I don't think I'm liberal anymore, but neither am I conservative

FireDragon76

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The pastor at the church I have been going to has suggested that I should go to school and become a theologian, and that I would find a welcome home in the ELCA. I have reflected on this, and my main concern is that the trajectories of American religion are heavily shaped so much by the culture, especially the polemicism and politicization of religion. I'm worried if I took that step, I'd be compromising my integrity, just casting pearls before swine.

I guess the only reason I find a home in liberal churches is that I'm very much OK with churches accepting gay people. But otherwise my inclinations aren't particularly in line with liberal Protestantism. I'm very uncomfortable with the inroads that feminism and skepticism have made into mainline churches such as the ELCA. So much of the liturgy already is shaped by gender-neutral language that I feel it is impoverishing to the sense of the sacred, at points its just barely recognizable as Christian in some of the language. And I fear it is only going to get worse.
 

BrianJK

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The pastor at the church I have been going to has suggested that I should go to school and become a theologian, and that I would find a welcome home in the ELCA. I have reflected on this, and my main concern is that the trajectories of American religion are heavily shaped so much by the culture, especially the polemicism and politicization of religion. I'm worried if I took that step, I'd be compromising my integrity, just casting pearls before swine.

I guess the only reason I find a home in liberal churches is that I'm very much OK with churches accepting gay people. But otherwise my inclinations aren't particularly in line with liberal Protestantism. I'm very uncomfortable with the inroads that feminism and skepticism have made into mainline churches such as the ELCA. So much of the liturgy already is shaped by gender-neutral language that I feel it is impoverishing to the sense of the sacred, at points its just barely recognizable as Christian in some of the language. And I fear it is only going to get worse.

I think you and I are opposite in many ways, both in our backgrounds and in our stances or priorities on certain issues, at least as far as I can judge by this one post of yours. Yet we both find ourselves in the "moderate" category. I find that quite interesting.
 
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I'm also in the rough situation where liberals would find me too conservative and conservatives would find me too liberal, so it's hard to fit in anywhere inside of Christianity.
 
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JCFantasy23

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I too cross political and social ranks but my church isn't hard set in either direction either.

Same here. I can't fully identify with liberal or conservative when it comes to religious labeling or politics.
 
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SeekerOfChrist94

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I see things this way - I accept that there will never be a perfect 'moderate' church or 'moderate' line of beliefs. There's no perfect church whenever it comes to social or theological things. Everyone's views will be different. No two people in each church will have 100% the exact same opinions on things. Find a church that works for you and try to accept that you will not entirely agree with it on everything.
 
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HosannaMostHigh

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No two people in each church will have 100% the exact same opinions on things. Find a church that works for you and try to accept that you will not entirely agree with it on everything.

Absolutely. I too find myself in the "too Liberal to be Conservative and too Conservative to be Liberal category" too. There ARE things within the church/denomination I attend that I don't agree with however by and large I'm okay with its general direction. I guess that's a decent yardstick to measure one's faith journey up to.
 
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FaithfulPilgrim

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Same here. I’ve started moving away from labels, and I don’t see myself as either Evangelical or Mainline, but I agree with aspects of both. I’m probably too Evangelical to be Mainline and to Mainline to Evangelical.

I feel like Evangelicalism has become too politically conservative and I left the SBC because I’m okay with an egalitarian ministry or allowing open homosexuals to serve in the ministry. I no longer affect biblical inerrancy, which a lot of conservative and evangelical denominations espouse, but I still believe the Bible is infallible in matters of faith and practice.
 
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notreligus

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I agree with many of the sentiments expressed in this thread and I'm pleased to have found this thread. I often say that I'm too liberal for the conservatives and too conservative for the liberals, but I'm mostly making that statement related to social concepts and issues.

The things that are wrong with the Church are not new problems. We need only look at the early Church. There is a group represented at this Board which say they are of the Restoration Movement and their purpose is the restore the ancient gospel and to be patterned after the early church. I don't think I would want the early church to be restored. I'd like to see a church that has matured.

The early church was a mess! The church today is a mess. That's why there are so many who prefer to stay home and read their Bibles and pray and not be regularly fellowshipping with a particular church body. We need only look at the Apostle Paul. He was opposed by the non-believing Jews. He was opposed by the believing Jews who were called the Circumcision and they did not approve of Paul's ministry to Gentiles as Paul was not demanding that these Greeks be subject to the Mosaic Law, but the leaders of the Jerusalem church insisted that they be subject to the Mosaic Law. Paul had to deal with his new Greek converts - formerly pagans who still wanted to behave as pagans with their pagan orgies and such - who were trying to keep one foot in the pagan world and another foot in the church. There had been apocryphal writings (the Pseudopigrapha) written by Jews from about 250 B.C. to 250 A.D. in which the Messiah had been described as a political Messiah, not a suffering servant (Isaiah 53). Many of the Jews rejected Christ because he did not lead a revolution against the Romans and then set up the Messianic kingdom. In Thessalonica Paul had to contend with Jewish coverts who were still expecting Jesus to return as the Messiah who would still set up His earthly kingdom and His return was considered imminent. Many had joined with others in Thessalonica in wait for His return.

We have doctrines dividing us into various splinter groups. We're divided by politics. If say something negative about our current President some Christians want to have you shot for treason. The President's moral character is excused with "none of us are perfect." When we made the church a political group and insisted that being a Christian and being a Republican were one in the same, we did not unify ourselves but cause further division.

Evolution has replaced Creationism. It is often disguised as "progressive creation" but it's still a belief that Genesis and the creation account are stories or allegories. If then Jesus would not have said that He was revealed to the Jews in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. (See John Chapter Five.) In Genesis 3:21 we see that God provided a sin covering for Adam and Eve and this pointed to how Christ and His shed blood would be our sin covering in the future.

There are so many types of Dispensationalism today that nobody can really keep up with all of them. You're told that you are not rightly dividing the Word if you don't agree with one group's particular persuasion of Dispensationalism. And, if you say anything that seems like you are criticizing Israel then good old Genesis 12:3 is quoted and you get condemned for speaking against God's people, as though the church are not God's people. I don't think we'll see unity in the church again until Christ is reigning over it in Person, because we're just too carnal and not very spiritual in the contemporary church.

Off the soap box.....
 
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hedrick

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Accepting gays, accepting women in leadership roles -- these things I am ok with.
"Champions" of those issues, like Bishop Spong -- it is their THEOLOGY that is too liberal for me.
Maybe it's different in the Episcopal church, but in the PCUSA accepting gays and women was led by people in the theological mainstream.
 
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