There was an entrepreneur and educationalist who I had the honour of knowing. He founded schools. Big schools. And his philosophy could be summarized in two words: joy and curiosity.

He believed learning is best done, and is most enduring, when its enjoyable. He also believed that questioning, and the curiosity that drove it, was critical to learning. So, his job was to create the environment, fund, and employ the staff, to make it so.

Which he did. He was hugely successful.

Progressive Christianity, the name of the peg I’ve hung my coat on for the last 20 or so years, also values those two words: joy and curiosity.

Faith is about finding joy. It’s about finding that you are loved, have always been, and will always be. You are loved and belong.

There is no judgemental God blaming you, calling you a sinner, and condemning you unless you repent. That is a sick myth, and a very damaging one.

In finding the joy of belonging, many come in time to realize that everyone belongs. Everyone is fundamentally loved, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done. Even the people who are very different from you, or whom you don’t like.

So, there is no chasm between saved and sinners, heaven and hell. No God on one side and devil on the other. There are no chosen people and unchosen people. Those are all myths, created for the purpose of manipulation and fear.

Joy then, with its partners love and belonging, is a guide on the journey called faith. It motivates our participation and learning. It also helps us to see what’s wrong in the world, the many injustices and much suffering, and encourages us to try to make it right.

Progressive Christianity, like other progressive movements and faiths, has a strong commitment to trying to right injustice, include the excluded, and help the hurting. The dream is to build communities and nations founded on mutuality, diversity, participation, and just-peace.

The other word, curiosity, is also a crucial progressive value. It invites us to question not only the practices and decisions of churches, or theologies that have been created, but also the Bible itself and the very existence and nature of God. There is nothing off-limits to a question, no matter how threatened the one being questioned feels.

Similarly, we are invited to question the presumptions of the social and political contexts in which we live. Why are the rich so rich while the poor remain so poor? Why do men dominate the political landscape? Why are people afraid of immigrants when we or our ancestors were immigrants? Why do poverty and race seem to be intertwined?

For much of Christian history to question God, or the Church, or the political powers was not allowed. Particularly for the ‘lower’ classes. God was an absolute. And God was a He. A supreme, all knowing and all powerful He. And the Church was God’s minder, the gatekeepers, and was intolerant of any who questioned their privilege. And the political powers were often in an unholy alliance of mutual backscratching with the same.

Remnants of this coalition of power and privilege still exist, and still need deconstructing. Just as God, the Church, and the political and social landscape still need reimagining. So, progressive Christians, along with myriad others, dream and work to change the world for the good.

Glynn

(Photo: Jeremy Bishop | Unsplash)