How Liberal Christians Lose Credibility

This article interested me, if for no other reason than my tag line: Thoughts on Religion in the World from a passionate, moderate, liberal charismatic Christian. Now I should point out again that “liberal charismatic” was a tag bestowed on me by someone who didn’t like me, and my preference is “passionate moderate” as a self-description. But many of my friends think “liberal charismatic” is fairly accurate.

One of the problems with liberal Christianity, in my opinion, is that many American liberals have problems explaining why they are Christians, specifically Christian liberals. The appearance some present is of being culturally rooted in Christianity and using Christian language to some extent, but not really taking it all that seriously. In my experience, most liberal Christians really do take their theology and discipleship seriously. It’s the appearance. I think it may be that the constant explanations of why one isn’t conservative on doctrinal issues detracts from making a positive case for what one does believe.

I found the post 10 ways “liberal” Christians lose credibility via John Meunier, and I think a number of these points are quite good. Reyes-Chow is clearly more comfortable with the liberal label than I am, but that gives him more credibility in talking about it as well. As John was, I was particularly interested in the point on Christology:

We must be able to articulate a Christology that informs our liberalness.  Too often I have been in conversations where it seems that our positions inform our understanding of Jesus….

In my view, however, that issue comes up for all Christians. I think modern American Christianity has a great deal of trouble with Christology, and with rooting discipleship in a robust Christology. As a self-proclaimed Christian moderate, I confess that it’s easy to let my “positions inform [my] understanding of Jesus” rather than having it the other way around.

Wander on over to Bruce Reyes-Chow and read the whole post.

Related articles

• Is Progressive Christianity The Same As Liberal Christianity? (simuleustisetpecator.wordpress.com)
• Roger Olson on Liberal Theology (simuleustisetpecator.wordpress.com)
• Conversations with Progressive Christians (dangeroustalk.net)