Progressively Christian

Pastor Rob Bell

 This past Sunday something amazing happened: an evangelical Christian came out in support of marriage equality - for everyone. Rob Bell is founder of a megachurch in Michigan and is a television writer and author. In 2011, Time magazine named him as one of the "top 100 most influential people". He self-identifies as evangelical and has been called the "heir to Billy Graham" (sorry Franklin). According to Jack Jenkins, guest blogger for Think Progress ( http://bit.ly/116MDgA ), Rob Bell was speaking at Grace Cathedral in San Fransisco when he was asked a question regarding his personal beliefs about marriage equality:

BELL: I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.

Pastor Rob Bell is proof that it is possible to be an evangelical Christian AND a social progressive, though preaching LOVE of God and neighbor shouldn't be controversial as it is the heart of God's Word to us. John Wesley had a "born again" experience but he didn't leave it at that. Neither did he preach Scripture alone. What he did do was interpret Scripture through the lens of experience, reason and tradition. Tradition isn't paramount and neither is reason or experience. Together, with Scripture as the guide we live our lives as Christians. No one interprets Scripture purely. We all approach the Bible with our own biases and the only way to keep those biases from distorting our approach to the Bible is to study it quite self-consciously applying reason, experience and tradition. Without that self-conscious awareness we are always in danger of making the Bible an idol in our own image. For me, my experience is that I found the love of Jesus because of a church music director who happened to be gay. Thankfully, his life as a Christian told me far more about Jesus than the bigots who drummed him out of the church. 

Christian bigots keep more people away from Jesus than their own personal sin ever did. The sad part is that these same people talk about evangelism and "bringing people to Christ" not recognizing that their judgmental behavior speaks more loudly than their words ever will. Fortunately, or maybe with the help of the Holy Spirit (or whatever you want to call the universal force for good) there is emerging an alternative to fundamentalist evangelicals.

There is a movement afoot in Christendom that embraces progressive social conscience  AND belief in Jesus. Groups like Sojourner's, The Christian Left and The God Article's "Be the Love" project are evidence that progressive voices are increasingly speaking and rising up to say that the right wing fundamentalists do not speak for the entire Church, or even most of it. The shrill voices of the right may be drowned out by tolerance. It is a great sign of hope when an evangelical stands up and stands apart from the radical right wing, at least on the issue of marriage equality. Perhaps Love will win the day after all.