Another interesting email exchange!
To: [email protected]
Subject: On getting saved by Jesus
Hello.
Recently I was saved and found my salvation through Jesus.
However, the church I attend (which shall remain nameless), despite having great
people in it, has parts that I believe the Bible disagrees with.
As a recent convert, I have questions.
1. Are we supposed to give 10% of our earnings to the
Church?
2. What makes Progressive Christianity different from more
Bible-based Christianity?
3. Do you consider it a religion?
Subject: RE: On
getting saved by
Jesus
Although your questions are obviously sincere
and
important to you they are too large for me to answer in a brief email.
Some of
the questions that you ask have been debated by religious folks for
nearly 2000
years. I cannot do them justice here.
However let me say that Progressives do not
treat the
Bible as the inerrant "word of God" but see it rather as a document that
was
created by humans to record their evolving understanding and experiences
with
the Divine, the Holy, or what we sometimes call God today. Progressive
Christians have by and large abandoned the idea that Jesus died for our
sins
(atonement theology) and see atonement as part of several mythologies
that were
prevalent during Jesus' time and were wrapped around the historical
Jesus who
was probably a revered Rabbi and was killed by the authorities for his
radical
views.
Yes, to answer your question about earnings,
there is
something in the Bible about the importance of tithing and over the
years that
has been interpreted as 10% of pretax earnings by the conservative
Christians.
Of course the same Bible says that men should not cut our sideburns,
cannot eat
certain foods, should kill our children if they insult their parents and
a whole
lot of other things that the Bible folks conveniently ignore. Sadly the
result
has been some very wealthy pastors who got that way off the backs of a
lot of
people who could not afford it. We do believe in living with a generous
heart
but not because of the Bible but because we believe in an abundant
universe and
to share of ourselves gives us satisfaction.
If you are really serious about learning more
about
progressive Christianity read more of the articles on our website and I
suggest
that you read three or four of the books that we feature on our site. I
would
start with The God I No Longer Believe In, The Historical
Jesus for
Beginners, and Jesus Reconsidered and regarding the Bible,
Misquoting
Jesus by Bart Ehrman. I would also recommend any book by Marcus Borg,
especially
his book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time or anything by
Bishop
Spong. If you are comfortable with your new salvation than pay your 10%
and go
no further. However if you are truly interested in learning about how
the church
changed the Jesus message than I suggest you do some serious studying.
I leave you with this thought. One of the things
that
probably got Jesus killed by the authorities was has his belief that one
did not
have to be cleansed in the temple nor did one need an agent or broker or
an
intercessor to have relationship with Alaha or God, as we call it today.
He told
his followers that when they have done harm to another or to themselves
the
needed to repent. That is to make amends and change their actions and
when they
did those things sincerely (with heart and mind) they were giving a
clean slate
by God. It seems very strange to me that an entire religion based on
Jesus' life
and teachings could be created with the idea that we needed his
suffering and
death to have communion with God.
If it make sense to you than go with it in
peace.
I hope this is helpful.
Fred
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