Liberal Christian

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only liberal Christian on here. Are there others who are devoutly Christian and still accept evolution, support Obama, etc?

I know there are a lot of us in "the real world." According to several polls (pew, gallop, etc.), a majority of those who claim Jesus as their savior are liberal in their beliefs. I know some would say we aren't "real Christians," but I believe that having confessed Jesus makes me a Christian, no matter what anyone else says.

Why are there so few of us here in this forum?

I have heard rumors of those studies, but I have not seen them first-hand. Have any links?

Truthfully, I do not know. My first guess is that it simply appeals to more conservative Christians in general, that and a sort of snowball effect where one conservative invites another.

As a Trad. Con. I would question the viability of your worldview, but question your faith? Never.

You are not alone. But I don't think this not the Liberal Christian playing ground, from what I am learning. And that is ok, not every play ground is for everyone.

I agree with you, confessing Jesus as Lord does make me and anyone else) a Christian. You will be hard pressed to find that here though. Good luck and I hope you find what you are looking for here.

Portrait and Demographics of United states Religious Affiliation -- Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

If you add up all the Christians they surveyed, the %s look like this:
Republican: 29%
Lean Republican: 10%
Independent: 9%
Lean Democrat: 13%
Democrat: 31%
Other/no affiliation/declined to answer: 8%

This is just in the US. In other western countries, liberal Christians make up an even bigger %

This I wouldn't doubt.

I'm a liberal.

Being a traditional conservative I wouldn't say that you are not saved. Clearly you profess Christ. And I stand by the Bible for everything I believe. I'm sure you at least considered it would be inevitable that someone would question why you accept evolution and support Obama. So why do you accept evolution and support Obama? I know why I don't, but since this is your post I might as well give you the first throw.

Jesus is not liberal. . the kingdom of God is NOT a democracy, I dont say you are unsaved but I do say perhaps you need to examine why you feel 'wordly' with your views. . we are to be seperate from the world, aliens, a tourist to this world. .

God made the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. . so do you believe in creation or evolution. . you cant have both, not in my view, either God is the truth or he is a liar. . which do you think it is?

We are not to be lukewarm. . revelation tells us the lukewarm church will be vomited from Gods mouth, I certainly dont want that for any believer.

i mean you canbe liberal and not believe in evolution. I just have a very liberal political view. Jesus wasnt republican or democrat anyways

Matthew 7:13-14
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

I'm just throwing this out there...
I've had the thought that maybe there is more to creation than we know, bit necessarily evolution, and not necessarily 6 days. I'm not saying God is a liar, I'm just saying, could you imagine explaining a something complex to people back then? Maybe it's a metaphor of sorts.
Jesus isn't liberal or conservative, he's not a political card.
Also, you're playing the 'liberals are eeevil' card. Do you think Republicans care about Christian views? No, it's just another way to get more power. The church wants all the power it used to have back, and the Republicans offer it so they can have their support, so they stick together.

I don't doubt you're a Christian, but if you say you completely accept evolution, I'm assuming you accept a lot of scientific theories, which spend a lot of time disproving God, so be careful is all I'm trying to say.
But a lot of people in the Christian community want to point fingers at whoever they can to make themselves look more righteous. Don't sweat it, dear. The Lord knows your heart.

Lots of questions, and I'm glad this has sparked some discussion.

Let me start with this one. A liberal Christian is a Christian who doesn't believe the Bible should be interpreted literally. Some of us also have politically liberal views, but that's not always the case. In the spectrum of "liberal Christian" it can be as liberal as Bishop Spong, who says the resurrection is symbolic rather than literal (that's further to the left than I am), or more evangelical, like Jim Wallis (google him if you're not familiar).

I could go on, but I hope that answers your question.

I disagree. Jesus was VERY liberal for his time, and his message continues to be one of the most radical the world has seen.

I never said it was. "Liberal" doesn't necessarily mean democratic. Yes, most liberals in the US are democrats, and many democrats are relatively liberal (though the party is actually more conservative in some ways than others). The US is a democratic republic, but that is not the Kindom of God, nor was it ever intended to be. So I don't know why you would think that I believe that the Kindom of God was a democracy, just because I'm a liberal Christian.

If you are a republican, I would point out to you that the Kindom of God is also not a republic.

What makes you think my views are worldly? On the contrary, sometimes me being a liberal Christian puts me at odds with the world. See above re. radical message of Jesus Christ. If I love liberally, as liberally as Jesus did, I am counter-cultural. Our society's love for money, pro-capitalism, spend and hoard, keeping up with the Jones's, he who dies with the most toys wins ... this is a the opposite of what a liberal Christian believes. Jesus spent more time with the poor, the down-trodden, the sinners, not the powerful and rich. That is very much at odds with the worldly view.

Liberal Christians believe that the book of Genesis was intended to be taken figuratively, not literally. Many of us (such as myself) believe that God did indeed write the Bible, by inspiring men and women. We know that Jesus spoke in parables and allegories. If Jesus is God (which, again, I do believe, as do most liberal Christians), then it stands to reason that God does the same. We liberal Christians believe that Genesis is one such story (or, in reality, a collection of many stories), written by God to show a point. The point of the creation story is not that God created the universe in 6 days, but that God created us and loves us.

If you read the Bible as (we believe) God wrote it, you realize that Genesis 1 is actually a song, with the "and it was evening, and it was morning, the __ day" being the refrain, and each day of creation being a verse. To me, it has always been very obvious that it was never intended to be taken literally, and that in fact, to take it literally is to misinterpret Scripture, just as you would be misinterpreting Scripture to try to name who the woman who found the lost coin was; that just diverts you from Jesus' message.

In fact, I believe that God created this planet, and everything in it. That includes the bountiful evidence -- irrefutable evidence, by the way -- of evolution. If evolution is not true, that means that God planted this evidence in error. I refuse to believe in, let alone worship, a God who makes mistakes. Therefore, I accept evolution as the means by which God created and continues to create his creation.

Well, the way I see it, anyone who denies evolution is calling God a liar. So I believe God is telling the Truth.

And I am not! In fact I am on fire for the Lord, and for my understanding of Scripture, which I believe to be True. I want people to hear this message, because it is a message the world so desperately needs to hear. In fact, I believe that my understanding, this "liberal" Christianity, is what Jesus preached, and those who reject my understanding of Scripture are preaching a false Gospel, one of law and works-righteousness. So I am very adamant that the GRACE message be preached.

Again, why do you assume that I am "lukewarm"? I could just as easily ask you why you call God a liar, or why you preach a false Gospel. Such name-calling is neither helpful nor loving.

Thank you. As do you.

I would say I stand by GOD for everything I believe. Yes, the Bible is the Word of God. I just see, sometimes, some Christians seem to worship the Bible rather than the God who wrote it. I'm not saying you do that: from what I have seen in these boards, you recognize the difference. But there are a lot of Christians who seem to idolize Scripture rather than the Author.

See above for evolution.

As for my support of Obama, I would have to say that, too, is based on what I have read in Scripture. (And, FWIW, I have read Scripture in its original Hebrew and Greek. Not that that makes me better than anyone else who hasn't; I'm simply saying that I don't just accept someone else's word for what something means, I read it for myself and pray about it.)

For just one example, let's look at the economic policies of each of the two major parties in the US.

The republicans believe that we should give tax breaks to the rich, because they are the powerful ones who create jobs (Top-Down Economics). The democrats would rather give tax breaks to the poor and needy, because then those people will spend their money in the economy, thus stimulating it (Bottom-Up Economics). Now, not all democrats really care about the poor, I admit. They see it as a means for a solid economy. But honestly, between supporting the rich and powerful vs. support the poor and needy, which do you believe Jesus would prefer?

Intellectually, I favor bottom-up economics because has worked throughout history, and top-down economics has failed every time. But Spiritually, I accept it because it's just the right thing to do. Even if it was not ultimately the best for everyone, I would still want to support the poor and needy. The fact that it also benefits everyone else is, I believe, Divine ... That's how God made it: we succeed when we help others rather than ourselves.

BTW, I DO think people should be given a hand-up rather than a hand-out. Today's democratic party is in favor of programs that do that: give people the means to help themselves. Today's republican party is against that. They want to cut programs that allow people to gain job skills, education, etc. The result is that those people end up needing hand-outs, because they have not been given a hand-up.

Now, as for foreign policy, I very much disagree with Obama, and am very disappointed that he has not gotten out of Iraq and Afghanistan sooner, and that he started military actions in Libya. I believe that this is NOT what Jesus teaches. Jesus preached peace, not war, so the war-mongering that is prevalent in both parties goes against a Christian's beliefs. I support Obama despite these decisions, and point out that the other major party is no better -- and probably worse -- in this respect.

But his domestic party, while not precisely "WWJD," is certainly closer to what Jesus preached than the alternative.

Does that answer your question?

In an independent study by Pew Research, a reputable and non-partisan organization, the following views were expressed by people who identified themselves as Christians:

a) The Bible is the Word of God, literally true word for word: 38%
b) The Bible is the Word of God, but not literally true word for word: 34%
c) The Bible is a book written by men, not the Word of God: 19%
d) Other / Don't Know / Refused to Answer: 9%

So 53% of Christians in the US do not believe that the Bible is literal. I'm not saying that makes it right, just that mine is far from a radical view, as compared to Christianity in the US.

As I mentioned before, these numbers are even more toward a liberal understanding when you include Christians in other parts of the world.

God made the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. . so do you believe in creation or evolution. . you cant have both, not in my view, either God is the truth or he is a liar. . which do you think it is?

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I'm brand new on here and I'm pretty sure its not my place to say this but the world is full of color. Things aren't always in black and white as you are saying it is. I have an interesting belief that God created the atoms we are made up of then we grew into something much greater, as he intended.

"Liberal Christian" is an oxymoron.

Not as much as "conservative Christian" is.

*Slow clap.

Wow, a very inspiring battle of whits we have shaping up here.

I'm questioning all the values I ever held dear.

Okay, would you have preferred me to have said, "I'd rather be an oxymoron than a moron." Is that witty enough?

I simply responded in kind to the post. Sorry if you disapprove

It occurs to me that perhaps I should explain more what a liberal Christian is, and more importantly, what a liberal Christian is NOT.

A liberal Christian is not someone who says, "Oh, it doesn't matter what you do. There's no such thing as sin, so go ahead and sleep around, gamble, drink, do drugs ... that doesn't matter." On the contrary, a liberal Christian recognizes that sin hurts us as well as God. While there are some specific actions that a liberal Christian may not consider sin that a more conservative Christian might say is sin, there are also things a lot of liberal Christians say is sin, that Jesus spoke against, that more conservative Christians interpret differently.

An example of the first might be homosexuality. Many liberal Christians believe that homosexuality is not a sin, and that references to it in the New Testament are misinterpreted and misleading. Frequently (though not always) a liberal Christian will say that a homosexual man or lesbian who is in a loving, committed life-long relationship is not sinning by being with that person, while the conservative Christian will more likely say either that homosexuality is always a sin, or that being homosexual (having a preference for someone of one's own gender) may not be a sin but acting on that feeling is sin.

An example of the second might be supporting war. There are many Christians who believe that all war, even "just" war, goes against what Jesus taught, and that to support such a war (whether by joining the military, or paying taxes, or just being in favor of it) is a sin. I have never met a liberal Christian who didn't pray for the safety of those who were fighting, but most of them believe war is rarely if ever the right answer. Many conservative Christians, alternatively, have no problem joining the military and even shooting the enemy if necessary, and don't see that as a sin. Some think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are good and God-supported wars.

(By the way, I am not saying every soldier is a sinner. I am showing an example where a liberal Christian might believe a certain action is sinful, an interpretation they get from Scripture, while a conservative Christian interprets Scripture differently and does not see that action as sinful.)

You may think one is right and the other wrong, but that doesn't mean the liberal Christian "accepts sin." They just understand sin differently from how you do.

A liberal Christian does not ignore Scripture. We interpret it differently, more often figuratively than literally, but we do not ignore it. And not always figuratively. In fact, sometimes the liberal Christian's interpretation is more literal while the conservative Christian's is more figurative.

A liberal Christian is no more "pick-and-choose" than a conservative Christian. Every Christian must decide how to interpret Scripture, and what tenets, doctrines, and beliefs to hold.

For example, Catholics believe that Evangelicals don't take the Eucharist literally enough, because they say that communion is "just a symbol" or an act of remembrance only, while Catholics believe that when Jesus said, "This is my body, this is my blood," he was speaking literally, and that communion is a means of grace in which we actually consume the flesh and blood of our Savior. On the other hand, the same Catholics will say that when Scripture refers to Jesus' brothers, it is being figurative rather than literal, because they believe Mary remained a virgin and therefore never had any children after Jesus. Most Protestants reject that, and have no problem believing that Mary could have had other children after Jesus. It not a case of one group always being "right" because they take everything literally. It's a matter of choice in how to interpret each passage, and every Christian does it. In other words, it's not that a liberal Christian is a "pick-and-choose" Christian while a conservative Christian isn't. Rather, the liberal Christian picks and chooses different things, sometimes, than the conservative Christian picks and chooses. Different, not better or worse.

Not all liberal Christians are liberal politically. Most are, but I know many republicans, libertarians, independents, and others right-of-center politically who are liberal Christians. Not all liberal Christians agree with every platform of the democratic party. (In fact, I would bet my left pinky that there is no liberal Christian who agrees with EVERY platform of the democratic party, though some might embrace more than others.) Most of us see the democratic party as being more in line with our Christian values than the republican party. Just as some conservative Christians probably disagree with one or more of the republican party's platforms, though most vote republican because they feel that party in more in line with their Christian values than the other.

So, now what IS a liberal Christian? What DO we believe? We believe that God is love, and that Jesus is the son of God. We believe that the Bible is Holy Scripture. We believe that all other gods are false gods and ultimately cannot lead to the same relationship that we have with Jesus. We believe that it is our duty as Christians to live out our faith, not because our works will save us, but because we love God, and just as a good child wants to please his parents, we want to do the right thing by our heavenly Father.

Any other questions?