A new religion masquerading as Christianity, Part 1

Renew America ^ | June 10, 2009 | Marsha West

[ReformationFan]

Recently the Barna Research Group released a study on the religious practices of liberals and Christians. According to the report:

"The research...discovered that liberals are more likely than conservatives to develop their own set of religious beliefs rather than adopt those proposed by a church or other entity. A greater percentage of liberals also indicated they are very open to accepting different moral views than those they presently possess." [1]

Liberal "Christians" abhor "fundamentalist" Christianity so they cast it aside and adopt their own set of religious beliefs and values. Times have changed, after all, so they feel it's incumbent upon them to bring Christianity out of the Dark Ages into our postmodern world. Christianity must shed its traditional, orthodox beliefs to blend in with the popular culture.

Their motto is, "If you destroy orthodoxy, they will come."

Before I came to know Christ in a saving way I was a liberal "Christian." (That was before the liberals coined the term "progressive Christian.") As all liberals do, I molded Christianity into my worldview. Problem was I kept running into a road block — the Bible. I rarely read the Bible but when I did I'd invariably stumble on a passage that contradicted what, at the time, was "true for me." I admit it troubled me but I chose to ignore what I'd read and remained steadfast in my mission to form Christianity into my way of thinking, come hell or high water.

[ReformationFan]

Good article. The dwindling respect for the authority and integrity of the Bible among nominal evangelicals is very distressing. Glad to see this radical feminist saw the light.

[anniegetyourgun]

Thanks for post. The Word of the Lord is the plumbline for Truth, but so many don’t want to agree with God. It’s so much easier to follow a “faith” that one makes up as one goes along. It’s a form of idolatry, since the measure of one’s god is self.

[Jewbacca]

They did the same thing to much of Judaism.

[2banana]

That is my standard for a church. Do they read and follow the Bible or do they just make up stuff as they go along.

I have found the strongest and best Churches to be the ones that follow God's word.

[TurtleUp]

Quite a good article on liberal “religion”. Thanks!!

[flowerplough]

I rarely read the Bible but when I did I'd invariably stumble on a passage that contradicted what, at the time, was "true for me."

President Jefferson had a similar problem; he wrote The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French and English, to solve it. The text of the New Testament appears in four parallel columns in four languages. Jefferson blithely omitted the words that he thought were inauthentic and retained those he believed were original. The resulting work is commonly known as the "Jefferson Bible."

Who was the Jesus that Jefferson found? He was not the familiar figure of the New Testament. In Jefferson's Bible, there is no account of the beginning and the end of the Gospel story. There is no story of the annunciation, the virgin birth or the appearance of the angels to the shepherds. The resurrection is not even mentioned.

Jefferson's Jesus was a great Teacher of Common Sense. His message was the morality of absolute love and service. Its authenticity was not dependent upon the dogma of the Trinity or even the very existence of God. Jefferson saw Jesus as "a man, of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, (and an) enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions of divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition by being gibbeted according to the Roman law."

[rom]

My wife worked for some liberal Jews. I will never forget the election in 2004 when my wife’s employer told her that it was important to “vote for women’s rights” (aka abortion).

I was horrified because my wife was 8 months pregnant. Even more horrifying was the fact that my wife was the nanny for this couple.

But they didn’t eat pork. So, I guess they thought they were in good standing with the LORD.

And I have lost count of how many hypocritical pro-choice “Christians” who would rather worship Obama than Jesus. Blech.

[rom]

Another fine product of “Enlightenment” thinking.

[Tallguy]

"The research...discovered that liberals are more likely than conservatives to develop their own set of religious beliefs rather than adopt those proposed by a church or other entity....

Proposed by a church? Interesting word-choice. I would have used "espoused" or something along those lines. "Proposed" is like calling the 10 Commandments the "10 Suggestions".

[Jewbacca]

“But they didn’t eat pork. So, I guess they thought they were in good standing with the LORD.”

If that was the extent of their observance, it was very poor understanding of Judaism on their part.

Liberalism infected Judaism like it has infected many, if not most, of the “big” institutions of this world, from the Girl Scouts to various Christian denominations.

[rom]

I agree, I was being sardonic in my post. I know they don’t represent Judaism any more than my boss who claims all paths lead to heaven is Catholic.

[JZoback]

Times have changed, after all, so they feel it's incumbent upon them to bring Christianity out of the Dark Ages into our postmodern world. Christianity must shed its traditional, orthodox beliefs to blend in with the popular culture.

Gee, a situational based relative tolerant religion!

How quaint !

Postmodern world? Right ! Which means, tolerance, diversity, relativism, objectivism are the foundations of your religious faith instead of truth, faith, belief.

[wagglebee]

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[combat_boots]

The rise of a corruption of Christianity is a direct signal of the end of Days.

[sthguard]

Heh. One of my uber-liberal colleagues came into class one day this quarter complaining that she had been to a wedding the previous weekend and the preacher was “sooooo intolerant, and against gay marriage and stuff.” I replied, “Oh, you mean he was a Christian.” Her response? “Well, not according to my view of Christianity!” I didn’t press the point since we had to start class (and since I had already been branded as the, dare I say, maverick conservative Christian in the seminar), but it struck me as a symptomatic response. Even those among the Left who choose to claim some sort of Christian beliefs insist on their own personal authority to determine the validity of their (and others’, ironically) beliefs, and to change them at will. They have no concept of Scriptural authority on anything, most especially anything that would crimp their style.

[redgolum]

Which is why soon the Bible will be heavily edited if not banned.

You can play all kinds of mind games, but the Word is what it is. You can say that Jesus would love homosexual marriage and abortion, but then you have to make sure you don't read about who He said would be in hell.

Sooner or later, there will be a break. Either the new “church” will abandon the Bible or the people in them will start to look at some of their “Christian” beliefs as not quite compatible. The sad truth is most will choose the former.

[wagglebee]

I am afraid that you are right. Look at what has happened to many Jews (and this is not a reflection on the many wonderful Orthodox Jews I know), Judaism for many is PURELY cultural and they completely ignore Scripture.

[GunRunner]

It's interesting to note the differences between people like Jefferson and Franklin, who thought that Jesus was a good teacher and provided a solid model of morality yet was not divine, and people like C.S. Lewis, who believed that if Jesus was not divine, then he was a liar and a lunatic.

I guess it comes down to your estimation of the authenticity of the gospels. Jefferson thought that all of the mystical and supernatural elements of Jesus had been added later.

[ReformationFan]

‘Heh. One of my uber-liberal colleagues came into class one day this quarter complaining that she had been to a wedding the previous weekend and the preacher was “sooooo intolerant, and against gay marriage and stuff.” I replied, “Oh, you mean he was a Christian.” Her response? “Well, not according to my view of Christianity!”’

Wow. If she had trouble with that preacher, imagine if she ever ran into the preacher who said this:

“4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:4-6

[sthguard]

Wow. If she had trouble with that preacher, imagine if she ever ran into the preacher who said this:

“4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:4-6

Alas, at many churches in town all she'll "encounter" is Buddy Jesus, preacher of social justice, hope, and variously defined change.