Catharine Yesterday, one of my all-time favorite journalists, Nicholas Kristof, wrote “Progressive Christians Arise! Hallelujah!,”an opinion column in the New York Times that I found super inspirational. I’m sure it’s being discussed in many Christian circles, and I wanted to chime in on that conversation.
He mentions that many of our elected democratic leaders are either Christians, or seem to espouse Christian culture:
“Enter Joe Biden, one of the most religious presidents of the last century, along with Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. Biden attends Mass regularly and inhabits faith as Donald Trump merely brandished it (as if speaking to two Corinthians). Likewise, Vice President Kamala Harris is a Baptist who says she has regularly attended church. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a Catholic who says her faith inspires her to address health care and climate change. Elizabeth Warren taught Sunday school. Raphael Warnock, a new senator, is an ordained Baptist pastor. Other Democrats, including Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg, speak the language of faith fluently as well, so a critical mass has formed of progressive Christians inspired by religion not to cut taxes for the rich but rather to slash poverty for children” (Kristof, 2021).
He describes some backlash in the conservative Christian community, and acknowledges that most evangelicals still identify as conservative. His point is that more and more Christian leaders are openly breaking from the far right, and that many of our elected leaders are demonstrating that there’s more than one “right way” for Christians to view things.
Though I disagree with Kristof’s view that Jesus not specifically mentioning homosexuality holds implications for Biblical teachings about homosexuality (as a progressive perspective), I do agree with him that less-than-politically-conservative Christians need to become more vocal, more visible and socially prominent. We need to change the narrative that conservative Evangelical Christianity has plastered across our recent national psyche.
I’m a progressive Christian. How about you?
PS I acknowledge that many progressives will say that one cannot believe that homosexual sex is a sin and consider themself a progressive. I hear that view, acknowledge it, and disagree with it. Beliefs about sin are not the same as beliefs about the role of government and the purpose of law. I believe that the government doesn’t belong in the bedrooms of non-coerced, consenting adults. I certainly don’t want the government in my bedroom. Not that there’s anything weird happening there. It would just totally creep me out. lol!
