The Practicing Progressive

Issue 7
January 22, 2007

If you are a member of a mainline Protestant congregation, you are probably very much aware of the decline of most traditional denominations. What’s more, you needn’t be told by others. A sad look around your sanctuary on a Sunday morning will confirm what the statistics claim.

There are exceptions, of course. And some of them are very dramatic indeed. But, by and large, the outlook for denominational Christianity in America as represented by Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. is bleak at best.

The causes are myriad with sociological and cultural changes playing a very significant role but one must also recognize the place that Progressive Christianity has played in this denominational downturn. Unintended, to be sure, but nevertheless destructive, Progressive Christian thought has challenged the orthodoxy of Protestant theology and worship. Most PC adherents, I suspect, have simply found Protestantism’s reliance on archaic worldviews and ancient rituals to be irrelevant to their own spiritual journeys. Why participate in something you don’t believe in? I further suspect that most of these drop-outs had never heard of Progressive Christianity and certainly never thought of themselves as Progressive Christians. But over my years in parish ministry, I met many of these frustrated spiritual sojourners who were Progressive Christians Unaware, as it were. It is abundantly clear to me that these folk were simply hoping to follow Jesus’ teachings but, paradoxically, found the Church blocking their way.

An additional contributor to the demise of denominationalism is Evangelical Christianity. This fiercely independent form of the ancient faith often expresses its independence by refusing to align congregations into denominations. This reluctance gives rise, at times, to huge congregations, often centered on the charismatic appeal of a particular, usually white, handsome and male, pastor.

Much of Evangelical Christianity, it seems to me, has a kind of adolescent mindset that seeks definitive answers to highly complex questions. There is a child-like yearning for universal absolutes and solid moral clarity. In a world filled, as ours is, with ethical ambiguity and political uncertainties, this desire often develops into a rigid delineation of what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and what is ugly. This certitude is, I suspect, a rather pleasant state of being and its great popularity among the masses is understandable. How peaceful one must feel knowing that the complexities of life can be narrowed down to a few fundamental certainties!

But such faithful confidence must be fervently protected from the onslaught of a modern world. Scientific achievement, intellectual curiosity, political innovations are only some of the forces that must be fought against. Even more destructive to the certitude of much of Evangelical Christianity comes in personal encounters that belie rigid beliefs. A dearly-loved son announces he is gay or an atheistic co-worker exhibits an enviable kindness and generous spirit…and the first step on the slippery slope toward spiritual maturity is taken, like it or not.

Not all of mainline Christianity is on shaky ground, of course. Christianity is booming in the southern hemisphere. Almost every major Protestant denomination is experiencing dramatic growth south of the equator, particularly in Africa. Indeed, in a curious reversal of history, missionaries are now being sent to America and Europe from these growing African denominations. Witness the recent alignment of a number of Episcopalian congregations in America to African bishops and dioceses.

Such statistics may bring joy to some but I find them enormously discouraging. The Christianity that is growing in these third-world settings is disturbingly reminiscent of a Christianity that is best left in the past. Adamantly hierarchical, brutally biased against both women and homosexuals, this emerging Christianity is centered on a theology that most of us would consider bankrupt and destructive. This is a Christianity immersed in 19th century American Protestant triumphalism. This is a Christianity that pits Christ against the infidels rather than welcoming strangers to the table. This is a Christ that many of us long ago rejected and to this day fear.

Once, while visiting Lutheran congregations in Tanzania, I was both surprised and disappointed to find the African natives singing hymns written in German and advocating an evangelism that denigrated other systems of belief. Was it moving to listen and watch as hundreds of folk sang of their faith in Christ? Of course! Such devotion taps deep into the souls of most of us. But it was also terribly troubling to think that these same faithful folk would have to repeat the failures already experienced by western Christianity.

The emerging Christianities of Africa, Asia and American Evangelicalism are impressive in size and scope with enormous potential for continuing growth but continuing on their current course, they run the risk of being religions without reason, Christianities without Christ.