Friday, August 22, 2008

Progressive Deism vs. Progressive Christianity

I have some links to Progressive Christian sites here on my blog. I do this because I am a Deist that is married to a Christian and sometimes I attend and I am active in a Christian church. This for many Deists would be unbearable but I have found some enjoyment in the process.

However, I don't walk in and stop being a Deist.

My beliefs are important to me and I don't mind expressing them when the time is right. This can be rough in a Christian setting depending on the Christians involved and the beliefs that they have. Luckily for me, the church I attend is diverse with everything from the traditionalist to the Progressive.

Which leads to the point of this post.

My goal here to show that Progressive Deism and Progressive Christianity share many beliefs regarding God and other theological aspects. Many PCs don't believe in an intervening God. Many PCs don't believe that God performs miracles. Many PCs believe that God does not human like nature.

There are many others beyond these.

The difference really comes down to focus. PDs focus on reason and nature while PCs focus on Jesus and the Bible.

So, when I enter the church I am a PD who allows himself to shift my focus to Jesus and the Bible but I use reason as my yardstick for evaluating what is being stated. Overall, this has worked well for me with only a few complications along the way.

To be fair, Progressive Christianity is very broad in nature and there are those PCs that would not agree with my list and some would even argue there is not God but overall we have many similarities and those are more important than the differences especially when engaging in community.

7 comments:

Joel said...

This is one of the better posts I've seen on the subject. :)

John said...

Your writing looks familiar. Did you used to blog as "the Methodeist"?

Joe Harris said...

Joel,

Thanks for the compliment.

John,

Yes, I am MethoDeist. I decided to throw that blog out as it did not really have a direction (at least the direction I wanted).

I still read your blog everyday but I have decided not to post on the Christian aspects as those are for Christians and I don't feel that I contribute that much to the conversation. However, being a zombie lover means that I will post on your zombie posts.

Joe

Andre said...

PD,

Like you, I am also married to a church-goer. I enjoyed reading your post.

Bobbertsan said...

Enjoyed the post. You have a nice website here.

Anonymous said...

It must be difficult to hold to your values amidst not just believers in another philosophy but another culture as well.

Kudos to you.

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