What do You think, God? it's funny swimming in theologically conservative and progressive pools. To be honest it makes my head spin and I've only been in this place a few years. I had this observation the other day and I wanted to run it by you.
It seems that one way to evaluate to the conservative church and the progressive church is its focus on sins of omission vs sins of commission. It appears to me, that the conservative church is more focused on sins of commission and the progressive church is more focused on sins of omission.
When I identified as a conservative Christian, an evangelical, I focused on all the things I should not do. I could not
- Cuss
- Drink alcohol
- Sin sexually
- Have an abortion
The list is actually quite a bit longer but lets conserve ROM.
Looking at the progressive church, I see more concern with the things I should not ignore such as:
- Helping the poor
- Fighting for justice for various minorities
- Conserving the environment
Driving a Tesla
This list is also much longer.
To be sure, the above items to avoid and the items to remember are all pretty good wisdom. All are very much in line with Jesus' teachings. But, for some reason, the two sides of Christianity have resonated with two different, yet both valid, parts of wisdom. So, do we actually have more in common than we realize? Perhaps we could even learn from one another rather than throw stones at one another?
It just seems like we should avoid doing dumb stuff AND do good stuff. Am I missing something? This is what I would like You do do for me.
Help me not dumb stuff that hurts me and/or people around me, known and unknown. At the same time, help me do a bunch of really swell things that help other people flourish by sacrificing my personal power and resources to make that happen. And you know a lot of that won't be my first choice so I give you permission to push me as needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment