Optimism, pessimism and progressive Christianity (also, an apology)

I wanted to start this off with an apology to my followers. I haven’t posted anything since January, and my last post that was original to Medium was November (the others were re-posts from other sites). I was happy that anyone was willing to read my thoughts on progressive Christianity, and thus appreciated those of you who shared and commented on my posts — as well as those who just read them — and am sorry to go silent.

Some of this was personal/professional. I have a full-time job that requires a lot of writing on its own, and the sort of writing I do here wasn’t even tangentially related to my work, so it was tough. I also have little kids, so I don’t spend much time writing when they’re awake (which is most of the time). And I was blogging regularly at an international relations site, the Duck of Minerva, in the fall, and less regularly since then.

But a lot of the reason I went quiet was that I’m not sure my writing mattered. I don’t mean in the sense of page views or social media engagement. Like I said, I felt lucky to have any readers and never expected to make a big impact. It was more that it felt discouraging to keep making the same argument over and over in response to the latest problematic statements and actions from conservative Christians.

If you look through my Medium history, a few common themes are apparent. There’s defenses of progressive Christianity/mainline Protestantism against cliched attacks by conservatives and evangelicals. There’s pushback on white evangelical justifications for Trump Administration policies. And there’s gentle critiques of mainline Protestants.

None of these points were unique to me, and I’d often echo arguments by others. But it didn’t seem to matter. No matter how many times people pointed out the issues with the politicized theology of people like Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, Jr — prominent pro-Trump Christians — they continued on. They didn’t even seem to notice the pushback. And this extended beyond these elite figures; as I had written, it often felt like conservative Christians just didn’t take progressive Christianity seriously as something to debate.

And I became discouraged by the continued white evangelical support for Trump. When Trump emerged as the Republican front-runner in the 2016 elections, I honestly thought this would split evangelicals away from the GOP. Indeed, some very conservative evangelicals I talked to indicated they weren’t going to vote if Trump was the nominee. This was a man who didn’t seem to take seriously — or even understand — the teachings of Christianity, let alone conservative Christianity. So how could evangelicals support him? But they did, and they do, in overwhelming numbers. Whether it’s because of his judicial appointments or personality, he is more popular among white evangelicals than even George W. Bush, which is hard to process.

So I lost steam. Again, I wasn’t sure what the point of any of this was.

But then something happened. As Democrats began declaring their candidacies for the 2020 election, faith became a much more central element in their message than it ever had before. Most attention has focused on Pete Buttigieg, but Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris have also incorporated faith into their campaigns. Suddenly, talk of a religious left became common; people began to actually engage with and criticize progressive Christianity!

And progressive Christian voices have increased, in both number and prominence. Some have organized campaigns that mix faith and politics, like the Rev. Dr. William Barber and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. Others have usefully pointed out the ways the media ignores the presence of progressive Christianity, increasing its awareness and impact, like Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons. Some have deep spiritual meditations they apply to everyday events, like Zach Hoag. A few literally showed the world the quiet power of progressive Christianity, as the Most Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, did with his homily at the royal wedding. Or, like the late (and very much missed) Rachel Held Evans, some became public intellectuals with widespread appeal. There are many others (and feel free to point them out to me).

Something was happening. Progressive Christians, due to our buttoned-up temperament and exhaustion with some of the excesses of evangelical Christians, were used to keeping quiet about our faith. But now we are engaging in politics as Christians, not just progressives. We’re publicly identifying as Christian, even if we still have to add a “but not that kind of Christian” caveat. And Democratic politicians seem to be noticing.

So I decided I didn’t want to sit this out, and would start writing again. I’ll try to respond to misuses of Christianity by pro-Trump Christians. I’ll engage with current debates about the rise of a “Christian left.” And I’ll keep prodding mainline Protestants over areas they need to work on. Due to my divided time (again, I’m doing this in my free time outside of my job and family responsibilities), and my aversion to attracting attention, I don’t expect to make that big a splash. But I hope to at least amplify others’ messages. And I’ll continue to respond to your comments, so feel free to leave your thoughts (BTW, I should give a shout out to Nature of the Beat, who’s liked just about everything I’ve written).

I don’t have a set schedule, but I’m hoping to post at least every two weeks, maybe more depending on what’s happening in the world. In between I’ll be posting on Twitter. I think I may start with a discussion of how I became a progressive Christian, with some personal history, but I’m also happy to hear your thoughts on what you’d be interested in reading.

Thanks again for sticking with me.