Issues and Concerns of Progressive Christianity

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. AND, receive a free printed copy of our most recent Realistic Living Journal. Thanks for visiting!

 A dialogue by Gene Marshall with John Shelby Spong’s essay
Tribal Religion: Recasting the Christian Message for Century 21
I have recently read the presentation/essay by John Shelby Spong on Tribal Religion. I count it as one of the best essay’s I have read by Spong. I agree entirely with Spong’s critique of what he means by “tribal religion,” namely the popular religion of our times (or any times) in which people worship their nation, their religious group, their gender, their race, their sexual orientation, and then project the quality of that group upon the cosmos or upon the God of the Bible, and call that projection of their own selves, “God.” Continue Reading »

Let us suppose that you have already decided that the first priority of your life is Spirit maturity.  Let us suppose that you are like that man in Jesus’ parable that found a valuable treasure hidden in a field and then sold all that he had to buy that field.  Let us suppose that for you Spirit maturity is like that treasure; it claims priority over all else.

Secondly, let us suppose that you have decided to make Christianity your religious home.  There are many good reasons for doing this: familiarity, experience of its healing strengths, or simply finding in this heritage the Spirit poetry with which you have (for whatever reasons) fallen in love.

Next, a third decision comes into view.  What sort of Christian religious community do you need?  The Symposium on Christian Resurgence for Century Twenty-One came into being to focus on this issue.  This research group has given a name to the Christian community needed: “The Christian Resurgence Circle.”  What is the Christian Resurgence Circle?  It is the Circle you need.  If it is not the Circle you need, it is not the Christian Resurgence Circle. Continue Reading »

Here is my greeting for the season: May the Dark Nights of Advent prepare you and yours in becoming fertile soil for that tiny candlelight of Christmas that can become a fire upon the Earth.

We seldom celebrate Advent anymore. Only a few of us light some purple candles and remember that the four weeks before Christmas were traditionally dedicated to the theme of coming to terms with how shit, piss, puss, slime awful the world situation actually is. Continue Reading »

Here is an interesting but cryptic passage from the Fourth Gospel about shepherds and sheep.

I have come that human beings may have life and may have it is all its fullness. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hireling, when he sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away, because he is no shepherd and the sheep are not his. John 10 :10-12

Those who give sermons on the good shepherd often assume that this ancient image applies to a contemporary pastor who tells his flock what they should believe and how they should act. Such a view also assumes that most people are sheep in the sense of being gullible go-along authority-addicted dumbbells.

I do not believe this was the meaning intended by the original author of these verses. The original shepherd image was grounded in the experience of being or noticing a highly dedicated person living on a hillside with a flock of sheep, providing them grass and water and protecting them from wolves. Being a follower of Jesus means being such a leader.
Continue Reading »

Truth is not truth for me unless I experience it in my own being. Something is not true because the Bible says it is true. It is possible to claim, however, that the Bible says things because they are true – because they are true in ways that you and I can experience in our own beings.

If some group is interpreting the Bible to mean things that are not true, it follows that there is something wrong with their method of interpretation. The truth that the Bible can call to our attention is a level of truth this is typically more illusive than reading Bible statements in a “scientific” or “literal” manner. Most of the statements in the Bible are poetry or legend or story, not factual science or factual history. Continue Reading »

Progressive Christians are achieving great clarity about the historical development of the Bible and about viewing biblical passages in a metaphorical rather than a literal way. Using the word “God,” however, continues to be an area of unclarity and outright confusion.

It is, I believe, helpful to begin with H. Richard Niebuhr’s insight that the word “God” is a devotional word, much like the word “sweetheart.” “Sweetheart” points to a particular person, but it also expresses a quality of relationship. Similarly, the word “God” includes the meanings of loyalty, commitment, trust, friendship, and passionate devotion. At the same time, “God,” as used in the Bible, points to an actual experience, an actual encounter with, how shall we say it, the Ground of our Being; the Mystery, Depth, and Greatness of our lives; Final Reality; Reality as a Whole; the Mystery that will not go away. Continue Reading »

People from many political backgrounds are expressing opposition to “rewarding” Hispanic workers who have broken U.S. immigration laws with anything that smells like “amnesty.” Their assumption is that this lawbreaking should be punished not overlooked. But lost from view in this perspective is the fact that we are talking about a set of very inappropriate laws. And the breakers of these laws are not only South-of-the-border workers, but those who hire them. All sorts of firms are glad to have these industrious workers dedicated to a better life for their families and willing to go the second mile to get it. Many families, including prominent politicians, hire “illegal” Hispanics to clean their houses and stay with their children. The lawbreaking, if that is what we must call it, is pandemic. And it has been going on for so long that these so-called laws are engulfed within a vast need to start over with a whole new set of laws. Continue Reading »

The following is one of the most ridiculous ploys ever uttered in political speech: “Our military personnel who died in Iraq have died in vain if we do not stay and win.” If it is true that this war should never have been launched, then indeed, let us face it, these men and women have died in vain. And if this is so, it is not their fault; it is the fault of all those who have promoted this war, whether in or out of military service. Continue Reading »