A popular trope among religious liberals and progressives is that there is a great, unrecognized majority of our kind. If the mainstream media would only seek out Jay Bakker or James Cone instead of Rick Warren or Pat Robertson, we’d get a more accurate image of contemporary Christian belief. It is a hopeful thought to hold and it is seductive in the suggestion that the socially conservative presence in Christianity today is being overreported. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be true.
A study published in September by Public Religion Research has revealed some thought-provoking statistics on this question. The survey queried both conservative and liberal activists who identify as religiously faithful. In the conservative camp, 99% identified as some variety of Christian. The liberals reported 71% of their numbers as Christian. While the data could be interpreted as the liberal activists being a more inclusive community, it also points to the notion that perhaps equating “Christian” and “conservative” may not be that inaccurate after all.
Resources:
Public Religion Research
Daniel Schultz at Religion Dispatches on this report
Peter, while I definitely agree with your overarching point, I don’t think these particular statistics make your case. They only show that a greater percentage of conservative activists identifies as Christian, NOT that a greater percentage of Christians identifies as conservative. In logical terms, it’s a deductive fallacy. Plus, it may not even be the case that the conservative Christian activists outnumber the liberal Christian ones – 71% of (a large enough number) is greater than or equal to 99% of (a small enough one). Without knowing the respective sample sizes, we can’t make any determinations. (Though I’d be very surprised if the total number of liberal activists outnumbered the total number of conservative ones). I’m not trying to be pedantic here – just pointing out some of the difficulties with statistics. That said – I’m very glad that you guys are embarking on this project! I will follow it with interest…
Point very much taken regarding statistics, Jennifer. My purpose in using them is largely to get a conversation going around the question of majority vs. minority opinion in Christianity writ large.
That said, I think that spending too much time on survey methodology or on the specifics of statistical analysis does an end-run around the potential for productive discomfort here. What does it mean to Christianity if we grant as true that it is presently practiced and taught as a socially conservative religion? How can those who would claim some type of liberative praxis work intra-religiously to make that view normative (or should we)?
Friends have sent emails to me that celebrate the sacrificial and atoning crucifixion of Jesus. One email was illustrated with pictures from the Mel Gibson film. Another email was about a conversation and negotiation between Satan and Jesus. At the end of the story, illustrated with graphic crucifixion clip art, Satan agrees to sell our souls to Jesus in return for the blood and life of Jesus. These emails have pushed a button and shoved me past some personal tipping point.
The bottom line, I will no longer remain silent when faced with this disturbing and useless theology.
This is my reply to my friends:
—————————————–
Sisters and Brothers,
Our God has never been, at any time for any reason, a God of death, war, destruction, murder, violence, retribution, vengeance, or hate.
Our God has always been a God of life, peace, creation, healing, reconciliation, resurrection, transformation, grace, mercy, and love.
Committing acts of war, violence, brutality, coercion, or intimidation in the name of Jesus or God is not the Good News. Standing on a city street corner or in the middle of a college campus and shouting at people about the error of their sinful lives is not the Good News. Practicing exclusion or an “us/them” world view is not the Good News. Requiring belief in a torturous execution as an atoning sacrifice is not the Good News. Preaching or claiming salvation is not the Good News. Preaching fear of eternal damnation and that eternal damnation can be avoided only by conversion and the acceptance of a rigid pre-ordained belief system is not the Good News. Viewing the ascension to or the acquisition of free will as a sinful act that eternally separates all people for all generations from God (instead of a story of success for both the people and God) – such a view is not the Good News. Requiring belief in the convoluted theology of a divine trinity is not the Good News. Having to view Jesus as divine is not the Good News. Requiring belief in ascensions, virgin births, or miracles is not the Good News. No matter how reassuring it is made to sound, proclaiming that a disaster or a death or an injury or a harmful loss is the will of God is not the Good News.
Treating the Bible as a literal or quasi-literal source is neither fundamental nor faithful; has no valid biblical, historical, or scholarly basis; and creates two major problems:
1) Treating the Bible as “THE WORD OF GOD” is a paradoxical violation of the First and Second Commandments.
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them;”
…NRSV Exodus 20:2-5a, Deuteronomy 5:6-9a
We are to worship only God. The only way to worship God is to worship God directly. We are to worship God without the use of any surrogate or intermediary person or animal and without the use of or dependence upon any symbolic or revered object. The more we try to elevate the Bible to a level of indisputable sanctity, the more the Bible enjoins us from doing so.
2) It generates an orthodoxy that is more of a secular paganism than a monotheistic theology and does not deserve to be labeled “faith” or “religion” because it is more about authoritarianism and domination than it is about the Good News and the liberation it brings.
Those who advocate a literalist interpretation of the Bible seem more intent on creating, acquiring, and justifying their personal authority…
1) …to tell people how to live and what to believe;
2) …to respond to complex questions with impunity for answers that are ignorant and wrong, simplistically narrow, or offer only a convenient either/or scenario with no middle ground, shades of gray, or extenuating circumstances; and
3) …to feign immunity from questions or criticism and to falsely seek protection behind an emperor’s cloak of responses that claim such questions and criticism are “disrespectful” or “insulting” or “an attack on religious freedom.”
Such literalist interpretations require a God who is, capriciously, either angry and onerous or calm and benevolent. It requires a God who is petty, arrogant, and who has no qualms about interfering in, controlling, or playfully dabbling in the course of human events. This is a god of multi-theistic pagans. This is not a religion that expands or uplifts human understanding – this is a strictly secular strategy that is being used to constrict and control human behavior for the benefit of those in power – it is not religion, it is authoritarian politics – it is not faith, it is the pragmatism of command-and-control repression wrapped in religionosity.
The message of Christianity, the Good News, is not about accepting or requiring either death or brutality, sacrificial or otherwise. The Good News is concerned with how well we live our lives, how well we interact with others, and about each of us having a progressively more loving and intimate relationship with God.
Being a Christian is practicing generosity and hospitality; living without vengeance; living here and now as one family with everyone invited, welcomed, and included without exception or qualification; living in constant relationship with God; and living now (not later) a life transformed by resurrection.
Our Christian life is measured, not by how materially abundant or wealthy is our life and not by how much political or cultural influence we have, but by how we attend to and improve the lives of others – by feeding them, quenching their thirst, clothing them, visiting them in prison, healing them, and welcoming them (Matthew 25: 35-36). Keep in mind that this is a deliberately incomplete list. It works in much the same way as when Jesus tells Peter to forgive, not 7 times, but 77 times (Matthew 18:22) – the point being that by the time you forgive someone 77 times, it has become a habit and a way of life. My point being that by the time you develop the habit of feeding, quenching, clothing, healing, welcoming, and visiting prisons, you have gained a new life complete with new values and new goals and new vision. Once you get to this point, you have discovered and claimed (not earned) and embodied your grace-given membership in the family of God, a membership exemplified by faith, love, and service.
The miracle of the empty tomb on Easter morning is nothing compared to the miracle of the resurrected lives of the disciples – they too, as faithful followers of Jesus, were dead and buried. Within 40 days, not only were they resurrected, they were transformed. The Good News that resurrected and transformed their lives (and the thousands of other lives transformed by that same Good News) had nothing to do with sacrificial death, ascensions, virgin births, or miracles – all of which were dime-a-dozen stories used by all the other religions at the time. The Good News is neither concerned with nor does it require magic in any form. The Good News was (and is) how to live a resurrected and transformed life even in a world where death, cruelty, corruption, crime, war, systemic injustice, slavery, and extreme poverty were so rampant as to be the norm.
To have a loving intimate relationship with God; to serve others by practicing generosity and hospitality; to seek justice, mercy, healing, reconciliation, rehabilitation, inclusion, and participation; and then to live with a cheerful fearlessness of death and worldly powers – that is the radical and the defiant message and the transformational spirit of Christianity.
Whatever we do –
Whatever we are –
Wherever we are –
– can never separate us from the love and grace and the surrounding and inviting presence of God.
In Christian love,
Douglas C. Sloan