Whatever "Progressive Christianity" becomes, it must make a move to haul us out of this quagmire. And whatever it is, it will not make that move alone. Dialogue with other faiths will deepen our decidedly Christian faith, just as that same dialogue will deepen theirs. Religions are like languages. The centuries long theological conversation that produced our Scriptures continues to this very day and now includes new conversation partners, new circumstances. As we engage in this dialogue, we are not constrained by our biblical authors' worldviews, but we do seek what they were pointing to in the only way they knew how.
How shall we offer our truth, a truth we know cannot be grasped? We begin by jettisoning our pre-rational language, for it is completely misunderstood. Jesus' blood does not wash anyone clean. There is no Father sitting above the clouds waiting until 2012 to rend them asunder and fly down as conqueror on a horse with wings.
But we will hold fast to a God we know in three ways. (If we don't, I would argue that we have become a "progressive something else.") We know this God not through scientific experimentation, but through knowledge gained through faith and borne out in reality.
We experience non-dual states of consciousness that reveal the One, the I AM that I AM (and you AM) and we recognize this One in the Gospel of John and in Paul's description of union with Christ. Then as we stare into the heavens watching "star rising after star and constellation after constellation until the immensity of this bewildering universe looms before our staggered mind" (Arthur J.
It is this God who gives life purpose and meaning, this God whose creative power drives our evolving universe toward a still more glorious dawn; and it is this God whom we serve.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't this evangelical faith minus magic blood and literal myth?
Rev. Sam Alexander is Pastor of 
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