on social reform/social justice as explained by modern-day definitions
- Emphasizes individual feelings and experiences, especially when it comes to truth or our relationship with God
- Often views salvation as a means of having a better life today
- Claims salvation is one way to God
- Suspects or completely rejects tradition and historical beliefs held for hundreds or thousands of years
- Holds love far above any other act
- Promotes environmentalism
I’ve tried to be fair in that assessment of Progressive Christianity, but even being objective raises some red flags. There are entire books dedicated to debunking the problems of this movement, but here are some bigger issues we can’t ignore:
- Lowers the authority and divine inspiration of the Bible to stay relevant with today’s culture
- Compromises God, Christ, and salvation by treating them as a means to individual or societal betterment
- Makes secular causes the core truth that interprets all other beliefs
- Demands that Christians “keep up” with society and its values
- Defines success of the church and its mission based on numbers of attendees, how popular or well-liked our beliefs are, or whether we’re consistently challenging traditional beliefs
- Rejects absolute truth and authority in favor of relativism, popular cultural, and personal experience
Again, there’s so much that could be said about Progressive Christianity and its specific teachings, but I want to focus on why this belief, despite its incredible popularity, is going to collapse on itself. So stay tuned to future articles as I dig into Progressive Christianity.
This is part of an ongoing series. As new articles are released, they will be listed down below.
Part 0: A Note On How I Define Progressive Christianity
Part 1: A Religion That’s Doomed to Fail
Part 2: Trend Chasers
Part 3: Gimmicks Before Gospel
Part 4: An Overwhelming Fear of Man
Part 5: Death By No Foundation
Part 6: Predictably Popular
Part 7: Why I’m Still Hopeful
Ray, I’m looking forward to reading/ hearing what you have to say. Yes, Christians (or people who call themselves Christians) are ever pushing in new directions, not all of which are good.
But I hope it’s OK to suggest that you rethink your “What is…?” section. Frankly, if I adhered to ProgressiveChristianity.org, I’d be offended by your overgeneralizations that misstate my beliefs. Until you can cite a group that affirms your bullet points as “central to this belief system” (I’ll be surprised if you can) it’s wrong, per traditional orthodox Christianity, to make that claim.
Why not just use the eight points on the website you link to? Their eight points are similar to your bullets, we can all be confident that someone agrees with them.
That’s a fair bit of criticism, John. My goal with the first series of bullet points wasn’t to make something a group would actually copy/paste into their statement of beliefs, but rather to avoid villainizing Progressive Christians by being derogatory in my explanation.
In keeping with that goal, I think you’re right about using the word “center,” both in the intro and in the 3rd bullet point. To that end, I’ve edited it to say these are common beliefs, and I decided to split the third point into two separate ones:
Teaches tolerance in the form of acceptance
Insists on social reform/social justice as explained by modern-day definitions
Regarding why I didn’t just write down the 8 Points that I linked, it’s because of statements like this that may not be easy to translate for someone unfamiliar with Progressive Christianity:
“#6 Strive for peace and justice among all people”
I’m sure there’s a better term, but this reads like “corporate speak.” It’s vague and open to interpretation because it doesn’t say anything concrete or actionable. On the surface, it seems like something we can all agree on, but how it plays out in practice is very specific and not what other Christians think of when they talk about peace and justice.
Ray, I’m glad that you use the word “common.” It allows “Progressive Christians” to opt out of bullet points with which they disagree.
But I still think you’re better off using something written by “Progressives.” While you do not read your points as derogatory or villainizing, people who think of themselves as “Progressive Christians” may well disagree. I’m certain that many think that your second set of bullet points is especially unfair and derogatory. We need to respect the fact that “Progressives” are more familiar with their own beliefs than we are. That’s why if we want to be accurate and fair, we should avoid paraphrases that they may see as offensive and incorrect.
Yes, sometimes people describe themselves using “corporate speak.” But traditional /orthodox Christians also use terms that others read as vague and open to interpretation. So when “Progressives” use “corporate speak,” intentionally or not, our best strategy is to write a few sentences about how specific groups of “Progressives” interpret passages like 1 Peter 2:17, Micah 6:8, Luke 4:18, and so on, then critique those interpretations. That way, we avoid falling into the “straw man” fallacy that will not prove much.
Thank you for the advice, and that will be a good route to take if/when I revisit the topic.
I’m trying something new with this series (since I’m still finding my style when discussing current issues), and based on our previous back-and-forth it just may not be to your liking. It will be more of a commentary than a thorough breakdown and discussion of doctrines.
Good for you to be willing to try something new, whether or not you think I’ll like it. May God bless your work!
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