New Blog Series for the New Year: Tough Truths for Progressive Christians

 The new year always brings forth a spirit of renewal.  We make resolutions to leave bad habits behind.  We vow to exercise more, eat less, and to be a better person in a myriad of other ways.  The turning of the calendar over allows us to create perhaps not a blank slate, but a much cleaner personal slate than might be otherwise possible psychologically.  It is interesting that we have accepted this Gregorian opportunity for renewal given our Christian teachings.   Indeed, for Christians each day presents an opportunity for renewal in Christ's love and forgiveness for our sins, but human nature pays attention to certain time demarcations such as the New Year.  So don't worry if you've already fallen short of your resolution.  Today is always a new day.   

For some reason though, I'm not feeling that same sense of renewal this year.  I'm not entirely sure why, but I am feeling a bit dour about the coming year.  Perhaps its the GOP taking over the house, or perhaps its just a personal set of concerns, but 2011 doesn't seem like an inflection point year that will  have a major impact on the course of human history.  In many ways, it feels like an "in-between year".  It certainly is in the American political cycle.  But I feel this may be a bridge year even beyond politics.  

Let's make sure this year is not a bridge to nowhere for Progressive Christianity! This year I feel a calling to deal with issues facing Progressive Christians and other progressive people of faith.  I think its time we challenge ourselves and the assumptions we have about the world around us.  I know many members of this community will not agree with much or maybe all of what I am going to say, but I do greatly look forward to the dialogue about the tough issues facing our community.  Here are some of the big ticket items of which we must contend:  

• Confronting The Reality of Radical Islam - The bombing of a church in Egypt over the New Year's holiday was yet another reminder of what too few progressives and progressive Christians want to confront: Radical Islam often begets violence most often against innocent people who are not military targets in any way.  As we enter the year that will mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 the reality of terrorism and there are too few moderate Muslim voices for Radical Islam to be confronted solely within the religion.  I will use some of the experiences I had in my year in the Middle East to provide some of the personal context for this discussion.
• Progressive Christianity and Progressive Faith Has Largely Fallen Flat - Progressive Christianity saw tremendous growth as a movement in the mid-decade of the aughts.  But Progressive Christianity today has largely fallen flat, only fully embraced in a small number of churches, and not really at all of the denomination level, even within very progressive denominations.  Mainline Protestantism, where much of Progressive Christianity is rooted, continues a decline.  Extra-denominational Progressive Christian organizations have largely died on the vine.  Even those that are surviving are hardly thriving.  Progressive Faith book sales are abysmal.  We need to ask ourselves the tough questions of why this is so?  What about our message is not connecting with folks who would seemingly be sympathetic to the values and aspirations of Progressive Christianity?  How might better organize ourselves?   
• Social Issues Will Need to Take a Backseat to the Profound Economic Issues of Our Day - The Religious Right was built around social issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and prayer and religion in school and in government.  Progressives largely reacted against these positions in the public discourse and on a number of issues especially homosexuality and abortion have won or are winning.  Progressive Christians have largely failed though to make the case about what our faith and the Bible tells us about the appropriate economic narrative and policies for our country.  As we limp out of the Great Recession, more Americans have fallen even farther behind while the purveyors of near economic destruction remain largely untouched quickly shifting back into wealth accumulation.  If Progressive Christianity does not develop and forcefully advocate for an economic narrative, we will be irrelevant.  
• Dialogue With Fundamentalists is Largely a Losing Endeavor - I am not one to give up an argument easily.  Indeed, I am exposed to fundamentalist Christianity through friends and family with a good deal of frequency and each time I offer a voice for reason and reasonable approach to our shared faith.  The reactions vary ranging from anger to the equivalent of putting their hands over their ears yelling, " I can't hear you! I can't hear you!"  The first reaction of so many Progressive Christians is to attempt to reach out to their conservative brethren.  While this may still be a worthwhile endeavor (even if there are a high percentage of unconvincibles), it is NOT a good use of our time right now.   Our time is much better spent building within our communities convincing folks of like mind that they need to participate in the Progressive Christian endeavor.