The Lame Joke of Progressive Christianity

Eric Reikowski

When George W. Bush defeated John Kerry for the Presidency in 2004, many political analysts attributed his victory to “values voters”—conservative Christians who favor traditional Biblical morality and would like to see it openly acknowledged by their leaders. However, it appears there is another group of values voters that the media and general public have missed, or more likely, just plain ignored.

I am referring to the up-and-coming community of “progressive” Christians.

For those of you who don’t have the faintest idea what progressive Christianity is or what distinguishes it from conventional Christianity, you are not alone. As the Dallas Morning News recently reported, not many people know about this “loose-knit” and “independent-minded” group of Christians. Most people are only familiar with Religious Right fanatics such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Unfortunate as that may be, the progressive Christian community wants you to know that there is an alternative to the rigid, unaccommodating theology espoused by the latter individuals.

Are you a proponent of abortion and gay rights? Want to get in touch with your inner-sodomite, but can’t reconcile it with those bigoted Bible lessons you were taught in Sunday school? No problem, there is a place for you among a free-thinking community of leftists where, indeed, it is possible to advocate such practices and still call yourself a faithful follower of Christ. Adherents of this new, enlightened form of Christianity are sure to take the Bible “seriously but not literally.” That is, they respect the holy book but are by no means bound by what it actually says, or even what it implies. Like our Constitution, I guess one could say that the Bible has become a living document to be twisted and manipulated at will.

One of the stated objectives of the progressive Christian lobby is to ensure economic justice for all. Citing the famous dictum “love thy neighbor,” the progressives have criticized Republican fiscal policies as being incompatible with Scripture. Here we see one of the fundamental tenets of the progressive movement. In the progressive mind, there is no meaningful distinction between taxation and charity. Generous donations made out of the goodness of one’s heart are seen as the moral equivalent of coerced redistribution of wealth. Thus, whether the people “giveth” or the government “taketh,” all roads lead to Rome in the world of liberal orthodoxy—no pun intended.

Moreover, long subjugated by the “powerful political machine” of right-wingers, Christians on the left are finally speaking out about what they see as a “clash of competing Christian values.” Yes, that’s right—abortionists, socialists, and sodomites are now in a perceived tug-of-war with fundamentalist conservatives for the heart of Christianity.

To facilitate their mission of becoming a legitimate political force in America, the progressives have thought it best to align themselves with the Democratic Party. A party that is financed by avowed atheist billionaires like George Soros and undoubtedly supported by numerous card-carrying members of the ACLU—an organization which, not incidentally, has launched a full-fledged legal campaign to annihilate any public manifestation of our Christian heritage. But given what we know of the progressives’ commitment to Christianity thus far, it should come as no surprise that they would choose to ally themselves with such groups.

The truth of the matter is that progressive Christianity has little to do with progress at all. It is not about spreading Christian ideals throughout the world. It is not even an end in itself, but rather, a means. A means for leftists to promote the causes that modern liberalism has always stood for—sexual liberation, radical feminism, and the expansion of the State, among other things.

Don’t be fooled. This is a Christianity rooted not in the Scriptural truths of God, but in the personal predilections of Man. It is no alternative to salvation. The narrow gate is narrow by design and everyone has a particular cross to bear on their way through—some admittedly heavier and more burdensome than others.

So we are left with a basic question: How does one tell a progressive from a pure Christian? Well, as Christ, himself, succinctly instructed, “It is by their fruits that ye shall know them.” Those words echo through the centuries as false prophets have always come to lead the Christian heart astray and always will.