FUSsa-talk Mailing List: Fwd: Understanding our <progressive Christian> neighbors

[Robert Tapp (tappx001]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Robert Tapp <tappx001 [at] umn.edu>
> Date: August 27, 2009 10:51:45 AM CDT
> To: Humanist Institute Discussion List <hidisc [at] humanistinstitute.org>
> Subject: Understanding our <progressive Christian> neighbors
>
> Several writers in the humanist camp have been arguing that liberal/ 
> progressive religionists simply serve as covers and fronts for the  
> conservative/reactionary bulk of members of those groups.
>
> Peter Laarman argues here that innovations (heresies) have been and  
> still can be the tomorrows of religions.
>
>         
> http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/1787/the_unbelieving_future_of_christian_faith
>
> Humanists need to empiricize these arguments by doing careful  
> religion history. Go beyond the scriptures and the leaders to the  
> ordinary believers and their impacts. Would the future for developed  
> countries then be projected as secularized Europe? Or as the  
> religions-many-but-lite US.
>
> It may be that the lite/spiritual types have indeed abandoned past  
> dogmatic rigidity, but at this point the reactionary political  
> values seem highly correlated. Healthcare? Torture? Militarism?  
> Misogyny? Anti-science? Faith trumping reason? Sexuality rigidity?
>
> Bob