A long time ago, in a decade that seems far, far away, I wrote an article on why Christians should support same-sex marriage in society but not in the Church (click here for the article). In that article, I claimed that the insistence by some fellow believers on banning same-sex marriage in society will cause many believers to either accept homosexuality as a Biblically accepted lifestyle or to leave the faith all in order to rightly avoid marinalizing homosexuals. The kind rejection of the modern concepts of social injustice, CRT, and wokeness, all of which are synonyms for 'Communism' according to Trump, by many fellow Christian Fundamentalists has been producing a similar results. Religiously conservative Christians are being tempted to follow religiously liberal Christianity, which is not Christianity, in order to follow their social justice convictions. And that is especially true in today's political environment where religiously conservative American Christians are still strong supporters of Trump.
First, we should define the kind rejection of more modern criticisms of the West of which I am talking about. In 1967, when speaking against the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King Jr. said the following (click here for the source):
'The Western Arrogance Of Feeling That It Has Everything To Teach Others And Nothing To Learn From Them Is Not Just'
I have mentioned this quote before. In particular, I suggested that we replace the word 'Western' with a fill-in-the-blank to see how this quote can apply to more than the West during the Vietnam War and at other times. It can be used to help provide a check on any of the groups we belong to as well as ourselves as individuals. And it can be used as a litmus test on those individual groups we are listening to.
And so perhaps it is time to apply that quote to American religiously conservatives who are overly critical of progressive or leftist ideas such as Marxism, Critical Theory, Post Modernism, CRT, wokeness, DEI, and alike. By being overly critical, I am referring to applying the quote to the situation where many religiously conservative Christians believe that there is nothing to be gained by listening to progressive and leftist ideas. We need to ask if these American religiously conservatives have succumbed to that arrogance of feeling by believing that they have nothing to learn from Marx and his modern derivatives. I am not saying that American religiously conservatives should never criticize those people and ideas just mentioned, what is being challenged is how far are they going in questioning others.
Personally, I find it very troubling when I hardly find any fellow believers who share my agreements with Marx, Critical Theory, Post Modernism, CRT, wokeness, DEI and alike. I find it very difficult when so few of my fellow believers in Christ are either silent or supportive of how the Israeli government is treating the Palestinians and its neighbors. It is also distressing when they do the same with Trump's authoritarianism and his cutting of aid to programs that provide humanitarian help to the less fortunate while he is more than eager to send in the military where they do not need to go. They also do the same with Trump's opposition to DEI and equality for the LGBT community. For those actions and decisions involve moral issues. And then when those who are theologically liberal, who are in essence without the Gospel, are pursuing and promoting justice and peace that we Christians should be supporting and practicing, I find it more distressing. It is distressing not just because I feel almost alone in supporting politically progressive ideas and causes; it is tragic because of the harm done to the reputation of the Gospel our silence.
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| Sign made by Protest Barb |
To those who are offended by my statement saying that those who are theologically liberal are without the Gospel, we need to note what their beliefs are in comparison with the Gospel. Liberal theology can be divided into two branches: the reduction of all reality into the physical realm and the belief in universal salvation. And to be even more specific, many of today's liberal theologians are selectively citing the Gospels to bolster their claims about Jesus and thus they are challenging the rest of the Gospels as to all that Jesus said and did. In addition, they also ignore its other parts of the New Testament such as the book of Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation.
Many of today's liberal theologians look for those parts of the Gospels which seem to support the kind of inclusiveness that they want to see in the Church. They want to see that inclusiveness in the Church because of how the Church can influence society. In other words, they teach the Gospels in a way that instructs the Church how to be what they want society to be. And though we should want inclusiveness that they want in society, the Church is a different story because the Church is exclusively about believers in Christ.
And so liberal theologians teach only parts of the Gospels. For example, when talking about homosexuality, they mention that Jesus never talked about homosexuality. And that is true. But what they leave out is when Jesus said the following (click here to see the source):
18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished!
And what we should note is that the Law, of which Jesus spoke, condemns homosexuality. Should liberal theologians mention the Old Testament dietary restrictions, they forget Peter's dream, recorded in Acts 10, about how all food has now become clean.
So a major problem with these theologians is that they leave out the rest of the New Testament. And so what they ignore is what Jesus instructed the Apostles to do as recorded in the Gospels and the book of Acts. They also ignore the fact that Jesus sent out Apostles to authoritatively represent Him. And so the book of the book of Acts, the Epistles and Revelation are vitally important.
To their credit, many who hold to liberal theology put us religiously conservative American Christians to shame with their warmth, love, wanting inclusiveness in society, and moral concerns about social justice. They also put us to shame with their opposition to Trump's authoritarianism. We religiously conservative American Christians have a lot to learn from them with regard to their characteristics and views.
But as valuable as personal characteristics and their social justice views are, their attributes and views do not present the Gospel and thus do not save us in either the present or future senses. That is because of God's demand for holiness far exceeds any goodness that we can practice. We do need a savior who takes the punishment for our sins as well as calls us to live a life of repentance because, even after believing, we fight win some/lose some battles against sin. To reduce the Christian life to just having superior moral views on social justice and good characteristics ignores how sinful each of us is and how much we need a savior and not just a teacher or role model. And to think that all will be saved ignores our need to believe in the savior.
And so here is the dilemma that many of my fine, fellow Christian Fundamentalists present. We fall short in the personal characteristics that we should excell in while representing Christ. The same goes for many of our social justice views. For many of us, that might be because our social justice views have been compromised by our political and ideological loyalties. And so in falling short in these matters, we hurt the reputation of the Gospel and have caused some to be tempted to switch to a false gospel because of how many liberal theologians are superior to us in displaying those personal characteristics and their social justice views. For they reason how can the true Gospel produce such poor results. I know that some of my behaviors and words have hurt the reputation of the Gospel.
I should add that the above is not the only dilemma. What I find personally upsetting is that I can't have political fellowship with many of my fellow believers in Christ because of the disparity in social justice morals caused by the differences in our social justice and political views. On the other hand, I can't have religious/spiritual fellowship with theological liberals who share my political and social justice concerns because they have either latched on to another gospel or simply believe in no Gospel and thus do not recognize the true Gospel.
I should add here that the above dilemma is an American phenomenon from what I have learned from Christians in other countries. I've been told that Christian Fundamentalists from the U.K., for example, hold to neither American conservative political views nor lack adequate social justice views.
Right now, many religiously conservative Christian churches are working hard to maintain the above status quo by either being silent on social justice issues and views or by espousing views that support or promote social injustices. And that fits them fine because then they can maintain more homogenity in their congregations. The result of such an approach is either a muted call to repent and believe to non political conservatives or an implied demand that non political conservatives must become political conservatives in order to believe in Christ. And that makes the religiously conservative American churches complicite in the sins of social injustices practiced by our government.
But perhaps there is a silver lining or two around our current dark cloud that seems to engulf us. That is that if we define Christian Fundamentalists solely by beliefs in the fundamentals of the faith, we find that such fundamentalists are a diverse lot. We are not a monolithic group. And because of that, there could very well be Christian Fundamentalists who are politically liberal or even leftist. In addition, perhaps we can find that Christian Fundamentalists and nonpolitical conservatives can learn from each other in terms of how to live together on this planet. That is a lesson I've begun to learn thanks to some of my unbelieving friends who have taught me things I would have not learned elsewhere.
