Musings on Going Back to the Future in the Evolution of Christianity

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., April 27, 2024

Religions provide institutional systems of faith, and most of us begin to doubt the certainty of religious doctrines as we age.  Our journey of faith is based on changing understandings of scripture, tradition, reason and experience; and the Wesleyan Quadrilateral describes that evolution of faith as our theological task.

  

Reason and experience should create doubt in exclusivist church doctrines that limit salvation to Christians.  The gospel accounts describe Jesus as a maverick Jewish rabbi who never promoted any religion, not even his own.  Jesus was a universalist who emphasized that our salvation was based on sharing God’s transforming love with others.  

The universalist teachings of Jesus are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves.  That’s a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims that promotes religious reconciliation in a world of increasing religious diversity and competition.

In the 4th century Constantine institutionalized the church by making it part of the Roman Empire.  The altruistic and universal teachings of Jesus were subordinated to exclusivist Christian beliefs never taught by Jesus, but that became popular as a form of cheap grace that enabled Christianity to become the world’s most popular religion.

Since then the church has made belief in Jesus Christ as the Trinitarian alter ego of God the only means of salvation.  They knew that the altruistic teachings of Jesus on sacrificial love would never be popular, but that making exclusivist beliefs in the divinity of Jesus as the only means of salvation could be the foundation of the world’s most popular and powerful religion.

Martin Luther’s Reformation doctrine of sola fide (faith alone) affirmed the priority of faith over works of altruistic love, and modern Christian creeds continue to emphasize exclusivist man-made Christian doctrines.  Even so, the teachings of Jesus remained moral imperatives of Christianity until they were displaced by white evangelicals in the election of 2016.

In the 20th century most Christians believed that following the teachings of Jesus as the word of God was the first priority of Christian faith.  Today promoting exclusivist beliefs in Jesus as a surrogate Christian god is the first priority of the church.  I have kept faith in discipleship and reject exclusivist Christian beliefs, and have continued to grow in faith; and I’m not alone.

Today the  church is shrinking, with an increasing number of “nones” leaving a church that lacks a moral compass.  It’s past time for the church to abandon its exclusivist beliefs and to go back to the future by giving primacy to the teachings of Jesus as the universal word of God.  The alternative is for the church to be relegated to the dustbin of history.          

  

Notes:

The four components of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral—scripture, tradition, experience and reason—are described in Our Theological Task in The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2012 (The United Methodist Publishing House, Nashville Tennessee) at pages 78-91. See https://www.cokesbury.com/forms/DynamicContent.aspx?id=87&pageid=920.  It should be noted that reason includes critical biblical scholarship that relates to interpretations of scripture that are part of tradition, illustrating how the four components are interrelated. 

Thomas Jefferson once opined that “the teachings of Jeus were the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” and he detested exclusivist church doctrines.  In 1831 Alexis DeTocqueville toured America and  observed that its many Christian sects shared a “Christian morality” that produced common standards of legitimacy that defined what is right, and imbued American politics with its moral authority.  On the views of Thomas Jefferson and Alexis deTocqueville on the moral values of religion in American politics, see Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy (July 1, 2017) at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html. See also Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Universal and Altruistic Jesus, August 19, 2023, at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

Universalism can reconcile progressive Christians, Jews and Muslims.  While universalists are a minority among Jews, Christians and Muslims, they can be a reconciling voice promoting a common word of faith in those competing religions.  On universalism, see Universalism: A theology for the 21st century, by Forrest Church, November 5, 2001, at http://www.uuworld.org/articles/universalism-theology-the-21st-century.  

On the few remaining universalist Christians, see https://christianuniversalist.org/.

Robin Meyers is the author of Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus (HarperCollins Publishers, 2009), and the title of his book says it all.  Meyers spoke at the Barnes Symposium at the University of South Carolina on April 12, 2019 on From Galilean Sage to Supernatural Savior (or, How I Became a Heretic with Help from Jesus). While Meyers is critical of the church, he has been pastor of Mayflower Church, a large UCC congregation in Oklahoma City, for over 30 years.

On Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Losing Religion and Finding Faith, see 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/09/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-losing.html.

On why an increasing number of American “nones” don’t identify with a religion, a Pew Research Center survey found that 60% question religious teachings, and 49% oppose positions taken by churches on social and political issues.  See http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/08/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=a709783228-RELIGION_WEEKLY_2018_08_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-a709783228-399971105.

On Losing Faith: Why South Carolina is abandoning its churches, see https://www.thestate.com/news/local/article215014375.html#wgt=trending.

On Back to the Future: A 21st Century Pentecost for the Church, see

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/06/back-to-future-21st-century-pentecost.html.

Musings on Moral and Political Issues in the Middle East Crisis

By Rudy Barnes, Jr. April 20, 2024

Thomas Friedman is an authority on Middle East politics.  His recent article on how to clean up the Middle East mess is hopeful, even if it seems like wishful thinking; but I have one major disagreement with Friedman’s assessment of the Middle East mess.  He gave President Biden “high marks” for his support of Netanyahu’s policies.  I don’t.

Biden should never have given Netanyahu America’s “ironclad” support for his military strikes that violated international humanitarian law, killing over 33,000 Palestinians.  Friedman acknowledged “the toxic image of Israel in America and other Western capitals” caused by Netanyahu’s Zionist policies, and that it cannot be remedied “as long as Netanyahu is in power.”  

Adversaries in the Middle East are Palestinian Muslims and Israeli Jews, but their conflict is based more on political, moral, and cultural issues rather than religious issues.  It’s similar to racial conflict in the U.S. that’s based on racial, cultural and partisan issues rather than competing religions; but both conflicts reflect a lack of moral standards in religion and politics. 

The MIddle East Crisis reflects a need for Jews, Christians and Muslims to promote universal standards of altruistic morality and reconciliation that promote the common good. Promoting the altruistic common good in diverse democracies is a challenge for all religions,  since most religions subordinate moral standards to exclusivist beliefs.

There is a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims that emphasizes altruism, reconciliation and promoting the common good.  It’s the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves. It was taken from the Hebrew Bible, taught by Jesus and accepted by Islamic scholars as a common word of faith.

There has been a reluctance for Jews, Christians and Muslims to extend the moral standards of their faith to their politics.  Moral standards should be the top priority of religion and politics, with standards of  political legitimacy in democracy its most important context.  The failure of the Abrahamic religions to promote morality in politics is their  greatest failure.

It’s ironic that the lack of morality in politics should be so evident in Israel, the ancient Holy Land that produced so many Jewish prophets, including Jesus, whose teachings are summarized in the greatest commandment, but where Netanyahu is now Israel’s radical Zionist prime minister whose policies promote ethnic hostility and violence; and he’s not alone.

As Thomas Friedman has pointed out--and the world has witnessed--violence has become the world’s political norm despite democracy being the most popular form of government, enabling people to become the masters of their political destiny.  That’s a sad irony, but it should remind us that God is full of surprises in a world of ironic human depravity.

Notes:

On Thomas Friedman’s article on How to be Pro-Palestinian, Pro-Israeli and Pro-Iranian, see https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/16/opinion/israel-iran-gaza.html.

On The greatest commandment as a common word of faith, see http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html.

On Who Is My Neighbor?  See

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/who-is-my-neighbor.html

OnThe Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves, see

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/the-politics-of-loving-our-neighbors-as.html.

On Altruism: The Missing Ingredient in American Christianity and Democracy, see 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/03/altruism-missing-ingredient-in-american.html.

On  Musings on a Common Word of Faith and Politics for Christians and Muslims, see 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/10/musings-on-common-word-of-faith-and.html.

On The Universal Family of God: Where Inclusivity Trumps Exclusivity, see 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/06/the-universal-family-of-god-where.html.

On Musings on a Politics of Reconciliation: An Impossible Dream? see

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/06/musings-on-politics-of-reconciliation.html.

On Musings on Diversity in Democracy: Who Are Our Neighbors?, see 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/07/musings-on-diversity-in-democracy-who.html.

On Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Politics of Christian Zionism, see

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

On Musings on DEI, Democracy, Demagoguery and Providing for the Common Good, see 

https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/04/musings-on-dei-democracy-demagoguery.html.

On  Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Most Fundamental Value of Democracy, see 

https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/04/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-most.html.  

On the diversity of people in America, and how most foreign-born in America live in four states, see https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/half-foreign-born-people-us-live-just-4-states-rcna147111.

On How Trump fills a void a void in an increasingly secular America, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/05/trump-religion-secularism-authoritarian-populism//

On How church attendance has declined in most religious groups, see https://news.gallup.com/poll/642548/church-attendance-declined-religious-groups.aspx. 

Oh Yes, we’re divided. But a new AP poll shows Americans still agree on most core American values, see https://apnews.com/article/ap-poll-democracy-rights-freedoms-election-b1047da72551e13554a3959487e5181a.

On How a nonconforming minority can defeat Christian nationalism, see https://sojo.net/articles/nonconforming-minority-can-defeat-christian-nationalism.

On Religious change in America, see  https://www.prri.org/research/religious-change-in-america/#page-section-0.

On Democracy as a Christian value, see https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/democracy-is-a-christian-value/.

Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Most Fundamental Value of Democracy

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., April  13, 2024

Altruism is the most fundamental value of the Abrahamic religions in democracy, and it leads to reconciliation.  It’s a moral imperative of the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves, and it’s a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.  Why do so many ignore that fundamental value of faith?  

Centuries of religious and political hatred have blinded Jews, Christians and Muslims to the need to reconcile with their adversaries.  Just look at the Jews and Palestinians in Israel and the racism among Christians in America.  The moral imperative to love others in the greatest commandment is not about affection, but about reconciling with the people we don’t like.

Reconciling with those of other races, religions and politics in a  democracy doesn’t mean liking them, or even agreeing with them on contentious issues.  In pluralistic democracies it means learning to coexist in peace with those of other races, religions and politics.  The alternative is degradation to a more authoritarian democracy.

Those Democracies that have diverse populations and make the greatest commandment a legal and moral imperative of their faith and politics can thrive as libertarian democracies.  Democracies that ignore the need for altruism to promote the common good are often corrupted by demagogues like Trump into authoritarian democracies with little freedom. 

In the U.S fundamental freedoms are guaranteed in a Constitutional Bill of Rights, with equality under the law as the standard of justice. In a healthy libertarian democracy the capacity to reconcile contentious political and religious differences is needed to prevent political polarization and the risk of losing fundamental freedoms in a trend to more authoritarian politics. 

Providing for the common good is an essential characteristic of a healthy libertarian democracy and requires a commitment of most voters to altruistic values.  Thomas Jefferson considered the altruistic moral teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” and he detested church doctrines that distorted the teachings of Jesus.  

Alex DeTocqueville saw the necessity of morality in politics and considered the church the primary source of morality in America; but he failed to foresee how slavery and the Civil War would split a nation and its church with slavery and racism.  The church has since subordinated the altruistic teachings of Jesus to exclusivist doctrines on salvation never taught by Jesus.

The church is now in decline.  It has become irrelevant because it has ignored the value of altruism needed for reconciliation and providing the common good taught by Jesus.  Nostradamus once observed that those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.  For the church to save itself and American democracy from the dustbin of history, it must give primacy to the altruistic teachings of Jesus over exclusivist church doctrines.

 

Notes: 

On the views of Thomas Jefferson and Alexis deTocqueville on the moral values of religion in American politics, see Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy (July 1, 2017) at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html. See also Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Universal and Altruistic Jesus, August 19, 2023, at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html. A distinguished group of biblical scholars has recognized Thomas Jefferson as a pioneer in The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus in The Five Gospels, New Translation and Commentary by Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and The Jesus Seminar, at pages 2 and 3.   A Polebridge Press Book, McMillan Publishing Company, NY, 1993.  “The book is dedicated to Galileo Galilei, who altered our view of the heavens forever, Thomas Jefferson,  who took scissors and paste to the gospels, and David Freiedrich Strauss, who pioneered the quest for the historical Jesus.” Jefferson’s Jesus provides the universal teachings of Jesus on morality taken from the Gospels.  They are compared with those of Muhammad in The Teachings of Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy.  It’s an interfaith study guide based on Jefferson’s Jesus and is posted in the Resources at  http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/. The Introduction (pp 10-15) provides an overview of the study guide, and reference to Jefferson’s 1804 letter to Henry Fry is at end note 2 at p 425.  Like many of the Founding Fathers, Jefferson was a deist, a spiritual but not religious, agnostic or heterodox Christian.  The terms have overlapping meanings that distinguish them from orthodox Christians.  In a world of increasingly pluralistic religions, non-orthodox truth seekers will likely determine the future of religion and the moral standards of political legitimacy that shape the American civil religion.

On how Jefferson’s Bible contributed to America’s religious diversity in its early days, see http://www.npr.org/2017/06/28/534765046/smithsonian-exhibit-explores-religious-diversitys-role-0in-u-s-history.

Alexis DeTocqueville, a French aristocrat who visited the U.S. in 1831, astutely observed:  “Christianity, which has declared that all men are equal in the sight of God, will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the eye of the law.  But, by a singular concurrence of events, religion is entangled in those institutions that democracy assails…. By the sides of these religious men I discern others whose looks are turned to earth more than Heaven; they are partisans of liberty...[who] invoke the assistance of religion, for they must know that liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. The sects which exist in the U.S. are innumerable.  They all differ in respect to the worship which is due from man to his Creator, but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man.  Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all the sects preach the same moral law in the name of God. Moreover, almost all the sects of the U.S. are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same.   

DeTocquevile, Democracy in America, Vol. 1, The Cooperative Publication Society, The Colonial Press, N.Y. and London, 1900 at pages 12 and 308.

On the diversity of people in America, and how most foreign-born in America live in four states, see https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/half-foreign-born-people-us-live-just-4-states-rcna147111.

On how Trump fills a void a void in an increasingly secular America, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/05/trump-religion-secularism-authoritarian-populism//

On how church attendance has declined in most religious groups, see https://news.gallup.com/poll/642548/church-attendance-declined-religious-groups.aspx.

On Yes, we’re divided. But a new AP poll shows Americans still agree on most core American values, see https://apnews.com/article/ap-poll-democracy-rights-freedoms-election-b1047da72551e13554a3959487e5181a.

On how Church Attendance Has Declined in Most U.S. Religious Groups,  Three in 10 U.S. adults attend religious services regularly, led by Mormons at 67%, see  https://news.gallup.com/poll/642548/church-attendance-declined-religious-groups.aspx.

On how a nonconforming minority can defeat Christian nationalism, see https://sojo.net/articles/nonconforming-minority-can-defeat-christian-nationalism.

On religious change in America, see  https://www.prri.org/research/religious-change-in-america/#page-section-0.

On Democracy as a Christian value, see https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/democracy-is-a-christian-value/.