Book Review by Jim Burklo, Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California, and author of BIRDLIKE AND BARNLESS: Meditations, Prayers, and Songs for Progressive Christians:
JESUS WAS A LIBERAL: Reclaiming Christianity for All
by Rev. Scotty McLennan (Palgrave MacMillan, 2009)
“Liberal”
is anything but a dirty word for the Dean of Religious Life, and pastor
of Memorial Church, at Stanford University. Scotty McLennan is proof
that while Christians may be a minority group within it, publicly
professing followers of Jesus still thrive in the Unitarian Universalist Association in which he is ordained. He has written his opus on progressive Christianity without disparaging the conservative Christians or the public atheists to whose positions his
book carefully responds. With his typical generosity of spirit,
Scotty shares how much he respects and learns from those with whom he
substantially disagrees, while using them to locate progressives in the
center of the Christian tradition.
Scotty is the real person behind the figure of Rev. Scot Sloan in
Doonesbury, created by McLennan’s Yale roommate, Garry Trudeau.
Contrary to his comic-strip caricature as the pastor of a nearly empty
church, McLennan’s big audience will grow bigger with the launch of
this new book.
JESUS WAS A LIBERAL is the best introduction to
theologically and socially progressive Christianity that I’ve read in
the past several years. McLennan offers a concise definition of “liberal”
Christianity, and applies it concretely to hot-button social issues and
common confusions about biblical interpretation. He describes what is
right about the long, venerable liberal religious tradition more than
he argues against what is wrong with atheism or biblical literalism. He makes his cases unequivocally but without being shrill. He offers a defense of abortion rights grounded on the Christmas story
in Matthew: “Precisely because Mary’s situation is utterly unique, it
places in bold relief other girls and women who have not voluntarily
chosen to become pregnant.” (p 16) He shares the bases of his public
opposition to the war in Iraq
in Christian “just war theory”. His analysis of the impending
conflict, and his predictions of the outcome of the war expressed in
his sermons and a newspaper editorial, turned out to be uncannily
accurate.
The book is flavored throughout with both the earthy
and the intellectual. Scotty moves between insights from religious
scholarship and stories from his own and others’ experiences of pastoral ministry. He illustrates with stories from his stints
as a poverty lawyer, as a disciple of a Hindu priest in India,
and as a university lecturer. He neatly addresses the common concerns
of lay people who are struggling with basic Christian concepts like the
Trinity, the “body and blood” of communion, being “born again”, and the
apocalypse. But he doesn’t talk down to the reader: he also salts the
text with scholarly analyses of biblical texts and historical details.
The most distinctive feature of his book is his detailed response to four highly visible public atheists of the past few years; Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris,
and Christopher Hitchens. He engaged with them personally in their
appearances at Stanford, responding to their indictments of liberal,
progressive faith. Scotty’s book is a call for critics of
supernaturalist faith to refrain from throwing the baby Jesus out with
the bathwater. He vigorously argues against their accusations that
progressive faithful people unwittingly aid and abet the perpetuation
of archaic, harmful religion. At the same time, he calls liberal Christians
to join atheists in ecstatically experiencing the natural world. “…I
congratulate Richard Dawkins on his enthusiasm, awe, and wonder forged
as an atheist in the realm of science alone. We religious people need
more of his spirit.” (p 127)
The book ends with McLennan’s
rousing defense of the “L” word. “Too many (liberal Christians) choose
silence, afraid to use the word “liberal” to describe where they
stand. That leaves them lying low, sitting quietly in their pews at
church or in private prayer at home… I bellow, ‘Stand up, stand tall,
and proclaim the positive power of liberal Christianity! Do it now, before it’s too late!’” (p 219) In the cause of redeeming the faith, whether we use the word “liberal” or
“progressive”, nobody stands taller – literally and figuratively - than Scotty McLennan.
