Christianity

About Progressive Christianity
"...embrace the search not certainty"

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Overview:

The Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC) ₁ was founded in 1996 by a retired Episcopalian priest, James Adams, in Cambridge, MA. It currently represents the most liberal established Christian group within Christianity. It is not a denomination. Rather it is a network of affiliated congregations, informal groups, and individuals.

In an era where the loudest and most visible Christian voices are from fundamentalist and other Evangelical denominations and para-church organizations, the mission of The Center for Progressive Christianity is:

What kind of people are attracted to Progressive Christianity?

Progressive Christianity casts a very broad tent. All people are welcome as affiliates. Their fourth point invites: "....all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to): believers and agnostics, conventional Christians and questioning skeptics, women and men, those of all sexual orientations and gender identities, those of all races and cultures, those of all classes and abilities, those who hope for a better world and those who have lost hope." Most affiliates probably view religious belief as a process -- a searching for truth rather than establishing truth. Most are probably liberal Christians or post-Christians who stress justice and tolerance above creedal beliefs.

They include people who:

An analogy:

On their web site, they have a charming story that symbolizes the methodology of the Progressive Christianity movement. It involves a Sunday school teacher and a class of 9 or 10-year-olds. Even at that age, some were skeptical of the inerrancy of the Bible. They felt that many events recorded in the Bible never happened. Rather then try to convince the children otherwise, the teacher suggested that they read Charlotte's Web instead -- an enduring story of a bashful pig named Wilbur who befriended a spider named Charlotte. The class enjoyed the book. After some great discussions, the teacher interjected the thought that pigs and spiders cannot talk. The kids protested: "Well, it's a story." The teacher asked whether the story was true. They decided that it was sort of true. "In a way, it was true." So the teacher suggested: "All right, well let's look at the Bible in the same way." ₄

For the movement's founder, James Adams, "such open-ended and searching conversations are at the heart of what it means to be religious. They are the very thing he hopes to foster through the work of his small, but visionary organization. Education is at the core of the Center’s work, but it is a vision of education that calls for open-ended conversation, the use of scholarship and intellectual gifts, as well as personal experience and emotion."

The TCPC's Eight Points:

These are a series of ideas that describe the TCPC's approach to Christianity. ₅ It is not a statement of faith or creed. It is more a description of how Progressive Christians approach live. They are paraphrased below for brevity and to avoid copyright conflicts:

1. Focus: The teachings and life of Jesus provide them with a path to God.
2. Pluralism: They recognize that others follow their own paths to God which are equally true for them.
3. Communion: They view the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus' name to represent "an ancient vision of God's feast for all peoples."
4. Inclusivity: All are welcome to become involved; persons of all genders, sexual orientations, traditions, races, etc.
5. Reciprocity: How we treat others is the "fullest expression" of our beliefs.
6. Search: They find more grace in searching for truth than in accepting certainty.
7. Community: They form communities to support each other in their quest for peace, justice, a restored environment, and to provide hope.
8. Cost: Following Jesus involves a personal investment in "selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege."

The Progressive Christian symbol is an eight-pointed star, representing these eight ideas that they hold in common. The twelve-pointed star that appears in the ReligiousTolerance.org logo at the top of each page on our website is unrelated to the Progressive Christian symbol.

The Crosswalk America trek of 2006:

A group called "Crosswalk America" started walking at Phoenix, AZ on APR-16, and ended in Washington DC on SEP-03. They are progressive Christians who were publicizing what they refer to as the "Phoenix Affirmations:"

"Their desire was to turn the present course of Christianity in America away from its divisive pro-war, anti-female, anti-gay public face, where those who disagree are relegated to an emotional status somewhere between being excommunicated and burned at the stake, to a religion identified with the words 'love' and 'inclusion.' In every community entered across this nation, these walkers went to the local churches, identified themselves and shared their message. They worshiped in all kinds of settings, deliberately including the most fundamentalist. One was called 'The Jesus Baptist Church' in Springerville, Texas, that stated publicly their belief in the inerrancy of the Bible and the sinfulness of homosexuality, but they also worshiped in a Metropolitan Community Church in New Mexico, that was organized just for homosexual people who had been forced out of their churches by religious and biblical prejudice." _7,8

Local groups, regional networks, web sites, etc:

Books:

Some books on Progressive Christianity:

A good indication of the diversity of Progressive Christianity's beliefs may be found in the writings of TCPC's honorary advisers. They include:

Other books:

Publications:

They published Constellation, a semi-annual periodical, which appears to have been discontinued. Each issue contained many articles dealing with a single theme. For example:

In 2003, they joined with Rising Star Press to publish Jack Good's book "The Dishonest Church." ₅

Their web site has many information features:

References:

1. Progressive Christianity movement's home page is at: http://www.tcpc.org/ Their address is The Center for Progressive Christianity, 4916 Pt. Fosdick Dr., NW  #148, Gig Harbor, WA  98335. Telephone: 253-303-0022. E-mail: center@tcpc.org
2. "The mission of the Center for Progressive Christianity is..." at: http://www.tcpc.org/about/mission.html
3. Jack Good, "The Dishonest Church" Rising Star Press, (2003). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
4. E.B. White, "Charlotte's Web," HarperTrophy, (reprinted 1999). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
5. "The 8 points: 2003 version," at: http://www.tcpc.org/
6. Tom Harpur, "Valuing search over certainty," The Toronto Star, 2003-SEP-29, at: http://www.torontostar.com/
7. J.S. Spong, "Crosswalk America Arrives in Washington, DC," A New Christianity for a New World newsletter, 2006-SEP-13.
8. "Change the face of Christianity in America," Crosswalk America, at: http://crosswalkamerica.org/

Copyright © 2003 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2003-SEP-28
Latest update: 2008-APR-11
Author: B.A. Robinson