I am happy to announce my recent relocation from the Evangelical channel to the Progressive Christian channel. A warm thank you to Ben Corey and the rest of the progressive Christian bloggers for having me. With a name like Soapbox Redemption: Nicene. Philosophical. Swagger<\/em>, where else could I possibly end up? In all seriousness,\u00a0I suppose a long essay on \u201cwhy the switch?\u201d should be in order, but it\u2019s actually not very dramatic. In hindsight, I was always \u201cprogressive\u201d if I captured the label correctly.<\/p>\n To be honest, I\u00a0hate labels. I guess they\u2019re unavoidable, given the need for association, specifically on a site that is \u201chosting the conversation on faith.\u201d And given this need for a label, it became\u00a0clear to me that I should have been labeled \u201cprogressive\u201d from go. When I joined Patheos, this nearly happened. In truth, the \u201cEvangelical\u201d label stung a little bit less at that time, for a variety of reasons.\u00a0Some perspective though, on the switch, and these labels.<\/p>\n Raised a good Catholic, the world was my oyster.\u00a0Inject some\u00a0adolescent swagger, some Catholic ridiculousness, and a scientific education, it wouldn\u2019t be long before protesting the Catholic Church (perhaps I\u2019m a Protestant?) and God\u2019s existence in general (perhaps I\u2019m a skeptic?).\u00a0A healthy\u00a0critical inquiry birthed the philosopher in me. Wherever I would end up, spoon-fed dogma (religious or irreligious) wouldn\u2019t cut the mustard.\u00a0Through the ideological maze,\u00a0Christ was ultimately my redemption.<\/p>\n I\u2019d always been moved by the narrative, the philosophy, and mystical and transcendental experience of the Triune God. But I was distracted by the noise of the commonly surrounded anti-science, anti-philosophical, political attachments. Science would destroy the idol of literalism and Young Earth Creationism. Philosophy would destroy the idol of bad apologetics (Christian and New Atheist). The experience of God, an existential embrace of Christ, and deeply personal commitment to\u00a0discipleship would destroy the idol of political tribalism. Soapbox Redemption is a place\u00a0of epistemological inquiry, rigor, yet creativity. And to this spirit and vantage point, \u201cNicene. Philosophical. Swagger\u201d,\u00a0<\/em>there was no question this perspective fits\u00a0better under the progressive label.\u00a0Ecumenism, a\/theological dialogue (by way of analytic philosophy), and ending human trafficking are my current priorities.\u00a0The big questions, book reviews on philosophy\/theology, philosophically inclined musings, and raising money\/awareness to end modern slavery \u2013 to these will be common endeavors on this blog.<\/p>\n In all fairness,\u00a0I\u2019m confident a number of\u00a0Evangelicals share (or are at least empathetic to) some of these perspectives, in particular a number of my former Evangelical neighbors.\u00a0After all, bad science, bad philosophy, and bad politics is to reduce an infintiely\u00a0profound metaphysical, transcendental, and existential narrative to a revolting conceptual idol that has nothing to do with Christ (at least in my view).\u00a0At the same time, it\u2019s not just my Evangelical neighbors on Patheos that I had to take into consideration, but the overall US Evangelical camp (interestingly, many\u00a0UK Evangelicals would be labeled as \u201cprogressives\u201d by American Evangelicals for many of the reasons I\u2019ve embraced this label).\u00a0And\u00a0a\u00a0swagger-filled science lover, metaphysically and Thomistically-inclined, existentially and Kierkegaardian inspired, politically independent dude\u00a0is definitely outside the Evangelical box.<\/p>\n