Why don't liberal Christians leave Christianity?

[cloudyday2]

Based on the beliefs professed by many liberal Christians, I wonder why they don't leave Christianity for atheism, agnosticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc?

Here are some possible reasons I can imagine. I'm sure each person's actual reasons will be unique.
(1) It is better socially to label yourself as a Christian when interacting with family, coworkers, customers, etc.
(2) You value the traditions of Christianity and want to keep them active.
(3) You value the friends or social networking available in church.
(4) You think your church is a good vehicle for charitable activities.
(5) You had a spiritual/mystical experience that seemed to validate Christianity, and you are trying to reconcile that experience with science and history through Liberal Christian theology.
(6) ???

 

[majj27]

For the same reason conservative Christians don't leave I would expect: They believe in Jesus Christ and wish to follow Him.

 

[Christie insb]

Based on the beliefs professed by many liberal Christians, I wonder why they don't leave Christianity for atheism, agnosticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc?

Here are some possible reasons I can imagine. I'm sure each person's actual reasons will be unique.
(1) It is better socially to label yourself as a Christian when interacting with family, coworkers, customers, etc.
(2) You value the traditions of Christianity and want to keep them active.
(3) You value the friends or social networking available in church.
(4) You think your church is a good vehicle for charitable activities.
(5) You had a spiritual/mystical experience that seemed to validate Christianity, and you are trying to reconcile that experience with science and history through Liberal Christian theology.
(6) ???

What so you think liberal Christians believe?

 

[LaSorcia]

Based on the beliefs professed by many liberal Christians, I wonder why they don't leave Christianity for atheism, agnosticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc?

Here are some possible reasons I can imagine. I'm sure each person's actual reasons will be unique.
(1) It is better socially to label yourself as a Christian when interacting with family, coworkers, customers, etc.
(2) You value the traditions of Christianity and want to keep them active.
(3) You value the friends or social networking available in church.
(4) You think your church is a good vehicle for charitable activities.
(5) You had a spiritual/mystical experience that seemed to validate Christianity, and you are trying to reconcile that experience with science and history through Liberal Christian theology.
(6) ???

Because even if the institutional church sometimes sucks and other Christians are self-centered morons, Jesus himself was a nice guy. Also, if you keep praying long enough, with faith, you'll get an answer.

 

[Zoii]

Based on the beliefs professed by many liberal Christians, I wonder why they don't leave Christianity for atheism, agnosticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc?

Here are some possible reasons I can imagine. I'm sure each person's actual reasons will be unique.
(1) It is better socially to label yourself as a Christian when interacting with family, coworkers, customers, etc.
(2) You value the traditions of Christianity and want to keep them active.
(3) You value the friends or social networking available in church.
(4) You think your church is a good vehicle for charitable activities.
(5) You had a spiritual/mystical experience that seemed to validate Christianity, and you are trying to reconcile that experience with science and history through Liberal Christian theology.
(6) ???

I've been pushed by Christians who think as you do. Perhaps you're right and it's better I search elsewhere. I can't think conservatively

 

[seeking.IAM]

Based upon the belief of many liberal Christians, here is why they don't leave Christianity

1. They believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.
2. They believe the second greatest commandment to Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself is more important than their sitting in judgment and excluding other seekers of Christ. They're content to let God sort it out later.
3. They value the traditions of Christianity. Oral tradition preserved the faith long before the New Testament was written.
4. They believe Leviticus 19:34, Matthew 25:43, and Hebrews 13:2 are more important than building a wall.
5. They believe caring for the poor, widows, and orphans is more important than building bombs. Their Christ blessed peacemakers as the children of God
6. They want to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in their hearts to God. Colossians 3:16
7. They prefer to meet others on their spiritual journey with love rather than condemnation.

Oh, never mind. The only excuse they really need for sticking with Christianity is #1. The Christian Left is a valid expression of Christianity.

 

[keith99]

Why assume that 'Conservative' Christianity has it right and the liberals are wrong?

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

They can have more influence from the inside than from the out. I would prefer people who love Jesus but have the wrong ideas about him and Christianity's moral vision, if only to keep conservative Christians on their feet and have less liberal atheists in the world.

 

[Johnny4ChristJesus]

Did anyone that is getting defensive or taking pot shots happen to notice that the original poster who asked the question has declared himself to be an agnostic, not a conservative Christian?

A bigger question might be, should there even be labels, if we are believing in the same Lord and God?

 

[Kenny'sID]

Delusion or not, it feels safer to have God/Heaven in the mix, instead of Hell.

 

[Sketcher]

You're talking about theological liberals and not necessarily political liberals, correct?

If so, it would seem to be about personal comfort. Just change what they have problems with.

 

[HereIStand]

Good questions in the OP. My sense is that people remain in theologically liberal Christianity for the social opportunities and community outreach programs.

One article that I recently read, pinpoints group identity as a key element in religious life. Those who live and work in a secular academic community may "find meaning through science [through the] existence of a community of inquirers with similar values, values with which scientists can identify." Such communities probably do not exist in many parts of the world. Hence, theological liberals turn to readily available churches for meaning, despite their misgivings about dogma.

 

[Halbhh]

Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

[Dirk1540]

You're talking about theological liberals and not necessarily political liberals, correct?

Ok yes I too like Sketcher would like to have a clearer explanation of what we're talking about in here exactly.

There is post #6 in here, but then I thought that a lot of liberal Christians just thought Jesus was a wonderful human moral teacher who left behind great values, and nothing more. I'm not sure, yes please define!

I might just be forever scarred about hearing 'Liberal Christian' after many years ago having a conversation with a liberal Christian woman running a Christian bookstore. I'm telling you she may as well have been Christopher Hitchens with the things that she was saying.

 

[Johnny4ChristJesus]

Ok yes I too like Sketcher would like to have a clearer explanation of what we're talking about in here exactly.

There is post #6 in here, but then I thought that a lot of liberal Christians just thought Jesus was a wonderful human moral teacher who left behind great values, and nothing more. I'm not sure, yes please define!

I might just be forever scarred about hearing 'Liberal Christian' after many years ago having a conversation with a liberal Christian woman running a Christian bookstore. I'm telling you she may as well have been Christopher Hitchens with the things that she was saying.

There are many people who call themselves Christians who aren't. Jesus talked about the wheat and the tares. If people want to make their bed in a camp and their camp is wrong, they will suffer the consequences. I don't read anything in Scripture that says a particular camp is found in heaven. I read that those who know Him and have the witness of the Holy Spirit telling their spirit that they are children of God, who walk in the Spirit not in the flesh and therefore hear and do, not just hear, will be found in heaven as overcomers. Many will say to him "Lord, Lord" and He will say "I never knew you. You who practice lawlessness." (Matt 7:21-27, Matt 25:11-12)

 

[Robban]

Based on the beliefs professed by many liberal Christians, I wonder why they don't leave Christianity for atheism, agnosticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc?

Here are some possible reasons I can imagine. I'm sure each person's actual reasons will be unique.
(1) It is better socially to label yourself as a Christian when interacting with family, coworkers, customers, etc.
(2) You value the traditions of Christianity and want to keep them active.
(3) You value the friends or social networking available in church.
(4) You think your church is a good vehicle for charitable activities.
(5) You had a spiritual/mystical experience that seemed to validate Christianity, and you are trying to reconcile that experience with science and history through Liberal Christian theology.
(6) ???

It could well be a case of forgetting,
(we can forget anything but not eating )

Paul told Timothy not to forget what he first heard, (from his mother?)

 

[cloudyday2]

Why assume that 'Conservative' Christianity has it right and the liberals are wrong?

I don't believe either is necessarily correct. I want truth in labeling. If I buy a Snickers bar at the store, I don't want to open the wrapper and find that it's actually some kind of vegan, unsweetened celery and chia seed bar.

 

[cloudyday2]

Ok yes I too like Sketcher would like to have a clearer explanation of what we're talking about in here exactly.

There is post #6 in here, but then I thought that a lot of liberal Christians just thought Jesus was a wonderful human moral teacher who left behind great values, and nothing more. I'm not sure, yes please define!

I might just be forever scarred about hearing 'Liberal Christian' after many years ago having a conversation with a liberal Christian woman running a Christian bookstore. I'm telling you she may as well have been Christopher Hitchens with the things that she was saying.

@Dirk1540 and @Sketcher , yes I mean Liberal Christian theology as in Bishop Spong quoted below. There are variations of Liberal Christian theology. Many Christians who are merely non-Fundamentalist choose to label themselves "Liberal Christians", but I don't think they realize what some Liberal Christian theologians believe.

1. Theism, as a way of defining God, is dead. So most theological God-talk is today meaningless. A new way to speak of God must be found.
2. Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt.
3. The Biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense.
4. The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.
5. The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
6. The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
7. Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.
8. The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts of a post-Copernican space age.
9. There is no external, objective, revealed standard written in scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our ethical behavior for all time.
10. Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.
11. The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.
12. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.

John Shelby Spong - Wikipedia

 

[cloudyday2]

What so you think liberal Christians believe?

See the link in post #18 above.

 

[cloudyday2]

Based upon the belief of many liberal Christians, here is why they don't leave Christianity

1. They believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.
2. They believe the second greatest commandment to Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself is more important than their sitting in judgment and excluding other seekers of Christ. They're content to let God sort it out later.
3. They value the traditions of Christianity. Oral tradition preserved the faith long before the New Testament was written.
4. They believe Leviticus 19:34, Matthew 25:43, and Hebrews 13:2 are more important than building a wall.
5. They believe caring for the poor, widows, and orphans is more important than building bombs. Their Christ blessed peacemakers as the children of God
6. They want to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in their hearts to God. Colossians 3:16
7. They prefer to meet others on their spiritual journey with love rather than condemnation.

Oh, never mind. The only excuse they really need for sticking with Christianity is #1. The Christian Left is a valid expression of Christianity.

Not necessarily. As an Episcopalian, you must be familiar with Bishop Spong. See post #18. (BTW, I grew-up as an Episcopalian in the 1970s, but it was more like Catholic-lite back then. Now the Episcopal church seems to be atheism with organ music. LOL Actually I know there are many people in modern Episcopal churches who aren't as extreme as Bishop Spong )