Liberal Christianity

From dKosopedia

Category: Christianity

Liberal Christianity is a generic phrase employed to distinguish politically liberal or progressive American Roman Catholicism and Mainstream Protestantism from politically conservative fundamentalist Protestantism. In the 1960s conservative Democratic and Republican candidates began using religious appeals to mobilize votes. Unable to address the War in Vietnam or Racial Discrimination without revealing their complicity, conservative Christians focused instead on sexual morality and patriarchal authority. Today Republicans continue to speak as if they owned the Jesus trademark and franchise.

Liberal Christians can argue that tolerance, generosity, and social activism have long been an important part of the Christian tradition, and that when Christians support war and mysogeny they betray the teachings of Jesus Christ. Though disliked or maybe ignored by conservatives, liberal Christianity survives and today is often defined by inclusivity in membership, commitment to progressive social causes as a venue of faithful activity, and an open-ended, non-literalist method of scriptural interpretation.

Alhough Lutherans (ELCA), Methodists (UMC) and Presbyterians (PCUSA) all share liberal leanings, particularly in their national leadership, the Episcopalians (ECUSA), Quakers (Friends), United Church of Christ (UCC), and Unitarians (UUA) are generally held to be the most reliably liberal denominations today.

Resources

From the National Council of Churches:

• Bread for the World
• Call to Renewal
• Children's Defense Fund
• Faith and Values Media
• Families USA
• Good Schools Pennsylvania
• Habitat for Humanity
• Interfaith Broadcasting Commission
• Jewish Council for Public Affairs
• National Jobs for All Coalition
• National Religious Partnership for the Environment

Web:

• FaithAndValues.com
• Methodist church under attack from the right