Opinion of liberal Protestantism (user search)
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  Opinion of liberal Protestantism (search mode)
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Question: Opinion of liberal Protestantism
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Author Topic: Opinion of liberal Protestantism  (Read 1432 times)
Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.
Nathan
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« on: July 14, 2014, 05:14:20 PM »

Negative. If what constitutes liberal Protestantism is treated as solely relating to theological propositions then I guess I could be considered a liberal Protestant (although I'd be honestly more comfortable being considered a politically left-wing Catholic in a state of impaired communion with Rome, which is saying something because I'm not comfortable being considered that either), but I really cannot distance myself enough from the internal culture and collective psychology of liberal Protestantism as a movement.
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Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.
Nathan
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« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2014, 05:49:00 PM »
« Edited: July 14, 2014, 10:17:39 PM by asexual trans victimologist »

Negative. If what constitutes liberal Protestantism is treated as solely relating to theological propositions then I guess I could be considered a liberal Protestant (although I'd be honestly more comfortable being considered a politically left-wing Catholic in a state of impaired communion with Rome, which is saying something because I'm not comfortable being considered that either), but I really cannot distance myself enough from the internal culture and collective psychology of liberal Protestantism as a movement.

Could you elaborate?

The culture within most liberal Protestant churches--the kind that go out of their way to be liberal and pride themselves on their liberalism, rather than just ones that happen to be liberal or in liberal denominations, which is what I'm trying to distinguish by saying 'as a movement'--tends to be...glib, image-focused, somewhat superficial, on top of any theological problems. I don't know if you've read Sawx's 'Party of Macklemore' post in this thread, but attending certain of these churches (the ELCA and UCC in particular can get bad about this, although I hasten to add that there are absolutely wonderful ELCA and UCC parishes as well) that's the same general vibe one gets. They're also one of the few environments in which I think the charge that liberals are as intolerant of conservatives as (certain types of) conservatives are of LGBTQ people, minorities, women, et cetera is, unfortunately, more or less true.

This isn't to denigrate the genuinely important work done for explicitly or implicitly left-leaning anti-poverty, anti-inequality, anti-discrimination causes that a lot of 'liberal churches' do. But a lot of 'conservative churches' do that kind of work as well.
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Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.
Nathan
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« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2014, 01:37:06 PM »

Negative. If what constitutes liberal Protestantism is treated as solely relating to theological propositions then I guess I could be considered a liberal Protestant (although I'd be honestly more comfortable being considered a politically left-wing Catholic in a state of impaired communion with Rome, which is saying something because I'm not comfortable being considered that either), but I really cannot distance myself enough from the internal culture and collective psychology of liberal Protestantism as a movement.

Could you elaborate?

The culture within most liberal Protestant churches--the kind that go out of their way to be liberal and pride themselves on their liberalism, rather than just ones that happen to be liberal or in liberal denominations, which is what I'm trying to distinguish by saying 'as a movement'--tends to be...glib, image-focused, somewhat superficial, on top of any theological problems. I don't know if you've read Sawx's 'Party of Macklemore' post in this thread, but attending certain of these churches (the ELCA and UCC in particular can get bad about this, although I hasten to add that there are absolutely wonderful ELCA and UCC parishes as well) that's the same general vibe one gets. They're also one of the few environments in which I think the charge that liberals are as intolerant of conservatives as (certain types of) conservatives are of LGBTQ people, minorities, women, et cetera is, unfortunately, more or less true.

This isn't to denigrate the genuinely important work done for explicitly or implicitly left-leaning anti-poverty, anti-inequality, anti-discrimination causes that a lot of 'liberal churches' do. But a lot of 'conservative churches' do that kind of work as well.

Would you not contend that the culture and somewhat importantly, the ‘cultural relics’ masquerading as Serious And Important Points Of Principle And Faith, within churches that go out of their way to be conservative or just downright contrary are also glib and superficial?

Yes.

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For the most part, yeah, absolutely.

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Oh, of course. I find almost all churches that go out of their way to stake out a brave image-obsessed culture warrior position of any kind on these sorts of issues insufferable (and yes, I know that this and a lot of my other views about church politics open me up to accusations of moderate heroism) but if I had to choose I'd definitely rather find myself at some parish on the leftmost wing of the ELCA or UCC than at almost any traditionalist Catholic parish, most Southern Baptist parishes, or God forbid a parish run by ACNA or some other schismatic Episcopalians--the ones who attempt to present themselves as acting in solidarity with suffering people in Africa or whatever to mask the entirely obvious real reasons why they're putting themselves under the oversight of Nigeria or Rwanda are the absolute worst, acting in stomach-churningly bad faith.
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