I was wrong. I was out of date. I had a much too narrow understanding of “progressive” when I talked about (and criticized) progressive Christians.
In times of social transition WORDS CHANGE. A word changes because people change, cultures change, and institutions change.
And right now it seems that “progressive” has come to name that change, the flow of people and ideas from one place to another.
Being a progressive Christian currently is less about identifiable theological commitments or practices. It is more about an “exit from” and an “emphasis on”, all relative to the experience of the person using the word at that moment.
Past Use of Progressive
My mistake was thinking that we were still in the stage where “progressive” functioned similarly to evangelical.
50 years ago “Fundamentalist” Christians updated and softened their brand by claiming the name “Evangelical”. Likewise many “Liberal” Christians updated their brand with the term “Progressive”.
This naturally happens as all social movements update their brands to either energize the true believes or to attract new adherents. This is no different for Fundamentalist and Liberal Christians of the late 20th century.
My problem is that I assumed this use older use of “progressive” still held.
But the last 5 years (if not just the last 2) has totally upended that assumption.
People that I wouldn’t think are progressives are calling themselves progressive. And by many definitions I’m progressive (and I’m not referring to the negative, straw man definitions thrown around by fundamentalists. I’m talking about people who call themselves progressives in a positive sense I’ve found that I would be included in their definition).
[Essential note to the above comment and below, is that I’m talking primarily about White American Christianity…it is not at all clear that BIPOC use or identify as progressive in the same way that white people do (politically or theologically).]
Current Use of Progressive (is all over the place)
So, given the 200+ comments on my Facebook question, and poking around else on the interwebs and private emails, here is my non-exhaustive, semi-overlapping emphases, meanings, and uses of “progressive” as a witness to our changing times.
A “progressive” Christian might hold some to all of these convictions or emphases when they call themselves a progressive:
- “I am no longer a fundamentalist/evangelical.”
- “I don’t agree with the politics or theology of my parents.”
- “I am more progressive in my politics, but not necessarily in my theology.”
- “I have questions about the Bible and atonement (I’m against penal substitution).”
- “I think science (evolution) should inform how we read the Bible and understand humanity.”
- “I just want to focus on the life and teaching of Jesus (and I’m against the John Wayne kind of Jesus).”
- “I think the gospel is so much more than just salvation from personal sin, expanding to our social, even cosmic reality.”
- “I think Jesus and the Bible are part of God’s on going revelation.”
- “Jesus’ death revealed God’s sacrificial love to us. Beyond that, I’m not sure what Jesus’ death did.”
- “My personal faith (ideas and theology) are less important that the public and social practice of love.”
- “I want to be open-minded, inclusive, pro-feminist, against racism, pluralistic, and evolving in my faith.”
- “While I follow Jesus, I believe in the pluralism of the sacred (all religious experiences are valid) and the progress of humanity (we should be putting off the past while pressing into the future).”
- “If you aren’t LGBTQ+ affirming, anti-racists, pro-immigrant then you aren’t even a Christian.”
Some “progressives” will affirm just some of these. Other will affirm all of these statements and more.
So what is this “progressive” EXIT FROM? What is this “progressive” EMPHASIS ON?
EXIT FROM: Evangelicalism
It seems that those who use the term “progressive” to explain their journey are those coming from evangelicalism and fundamentalism.
I had several mainline Christian friends note that they couldn’t possibly be progressive because they had never been evangelical-fundamentalist. I would love to hear the thoughts of others, but it sure seems the loudest progressive voices are ex-evangelicals these days, rather than just those who used to be called “mainline” or “liberal” Christians.
EMPHASIS ON: Individual following of the life of Jesus
The emphasis is clearly on following the teaching and life of Jesus.
But there are also other pretty clear emphases:
- Longing NOT to be controlled (anti-hierarchical, anti-institutional)
- Validating individual experience (one’s moral intuitions about the Bible and sexuality)
- Focus on individual/mystical experience over doctrine formulation.
Where will all this “exiting from” and “emphasis on” lead during this time of transition? Will it lead to multiple places, some new and some old? And how long will it take to get there?
I don’t know. But I do know that I need to be more careful, and offer more clarity, when I say something like “I don’t want people to become progressive Christians”, because depending on your definition and where you are in the process, perhaps I actually do want you to be a more progressive Christian!
But I’ll have to explain that more in the future.