{"id":815,"date":"2010-06-25T14:59:01","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T20:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/mainlineportal\/?p=815"},"modified":"2010-06-25T14:59:01","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T20:59:01","slug":"dare-we-call-them-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2010\/06\/dare-we-call-them-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Dare We Call Them Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Bruce G. Epperly<\/em><\/p>\n

As a progressive and ecumenical Christian, I am always hesitant to excommunicate a fellow Christian, call someone a heretic, or question people\u2019s religious sincerity.\u00a0 As a progressive Christian, my theology has been defined as heretical by fundamentalists and conservative Christians who deem any deviation from biblical literalism or openness to pluralism and universal salvation, however well-intended, as half-way down the slippery-slope toward apostasy and damnation.\u00a0 Further, I take seriously the growing theological affirmation of \u201cpolydoxy,\u201d that is, the recognition of multiple truth perspectives within and beyond Christianity.\u00a0 From this perspective, there are many orthodoxies or paths of being Christian, theologically, liturgically, experientially, and spiritually.<\/p>\n

Still, the theology and practices of groups such as the Hutaree<\/a> or Westboro Baptist Churcg\u00a0stretches my progressive inclusivism.\u00a0 Sure, they claim to be Christians and I don\u2019t doubt that claim, any more than I doubt confusing a belt for a snake can be an honest mistake that leads to a fearful response.\u00a0 I believe that they are earnest in their faith.\u00a0 But, I also believe that we belong to different tribes, if not different faiths.\u00a0 While hatred, scapegoating, violence, and crusade have been part of virtually every major religious tradition at one time or another and some Christians too closely identify God and country, I believe that groups motivated by hate and violence \u2013 who see hatred as a necessary aspect of fidelity \u2013 follow a different faith and a different god than the God I experience in Jesus Christ, the healer whose hospitality embraced everyone and whose social action was aimed at transformation rather than polarization.<\/p>\n

Hutaree and Westboro Bapist affirm the vision of a god known primarily by judgment and not love.\u00a0 God punishes America through the gulf oil catastrophe, the World Trade Center bombings, and the Katrina disaster.\u00a0 God destroys the innocent as well as the guilty.\u00a0 God hates homosexuals and people who love them and big governments and people who support them.\u00a0 In the case of Hutaree, God wants us to arm ourselves in preparation for killing the infidel, the homosexual, the police, and military, and preparing for the \u201clast days.\u201d\u00a0 The end time is upon us and God will come with a sword to destroy atheists, homosexuals, Muslims, and presumably progressive, moderate, and open-minded evangelicals.\u00a0 These groups believe that the world is split between good and evil, right and wrong, and black and white.\u00a0 God makes no compromises with falsehood and neither should we.\u00a0 In their own way, Hutaree and Westborn Baptist resemble the Muslim terrorists they hate \u2013 there is no middle ground, the infidel deserves death, and we are God\u2019s chosen instruments of vengeance.<\/p>\n

I will claim only this in regard to such groups \u2013 that we clearly follow two different divinities. Does that mean we call ourselves by different faith names? \u00a0Well, I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 But, I am sure that we need to claim the \u201cChristian\u201d with as much boldness as those whose faith is violent and exclusive.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, we need to focus more fully on the relationship between theology and practice in proclaiming our own progressive and moderate vision.\u00a0 I believe that God is ultimately loving, embracing, transforming, and liberating.\u00a0 God is present moving through every life and every moment, seeking salvation and wholeness for all.\u00a0 While we may see ourselves as God\u2019s enemies, God has no enemies.\u00a0 Judgment occurs, but not the judgment of destruction but the judgment of healing and salvation.\u00a0 All are saved eventually, even the Hutarees and Westboro folk, who may surprisingly find themselves in the afterlife, growing beside homosexuals, Hindus, and liberals. \u00a0I believe God desires that we save rather destroy this good earth, and God wants us to be partners in creation and not destruction.<\/p>\n

There is no one response to such groups, but our own polarization and hatred is not the answer.\u00a0 Our task is to love, but also to affirm our contrasting vision.\u00a0 Polarizing religiosity calls progressives and moderates to boldly and lovingly present an alternative vision of God and Christianity.\u00a0 Progressive and moderate Christians need to adopt a peace-oriented \u201cmoral equivalent of war\u201d (William James) in which we enter the marketplace of ideas, the pluralism of religious possibilities, and the political realm with a robust, life-transforming, and world-affirming vision of positive spiritual and institutional healing and wholeness.<\/p>\n

Read more articles on Fundamentalism at the <\/strong>Patheos Public Square<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bruce Epperly is a professor and administrator at Lancaster Theological Seminary and co-pastor \u00a0Disciples United Community Church in Lancaster, PA (www.ducc.us).\u00a0 He is the author of seventeen books, including Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living<\/span>,\u00a0 a progressive theological and spiritual response to Rick Warren\u2019s Purpose Driven Life. <\/span>A Reiki master\/teacher for over twenty years, he is the author of Reiki Healing Touch and the Way of Jesus<\/span> (with Kate Epperly). \u00a0Email Bruce at bepperly@lancasterseminary.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n

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