I started it, I'll start it again. I'm sorry, folks, but I can only find page one of this thread. If I can find page 2, I'll repost the rest later.
Yeshanu said:For balance, Roger asked me to start a thread about liberal Christianity. What does it mean to you when I say that I am a "liberal Christian"?
(The same rules apply in this thread as in the thread about Fundamentalist Christianity. Please read Roger's first post in that thread, if you haven't already.)
My definition:
When I say that I am a liberal Christian, that means that I put the command to love others as God has loved me foremost in my mind. My definition, such as it is, isn't all that different from Roger's definition of a fundamentalist Christian:
Quote:
- Believes the truth of God's word that:
- Everyone is a sinner.
- God loves everyone.
- God sent Jesus to restore communication with humanity.
- God gives everyone a choice whether to accept Him.
- Follows the commandments of Jesus to:
- Love God with all your heart.
- Love others as (better than) yourself.
Except for the following:
I put much less of an emphasis on sin than a fundamentalist Christian would.
Nor do I believe that accepting Jesus Christ as one's personal saviour gets one special status in God's eyes. While I am a Christian because that is the path to salvation for me, I can understand and accept that others take different paths to the same goal.
I do not believe that the Bible is God's Word, and is true and inerrant. The Bible itself bears me out on this: In John, Chapter One we are told in no uncertain terms that the "Word" is Jesus Christ, not the Bible. I think the Bible is crucial to understanding the Christian faith. I think that the Bible contains revalations about God, and the relationship a particular group of human beings have had with God for many thousands of years. But I don't believe it literally, and consider it dangerous to do so.
I am aware, and accept, that many Christians, both liberal and fundamentalist, disagree with me on this. I don't consider it important, as long as the Bible is not used to justify hatred of or sanctions against a particular group of people.
As a liberal Christian, I find myself more prone to express my spirituality in helping others than in church attendance or Bible study. It's not that those two very important facets are absent in my life, it's just that they aren't the be-all and end-all to me as they are to many of my more fundamentalist friends.
Another term I feel compelled to explain is evangelical: To me an evangelical Christian can be either liberal or fundamentalist/conservative. The essence of evangelism is sharing one's faith with others. This I try to do, as I believe it's an important part of being a Christian. I don't "push" Christianity as a cure-all for another person's problems, but rather explain that it was a help to me in times of trouble, and perhaps it could help them too.
But then, I was a minister in two denominations for eight or so years, and being evangelical is part of the job description...