BoundSacrifice

In a conversation with a conservative Christian about my progressive (heard by them as "heretical", I'm sure) views, the best answer I could give for the reason I was a Progressive Christian as opposed to a Conservative one was this; "The point of religion is not to achieve an 'us-vs.-them' mentality in which we're always on the winning side, but to guide us through life so that we might be better people, and aiding in bringing a better time on Earth not just for our particular group of people, but for everyone. What God wants for this Earth is not for humans to fight each other to extinction over the issue of who has the right theology about Him (or her, whatever, I think God is genderless anyway), but to find common ground and to love each other. God loves us all, regardless of what we think about God. Why can't we give ourselves the same?"

Wow. That elegantly expressed exactly (tongue twister) what I've been thinking for months.

http://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2012/05/02/stats-on-religion-in-the-us-mostly-depressing-declines-for-catholics-and-mainline-protestants/ As you can see, 7th day Adventists and Southern Baptists are doing fine (as well as Mormons for some reason), while the mainline denominations are shrinking. It's just really sad to me.

Has anybody seen the figures from the Episcopal Church? that membership has dropped nearly 25 percent in the past decade? How about in more conservative churches, which are flourishing? There is a serious problem within Liberal Christianity. We are losing more and more members every day, and unless we do something to stop this hemorrhaging, there will be nothing left. What can we do? First we have to realize something. Conservative Christianity is a default for many Christians, at least in the U.S. Liberal Christianity is harder by nature. It requires the person to think, to rationalize things that many conservatives aren't willing to do. So education from non-condescending, understanding people is key. We also need to explore religion as a valid path to a moral, fulfilling life. Many people see religion as a superfluous thing, and until we can change this, we will continue to lose members. I love Progressive Christianity. It makes sense to me in a way nothing else does, and it allows me to be the sane, skeptical, rational human being I am without having to give up theology, my most passionate field of study. I just don't want to see it go away. I don't want Christianity to be a conservative notion only.

Hey there stopman. I'm from the Bible Belt too, so I relate to your problem. In my area nearly all Christians are conservative so the majority of my friends are Atheists. I'd be glad to talk with you about anything if you'd like You'll find no judgement here, only friendship and fellowship.

Hello everyone, Today, I began a college-level course regarding the historical Jesus and a study of the New Testament, as well as some background information on Judah, Hebrew and Greek, and the history of the Jewish people. Being that this was the first day of class and the professor didn't want to get into any heavy material yet, she asked everyone in the room what they could name as facts about Jesus. Some of the replies I heard were humorous at best, and a little frightening at worst. Among these "facts" were that "He is our Savior" and "He rose from the dead". The entire time I was hearing these facts, I was thinking, "Really? These are pieces of history that you take as documented fact?" Keep in mind that this is not a theological class regarding Christ - it is a historical-critical analysis of Jesus and the time in which he lived. Anyway, I just thought that all at this forum would find that interesting. Oh, my reply was "He had a great reputation as a healer".

This is a bit of a problem for me as well. I grew up attending a church that was "Non-Denominational", but was extremely conservative in nature. I know from long talks regarding theology that the pastor at this church believed that the only way to heaven was not only from believing exclusively in Jesus, but that Baptism was absolutely necessary for salvation. He was a dispensationalist (which I was also for some time), and the overall feeling of the church was very tight-knit, and exclusivist. There are many negative things about conservative theology, but the one thing that I truly miss is that feeling of "togetherness". The feeling that we have something wonderful that we must share, that we must tell the world. I am an ordained minister in the ULC (it takes all of 20 minutes if you're interested) and I've been trying to figure out how to recreate this feeling in Progressive Christianity. That even though we are not the only ones who have access to the knowledge and experience of God, we can still be excited, overjoyed, in sharing what we have with everyone without excluding any faith. I've been involved with CCM for two years now, and next month I'm going into the studio to begin recording a Christian album, from the view of a Progressive Christian. I feel like if we are ever going to grow into a majority point of view among those who share our religion, we need to reach out, without over-reaching. We have to become more than a bad rip-off of secular culture.

My favorite author is by far Marcus Borg.

Thank you all so much! And Thanks soma, it's taken from Psalms.

I match up closest with Unitarian Universalism, which is what I call myself anyway (Liberal Christian Unitarian) so... Good!

Hello everybody! I'll choose to keep my state undisclosed for privacy, but I'm from the Bible Belt. I'd never heard of progressive Christianity until a few months ago during a talk with my Old Testament Prophecy professor. She referred me to Marcus J. Borg, a progressive Christian scholar whom I'm sure many of you are familiar with. I'd been a Christian for the first decade and a half of my life, but since that time was an Atheist. All of the theology I'd ever heard was the 'Believe now for the sake of heaven later" theology. I've always loved the community of Christianity, but the harsh doctrines of conservative theology were too much for me. It's a huge understatement to say that I feel like Progressive Christianity is where I was meant to be. My beliefs about God are panentheistic and rather Buddhist in nature - I don't believe God is a humanlike being "out there", but rather that God is a state of reality that we all exist and move in, and we are shot through with God's presence. I'm not sure on where I stand about the Resurrection, but I do follow Jesus' teachings as closely as I can. I am a Universalist and my theology is rather liberal. Anyway, nice to meet you all! I'm off to work now.