From Progressive Christianity to the Gospel: Discipleship In a Culture of Deconstruction—The Alisa Childers Podcast #108

Thank you for your podcast. I just discovered it, though I did hear you on another podcast.

Just a few observations from this and the other podcast with Dave.

We must always remember that Satan is said to masquerade as an angel of light. He will give you just enough nuggets of truth that someone, including those who may know better, if they do not critically think through what is being said, will be deceived. At the moment, I am nominally a member of the PC(USA). Despite the 2010 and 2014 amendments to the Book of Order, which led to a mass exodus, there are still faithful individual congregations within that denomination, given that the church hierarchy, unlike the UMC and TEC, has cannot overly meddle in the affairs of the local congregation.

However, it amazes me the heresies, and I don't know what else to call most of them, that being dogmatically proclaimed by individuals as part of the institutional church organizations through official denomination outlets (webcasts and print media (inclusive of online articles)). And yet, the response from the highest levels is that we have diversity of thought, so they cowardly, assuming the individuals disagree with the teachings, behind that as an excuse not to exercise their moral authority over these individuals.

And truthfully, a person with a pleasant smiling face can do more damage to, ruin, make a shipwreck of, or what ever description you want to give to it to the faith of many, than the dour dogmatic person. We've seen it in the various sex abuse cases, where it would be said, "I've never suspected that Father/Cardinal/Pastor/whatever so and so was capable of that.". We see it with particularly this second generation of the prosperity gospel preachers, who've tried to disavow the blatant excesses of the first generation, and present a less brash, flashy version.

And what really angers me the most is that within the historic Protestant denominations, is that now you can essentially almost do as Tetzel did in one scene from the 2003 version of Luther by saying, "With this indulgence, a man can violate the very Mother of God herself and gain entrance into heaven.". In my interactions and monitoring of my denomination, I have come to believe that progressive Christianity is nothing more than the indulgence controversy in new garb and in some sense it is no different than the prosperity gospel by promising your best life now (by living your truth) toned down with a gospel of good works through concern for the poor and marginalized, aka social justice.

Sorry that this is long, but members of my household, who are very empathetic, and I cannot have a logical conversation, because it always turns into, well, you're a Republican, or you don't believe the gospel is for everyone. And it is very frustrating, so I have no other outlet at this point, except my pastor and others.