The Christian left

If you have a higher belief than Christianity, and you certainly do if you will bend Christianity to fit it, what do you need church for?


America's Christian left, and similar movements elsewhere, want to adjust Christianity to conform it more closely to the dictates of political correctness, socialism, pacifism, environmentalism or the cause du jour. Of course if you do that you make the gospel less than what it truly is. The leftists see it as an improvement, though. That is the motivation when, for example, Christianity's traditional and biblically rooted aversion to homosexual conduct is set aside. I use that example simply because it is a hot topic at the moment. Other examples can easily be thought of and more will be along next week, as the left reimagines Christianity into something more in line with their ideas and preferences. After all, if one deeply feels the tenets of leftism to be true, one will feel that the gospel ought to be in agreement.

They have the matter exactly backwards. We are to be changed by the word and the Spirit, conform ourselves to them, not the other way around. But a belief apparently shared by all the Christian leftists is that the idea of ongoing change and regeneration in the believer's life is an old fashioned and inaccurate idea. If you are gay you were born gay, gay you shall remain, and you cannot be really fulfilled and whole unless you act it out. Clearly this is at odds with what we know of the matter, and of sin in general, from reading the Bible. So the task and burden of the leftists then becomes to re-read scripture, placing upon it a new interpretation. It is necessary for them to move this question of ongoing spiritual warring and progress in our spiritual development off to one side and say never mind all that, God loves you just the way you are*. It is easy to argue on such wise because real progress is impossible without the Spirit. Attempts by willpower or wishful thinking are ineffective, and therefore it is easy for people not familiar with the Spirit's workings to brush off the whole idea as mythical.

That may be a harsh assessment of the Christian left. Still, it is the way the matter looks to those who, in droves, have separated themselves from churches that are drifting leftward and away from historical orthodoxy. The great concern is that this new Christianity that has such changes in it is not saving, indeed leads people into fatal error. I am not quite sure of that, for it is difficult to delineate just how much obedience, faith and understanding are necessary to be saved, but I will say that, to me, the Christian left seems rebellious against historical orthodoxy, careless in their facts, and atrocious in their handling of scripture. What is clear to anyone who believes the scriptures is that it is possible to fail of salvation while being pious. Humans are indeed capable of changing Christianity enough that we are no longer doing God's will but our own, and we then lose our right to expect that our efforts please God. (Matthew 7:21)

Of course there are aberrations on the political right as well, social conservatives who are just sure that God always agrees with their politics. Does God really want society as a whole conformed to Christian ideas of conduct, or is that something for believers to look after in their own lives? We are not to be conformed to this world, that is true, but does the world have any responsibility to conform to us? The danger here is giving the unbelieving public the wrong idea that Christianity is mostly about legalistic restrictions instead of a basic and far-reaching change of heart.

On either side, left or right, there is the danger, at least, of losing the message that is saving. We ought take Matthew 7:13-14 with all seriousness, whatever our politics. The God of true faith inhabits a higher order of things than our politics, which are at best scrabbling disorganized attempts to work out how people ought be forced to get along with each other. You can see how God offers a better thing in the concept of loving him first and after that, your neighbor. We need politics only because people don't do those things.

Your faith should influence your politics, if your faith is a sincere one, but your politics ought not drag down your faith to the level of politics. That is asking a lot, for people have a strong tendency, and long sad history, of conflating their political interests with religious thinking. The political tensions in the church world are one more obstacle to unity. At its worst the tensions are ghettoizing, one church filled with Democrats and another with Republicans.

As for the Christian left, I think it will in time evaporate of its own lack of spiritual grounding. The membership in leftward leaning churches is declining, and that makes a kind of sense. If you have a higher belief than Christianity, and you certainly do if you will bend Christianity to fit it, what do you need church for? You will only hear a lot of things that are bound to confuse you, when the scriptures are read.

Whoever we are, and whatever our politics, if we are truly Christians we must put God first, the true God, and not some image of God as we wish him to be. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)


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*The idea that God loves you just as you are is true but incomplete. To say that it excuses your conduct, whatever it is, is essentially antinomian. Romans ch. 6 is a good place to start sorting out the matter.