What is the Christian spectrum these days?

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Mendalla

Mendalla

Happy headbanging ape!!
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What is conservative? What is progressive? What is "mainstream"?

These terms get bandied about a lot but the meaning seems rather fluid.

"Conservative" could mean a Catholic who still actually listens to the Pope or a Protestant who espouses a traditional faith and values.

"Progressive" can mean Gretta Vosper's UU-like atheist church or a very intellectual and non-traditional, but still theistic, Christianity like that of Borg.

I'm not even sure what is mainstream anymore. It seems to be mildly liberal but not quite progressive, but I'm not even sure if that is meaningful.

"Evangelical", "fundamentalist", and terms like that seem more meaningful but don't really fall on a spectrum since they describe schools of thought more than general viewpoints.

Is there really a spectrum at all or just a bunch of words that get tossed around rather meaninglessly because each person has a rather different understanding of them?

Do you define yourself on some kind of scale and is your scale the same or different from others around you?

To my eye, the whole notion of putting Christian beliefs on a scale or spectrum like this is a borrowing from political science/philosophy and isn't really all that meaningful spiritually. I'd rather see Christians identified by terms like "Calvinist" or "Fundamentalist" or "Arian" or other words that actually define what they believe rather than trying to figure where they are relative to others as the political-style scale does.

Just a rant. Feel free to chime with your views.

(And for the record, there is really no way you could chart UUs on a political spectrum. We are all over the map and it is hard to say what is "conservative" and what is "liberal". In fact, humanists are almost the "conservatives" of our movement at this point with more spiritual people as the "radicals" or "progressives" or whatever you want to call it but even that is arguable at best.)
 
Heh, heh ...

Is a spectrum like a cloak of many colours? A rainbow to hide under ... so the overly confident about what they know can't find yah!
 
@GeoFee.
I've been told by many that I'm a lost soul ... something out there they can't understand ...

But then if you don't wish to be aware (modern word for apocalypse) ... what then ?
 
Mendalla said:
Do you define yourself on some kind of scale and is your scale the same or different from others around you?
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Words I usually use to describe myself when it comes to religion: Christian, missional, conservative, evangelical.

Words that other people sometimes describe me as which I feel are not valid in my case: Calvinist, fundamentalist.
 
What is conservative? What is progressive? What is "mainstream

This is my view on this -----

This is the problem too many groups ---only one God ------ The word Christian says what it is suppose to be ---Christ --ian ----followers of Christ ---anyone not believing in and following being Christ like shouldn't be using the word in my opinion ------The Greek wordΧριστιανός(Christianos), meaning "follower of Christ", comes fromΧριστός(Christos), meaning "anointed one"

To many people misuse the word -----
  1. The word “Christian” literally means, “belonging to the party of Christ” or a “follower of Christ.” Unfortunately over time, the word “Christian” has lost a great deal of its significance and is often used of someone who is religious or has high moral values but who may or may not be a true follower of Jesus Christ.

  1. Jesus never used the word Christian when referring to His 12 ----He called them disciples and referred to them as believers----Christian is a man made term brought in by Paul ----

  1. Easy to call ourselves Christian harder to acutely follow the real meaning
 
Politically I am very liberal. Theologically I am pretty traditional. I avoid the term conservative but I do believe in "once saved always saved". I believe that we are saved by accepting Jesus and our savior and that we get baptized afterwards to announce that to the world, that the baptism itself does not save you. I don't believe in predestination. I think that works are great, but they don't get you into Heaven. All of these are S. Baptist beliefs that I accept, they lose me when they get into their homophobia and their anti-choice nonsense and try to pass that off as Biblical when it isn't.
 
Jon71 said:
Politically I am very liberal. Theologically I am pretty traditional. I avoid the term conservative but I do believe in "once saved always saved". I believe that we are saved by accepting Jesus and our savior and that we get baptized afterwards to announce that to the world, that the baptism itself does not save you. I don't believe in predestination. I think that works are great, but they don't get you into Heaven. All of these are S. Baptist beliefs that I accept, they lose me when they get into their homophobia and their anti-choice nonsense and try to pass that off as Biblical when it isn't.
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Is that 'mainstream' in your part of the US, Jon?
 
I don't know what mainsteam is in most of Canada either. Here on the west coast, in BC, i think "spiritual but not religious" is mainstream. I assumed it was UCCan and Anglican, and Catholic in big cities because so many immigrants from Europe and Latin America are Catholic. The UCCan would be considered a bit conservative here where I live just simply because it is known to be a Christian church -and Christianity in general has that reputation here only because so few know or care about the differences in theology among different denominations - some social justice types seem to know UCCan has a good reputation in that regard and that they are not as strict in their dogma as others' but quite honestly, this part of Canada has the lowest number of churchgoers. But still, a lot of people doing good things.
 
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Kimmio said:
Is that 'mainstream' in your part of the US, Jon?
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Pretty much. Politically I am in a very conservative part of a very conservative state. There are some liberal strongholds in west Tennessee but the further east you go the more conservative it gets and I'm sort of in the middle/eastern range. Theologically there is a lot of Southern Baptist and Methodist with smaller numbers of other Protestant denominations as a small number of Catholics, Jews, atheists, Muslims, etc. What I described are pretty basic beliefs for Southern Baptists and the Methodist churches I've been to are similar in theology, but a bit more moderate otherwise. I hope this answers your question.
 
Pr. Jae said:
Words I usually use to describe myself when it comes to religion: Christian, missional, conservative, evangelical.

Words that other people sometimes describe me as which I feel are not valid in my case: Calvinist, fundamentalist.
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Calvinist beliefs are usually represented with the acronym TULIP.

They believe in "Total depravity" - which means that everything we do is touched with the curse of sin, and that we have a great propensity to do individual sins. I agree, we are each born enslaved to sin.

They believe in "Unconditional election" - which means that God predestined, before the beginning of time, based solely on his sovereignty, those he will save. I agree.

They believe in "Limited atonement" - which means that Jesus died only for the sins of the elect. I do not agree. I feel that the Bible makes clear that Jesus died for the sins of everyone.

They believe in "Irresistible grace" - which means that God's saving grace cannot be resisted. Those God wants to save will be saved. I do not agree. I feel that such grace can be resisted.

They believe in "Perseverance of the saints" - which means that all of God's elect, once they are saved, will remain so throughout their lives. I do not agree. I feel it is possible to fall away.

However, many people if I tell them I believe in predestination will automatically assume I'm Calvinist. [X] wrong answer.
 
Some people are buoyed by the belief they are anchored in the sublime ... something supported by the deeply un knowing and thus no concerns, as they are denied ... something I believe addressed by (is it Proverbs 1:18, or Ecclesiastes) when considering the problem of wisdom raising concerns ... that "an" or perhaps HannaH in ancient word forms of reflective iconography ...

Those that wish not to know chose to live darkly ... thus glaring explicit ... while those in the dark are drawn to the flames ... one should carry your own torch so you can see where you've been even if you deny where you came from ... de pitz of de muttering struggle to hold Hur tong about de fodder's accomplishments? The things that are said in the birthing caused confinement at some times in history ... thus loching us out of that pool that included pain and rage as a terminal end to love making ...

Bet some can't see it coming ... as part of getting into the other's territory of sole ... generally an under covers invasion that should involve deep sharing of thought, dreams and metaphysical desires beyond the physical ... consider what we loose in de nailing ... a pointed poking at the other tree of logos! A simile of Pauli's thorn ...
 
Allows for substitutionary philosophy and word replacement to support chaos ... works as well as passionate outbreaks in keeping the lesser people in a stir...
 
On WC and here at WC2 more than one person has labeled me a "Fundie," because I believe in the atonement. However, I am not a fundamentalist. I realize that Scripture must be considered in historical-cultural context, and I know the Bible contains fables, parables, visions, songs, and poetry.

Jonah's giant fish and Noah's ark, though - definitely true.
 
Give the biblical parable that questionable smell of something being cooked up?

Heat rises and Ecclesiastes and Proverbs both have axioms about wisdom is depressing ... unless you accept it on the proper side that may not be righteous to certain powers ...

Many would prefer to follow the law (when convenient) as this is not as much of a head ache as contemplation of alien stuff beyond what is fixed knowledge ... stuff to be knocked up on ... an the quantum process of random DNA games ...
 
Pr. Jae said:
On WC and here at WC2 more than one person has labeled me a "Fundie," because I believe in the atonement. However, I am not a fundamentalist. I realize that Scripture must be considered in historical-cultural context, and I know the Bible contains fables, parables, visions, songs, and poetry.

Jonah's giant fish and Noah's ark, though - definitely true.
Click to expand...

I assume that's a joke, right? (I am terrible at discerning your sense of humour, Jae...)
 
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