'Religious left' emerging as U.S. political force in Trump era

From Reuters-

Since President Donald Trump’s election, monthly lectures on social justice at the 600-seat Gothic chapel of New York’s Union Theological Seminary have been filled to capacity with crowds three times what they usually draw.

In January, the 181-year-old Upper Manhattan graduate school, whose architecture evokes London’s Westminster Abbey, turned away about 1,000 people from a lecture on mass incarceration. In the nine years that Reverend Serene Jones has served as its president, she has never seen such crowds.

“The election of Trump has been a clarion call to progressives in the Protestant and Catholic churches in America to move out of a place of primarily professing progressive policies to really taking action,” she said.

More here-

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-religion/religious-left-emerging-as-u-s-political-force-in-trump-era-idUSKBN16Y114

Déjà Vu All Over Again? How Anglicans went wrong and praying that Catholicism won’t suffer the same ‘spinectomy.’

From Rich Swier-

Fr. Dennis Garrou, a former Anglican (now Catholic) priest, shows how Anglicans went wrong and prays that Catholicism won’t suffer the same “spinectomy.”

Twenty years ago, before I had the privilege of entering the Catholic Church through the Pastoral Provision for Former Anglican Clergy, I was an Episcopal priest during the “ecclesiacide” engineered by Bishop John Shelby Spong. The instrument of execution was his “Twelve Theses,” an heretical collection of denials of the basic articles of Christian faith that he promulgated in 1998, as a kind of Wittenberg Door caricature. I reproduce it here for the benefit of Catholic readers who have probably never seen it and realized how much of what it contains is still abroad in our churches.

Thesis #1 “Theism as a way of defining God is dead. God can no longer be understood with credibility as a being, supernatural in power, living above the sky and prepared to invade human history periodically to enforce the divine will. So most theological God-talk today is meaningless. We must find a new way to conceptualize and to speak about God.”
More here-

http://drrichswier.com/2018/03/04/deja-vu-all-over-again-how-anglicans-went-wrong-and-praying-that-catholicism-wont-suffer-the-same-spinectomy/

The Last Reformation … and the Next Reformation.

From Brian McLaren (Patheos)-

The last reformation is said to have begun on an identifiable day – October 31, 1517, corresponding to a single identifiable event – Luther’s nailing 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church. In fact, the conditions for the reformation had been building for more than a century. Similarly, the next reformation has been building for over a hundred years and is gaining momentum as we speak.

The last reformation is associated with one “great man” – Martin Luther. He was joined by other “great men” – all white and European. The next reformation will be associated not with one “great man” but with many diverse people – especially women and people of color. The contribution of Liberation Theology, Black Theology, Feminist/Eco-Feminist/Womanist/Queer and related theologies will be as central to the next reformation as white European theology was to the last reformation.

Read more at

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/brianmclaren/2017/11/last-reformation-next-reformation/#TLsRD01LP5x7KOoU.99

Religious left' emerging as U.S. political force in Trump era

From Reuters-

Since President Donald Trump's election, monthly lectures on social justice at the 600-seat Gothic chapel of New York's Union Theological Seminary have been filled to capacity with crowds three times what they usually draw.

In January, the 181-year-old Upper Manhattan graduate school, whose architecture evokes London's Westminster Abbey, turned away about 1,000 people from a lecture on mass incarceration. In the nine years that Reverend Serene Jones has served as its president, she has never seen such crowds.

"The election of Trump has been a clarion call to progressives in the Protestant and Catholic churches in America to move out of a place of primarily professing progressive policies to really taking action," she said.

Although not as powerful as the religious right, which has been credited with helping elect Republican presidents and boasts well-known leaders such as Christian Broadcasting Network
founder Pat Robertson, the "religious left" is now slowly coming together as a force in U.S. politics.

More here-

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-religion-idUSKBN16Y114?utm_source=applenews

How Trump is paving the way for a revival of the ‘religious left’

From The Washington Post-

On Election Day, much was made of exit polls that showed 80 percent of white evangelicals backing Republican Donald Trump, a sometimes vulgar, twice-divorced candidate who could not name his favorite Bible verse and once bragged about sexual assault. The result seemed inexplicable, and political analysts are now questioning the theological credibility of right-wing Christian leaders who embraced Trump, with some high-profile religious conservatives decrying such support as hypocritical at best, heretical at worst.

But as some members of the religious right wrestle with how to reclaim their moral authority, another group is quietly beginning to rise. Progressive, faith-rooted advocacy organizations, such as Faith in Public Life, Auburn Seminary and Sojourners, have all reported surges in donations and interest in activism since November, and are now organizing to counter any number of Trump’s policy proposals. Meanwhile, progressive Christians long absent from Sunday worship are returning to church in droves.

More here-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/12/14/how-trump-is-paving-the-way-for-a-revival-of-the-religious-left/?utm_term=.03d237166075

Theological liberalism is tearing Christianity apart

From Irish Catholic-

A big concern for many conservative or orthodox-minded Catholics during the recent Synod on the Family is that the Catholic Church might be about to go down the same road that has been trodden by Anglicanism over the last few decades and which has led to that communion almost falling apart.

In response to this fact, in September the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby announced a special meeting of Anglican primates to take place in Canterbury in January.

The Guardian newspaper reported the development as follows: “The Archbishop of Canterbury is proposing to effectively dissolve the fractious and bitterly divided worldwide Anglican communion and replace it with a much looser grouping.“

Justin Welby has summoned all the 38 leaders of the national churches of the Anglican communion to a meeting in Canterbury next January, where he will propose that the communion be reorganised as a group of churches that are all linked to Canterbury but no longer necessarily to each other.”

More here-

http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/theological-liberalism-tearing-christianity-apart

From the Fury of Liberal Theologians, Good Lord Deliver Us

From The National Catholic Register-

One of the things in which I rejoice is that the Catholic Church’s direction is determined by the successors of the apostles and not the successors of Rudolph Bultmann.

For those of you not in the know Rudolph Bultmann is the grandfather of all liberal theologians. The Lutheran revisionist, modernist Biblical scholar was famous for attempting to de-mythologize the New Testament and said that he believed practically nothing could be known about the historical Jesus.

If you want to have a career in theology or Biblical studies today you still (for the most part) have to bow down at the altar of St Rudolf Bultmann. That is why the sniffy letter to the New York Times from a cadre of Catholic theologians about journalist Ross Douthat has about as much gravitas as cotton candy has nutritional value.

More here-

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/longenecker/from-the-fury-of-liberal-theologians-good-lord-deliver-us

Why I've Left The Christian Left

From Fr. Keith Voets-

So - goodbye Christian Left, you've forced me out.  You make fun of me for believing in the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ, you call me names for insisting that the Church be about salvation and not a social work agency, you have yelled at me for believing that the Incarnation is a real thing, and you have called me sexist because I don't have a problem being called "Father Keith."  You may believe you are different than those right-wing fundamentalists you claim to despise, but actually the similarities are striking.  You can now find me in Broad-Churchville on Anglo-Catholic Tendency Street.  I wish you the best on your spiritual journey, I hope you can do the same for me.

More here-

http://theyoungcurmudgeonpriest.blogspot.com/2014/09/why-ive-left-christian-left.html?spref=tw

Religious tensions play out in inauguration

From The Associated Press-

There may be no clearer reflection of this moment in American religious life than the tensions surrounding prayers at President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Efforts by the Presidential Inaugural Committee to bridge the conservative-liberal divide by including an evangelical failed. Atlanta preacher Louie Giglio, known for his work to end human trafficking, withdrew from giving the benediction after the liberal group ThinkProgress found a sermon he gave in the 1990s, condemning gay relationships.

Meanwhile, the first layperson has been asked to give the invocation, at a time when the number of Americans with no formal religious ties has hit a high around 20 percent. The prayer was delivered by Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights hero Medgar Evers. The ceremony Monday fell on the federal holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

More here-

http://www.clarionledger.com/viewart/20130126/FEAT04/301260045/Religious-tensions-play-out-inauguration

Is Liberal Christianity Actually The Future?

From The New York Times-

One of the more interesting responses to my column on liberal Christianity came from the Huffington Post’s Diana Butler Bass, whose new book, “Christianity After Religion,” considers many of the same trends I take up in “Bad Religion” but sees a spiritual awakening (or at least the possibility of one) where I see decline and disarray. Here is Bass, putting the waning of liberal churches in what she considers the proper context:

"Forty years later, in 2012, liberal churches are not the only ones declining. It is true that progressive religious bodies started to decline in the 1960s. However, conservative denominations are now experiencing the same. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, one of America’s most conservative churches, has for a dozen years struggled with membership loss and overall erosion in programming, staffing, and budgets. Many smaller conservative denominations, such as the Missouri Synod Lutherans, are under pressure by loss. The Roman Catholic Church, a body that has moved in markedly conservative directions and of which Mr. Douthat is a member, is straining as members leave in droves. By 2008, one in ten Americans considered him- or herself a former Roman Catholic. On the surface, Catholic membership numbers seem steady. But this is a function of Catholic immigration from Latin America. If one factors out immigrants, American Catholicism matches the membership decline of any liberal Protestant denomination. Decline is not exclusive to the Episcopal Church, nor to liberal denominations–it is a reality facing the whole of American Christianity."

More here-

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/is-liberal-christianity-actually-the-future/

Is Liberal Christianity Worth Saving?

From Townhall-

The recent General Convention of the Episcopal Church has prompted a broader discussion of the fate of liberal Christianity. No surprise—the Episcopal Church has been one of the most aggressively liberal influences in American Christianity in the past few years, pushing hard against the traditions of the broader Anglican Communion. In The New York Times, Ross Douthat goes so far as to ask, "Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?" But that question necessarily prompts two others: What is Liberal Christianity, and Should it be saved?

Liberal Christianity is dying on the vine. Mainline denominations are taking big hits across the board. According to The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, among Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, more adults are leaving the church than entering it. Methodists, Presbyterians, and Anglicans are retaining less than half of their children. And in these denominations, no one is sitting in the pews! Gallup reported in 2005 that weekly and near-weekly church attendees made up less than 45% of self-identifying Methodists, Presbyterians, and Lutherans, with Episcopalians at a dismal 32%. And the numbers aren't getting any better.

More here-

http://townhall.com/columnists/kenconnor/2012/07/25/is_liberal_christianity_worth_saving

A Mainline Collapse: The Twilight of Liberal Christianity?

From Christian Post-

In 2006, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, told the New York Times that Episcopalians were not interested in "replenishing their ranks by having children." Instead, the church "[encouraged] people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion."

"Stewardship of the earth" and having children are not incompatible, but if Schori's goal was a principled extinction, she's about to succeed. The Episcopal Church, you see, is in a statistical free-fall.

Since 2000, the Episcopal Church has lost 23 percent of its members. At this rate, there will be no Episcopalians in 26 years.

My friend and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat noted that the collapse occurred at the same time that the church was transforming itself "into one of the most self-consciously progressive Christian bodies in the United States.

Read more at

http://www.christianpost.com/news/a-mainline-collapse-the-twilight-of-liberal-christianity-78685/#x84OpkKbmWdDyZoe.99

My Liberal Christian Church Is Not Dying

From Huffington-

At the end of my 2004 faith crisis, when I realized that I didn't want to be identified as evangelical, I felt lost. Nobody likes to be labeled, but it's scary to not know where you belong.

It was around this time that I began visiting the local Episcopal church, where friends I respected -- smart, bespectacled types with good taste in books and music -- had already found their places in the pews. There, I was surprised to find that I loved the liturgy. I grew up in charismatic churches, attended by an inordinate amount of former Catholics who left the faith of their families, declaring it stale, spiritually dead and too ritualistic to allow for any movement of the spirit. I grew up among ex-Catholic Catholic bashers.

When I began attending Catholic high school and was forced to attend mass semi-regularly, I was prepared to be bored and maybe even a bit offended. But I wasn't. I remember talking to my mom one day after school and telling her that I might have felt the spirit there in that multi-purpose auditorium where the services were held. Sometime between the short homily and communion, where I sat awkwardly with the Asian kids as our Catholic friends climbed over us to reach the aisle, I felt something like the hair-raising tingle that I knew only from prayer services and youth rallies.

More here-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-d-fitzgerald/my-liberal-christian-church-is-not-dying_b_1683054.html

Is liberal Christianity signing its own death warrant?

From MSNBC-

The Rt. Rev. Mark Joseph Lawrence, the Episcopal bishop of South Carolina, fears for the future of his church.

One week after the U.S. Episcopal Church overwhelmingly voted to approve a provisional rite for blessing gay unions and the ordination of transgender people, Bishop Lawrence said in an interview with NBC News that his denomination is moving too far out of the mainstream.
"Do I think that these two decisions will cause further decline? I believe they will," Bishop Lawrence said. "I think we've entered into a time of sexual and gender anarchy."

Lawrence's comments come amid a growing debate over the future of so-called mainline Christian churches: Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, some Lutherans and more. These denominations, which are generally more liberal than their evangelical counterparts, have been in decline for decades, a trend some observers attribute to their supposed leftward drift.

More here-

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/19/12811129-is-liberal-christianity-signing-its-own-death-warrant?lite

Can Christianity Be Saved? A Response to Ross Douthat

From Huffington-

In recent days, conservatives have attacked the Episcopal Church. The reason? The church has just concluded its once every three-year national meeting, and in this gathering the denomination affirmed a liturgy to bless same-sex unions. Conservatives assert that the Episcopal Church's ever-increasing social and political progressivism has led to a precipitous membership decline and ruined the denomination.

Many of the criticisms were mean-spirited or partisan, continuing a decade-long internal debate about the Episcopal Church's future. However, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat broadened the discussion, moving beyond inside-baseball ecclesial politics to ask a larger question: "Can Liberal Christianity be Saved?"

The question is a good one, for the liberal Christian tradition is an important part of American culture, from dazzling literary and intellectual achievements to great social reform movements. Mr. Douthat recognizes these contributions and rightly praises this aspect of liberal Christianity as "an immensely positive force in our national life."

Despite this history, however, Mr. Douthat insists that any denomination committed to contemporary liberalism will ultimately collapse. According to him, the Episcopal Church and its allegedly trendy faith, a faith that varies from a more worthy form of classical liberalism, is facing imminent death.

More here-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-butler-bass/can-christianity-be-saved_1_b_1674807.html?utm_hp_ref=religion