Dear Progressive-Leaning "Nones," "Dones," "Deconstructing," and “Spiritual but not Religious” Friends

I'm Back With Another Invitation To Join Our Table

Dear Progressive-Leaning Nones, Dones, Deconstructing, “Spiritual but not Religious” Friends,

I’m back again —during this time of national urgency— to once again lay out the buffet that is “Mainline Protestantism;” and to, once again, gently say…

“If you’re ever hungry, come have dinner with us…”

Today, I’d like to illustrate why I think you might like us, by lifting up what is often seen as an incredibly boring and rote thing:

Social teaching.

And, for the purpose of this essay today, and our time right now: Social teaching on immigration.

Look.
I know we’re not perfect.
I know we’re boring.
I know we move slowly, and ploddingly, to change some of our polity. We “mainlines,” especially we United Methodists, were especially slow to change on human sexuality.¹

Immigration, As “Issue of the Day”

The “buffett table” I’m here to set today is this paragraph of social teaching from the United Methodist Church, on the issue of immigration:

This is from an official book of teaching we UMs call “The Book of Resolutions.” This specific resolution was passed a decade ago, and reaffirmed just last summer.

That same resolution (4271) also says this:

“Raids of workplaces, homes, and other social places have often violated the civil liberties of migrants. Migrants should be given due process and access to adequate legal representation. Due to these raids and the ensuing detentions and deportations that follow them, families have been ripped apart and the migrant community has been forced to live in a constant state of fear.”
(read the whole text here)

So, this is what United Methodism teaches on immigration.
And… a pretty good example of our “polity” on a social issue, in the news, right now.

We Are Here.
We’ve Been Here.

But as a “Mainline Protestant” pastor of more than thirty years now, here is the pattern I see, again and again…

Some issue, like what we are facing with immigration right now, comes up in the world.
Women’s Rights.
The Environment.
Racism.
Workers Rights.
LGBTQ Rights.

And one of us United Methodists will pull out the relevant social teaching, and post it (as I just did…). And invariably, somebody will repost it, along with a comment like:

“Man…I wish more churches would stand up and say things like this.”

And I always wince a little, because here’s the God’s-honest truth:

Some of us do.
Some of us always have.
And some of us always will.

We’ve stood up, time and again, for the rights of the oppressed and marginalized, and against the Powers of Empire and injustice. And some of us, right now, are doing this again.

And what I’m saying….Dear Progressive Leaning Folks I just mentioned at the start of this letter, is:

Join us.

Join Us.

Find a boring old mainline church to visit soon.
Check out their polity.
Search farther than the two “What We Believe” paragraphs on their website.
Look deeper than the stock pics on their Instagram. (If they even have one…)
See what they DO.
See how they serve.
Quiz their pastors.
Look deeper than the Bread and Circuses of worship style, music style, etc.

And….find a church that fits your values.

Values Alignment

We Progressive folks have, for years, been fearless in aligning our consumerist behavior with our moral beliefs. Time and again, folks loudly and proudly align their personal moral values with their shopping habits.

Walmart doesn’t pay workers well, so we shop at Costco.
Twitter becomes a shitshow cesspool, so we move to BlueSky.

But even in my city, among dear friends, I see elected Progressive leaders still attending megachurches that I know are absolutely inconsistent with their personal moral values.

We love to post on Instagram about “Buy Local,” even as we drive right past our neighborhood churches to the larger city megachurches.

We’re good at this, with consumer choices.
So, why aren’t we doing this with CHURCH?

Maybe it’s because we see religion as “optional?”
Maybe we fail to realize there are other options?
Maybe it’s because (and this is deeply true) whatever choice you make will still be a deeply flawed institution too?

But here’s the God’s-honest truth. Especially in a time like this, our social institutions matter. The guardrails are coming off our democracy. Fascism is on the rise. And, no, there is no “quick fix” for any of this. This will not be solved through one election, one SuperHero President, or one sermon or social teaching by any one pastor.

And, in case it’s not clear to you, already: Christianity specifically, and Religion more generally, is not going anywhere, any time soon. It’s a force to be reckoned with, for better or worse. And will be, for the rest of the lives of everybody reading this.

With the Christian Nationalist form of Christianity ascendent, Christians with the ability to speak, live, and witness to a different kind of Christianity…this becomes more…not less…important right now.

But: This cannot simply happen in online spaces, or by signing petition. My view is that it can only happen in the “real world.”

Mainlines Can Help Stitch Society Back Together

Our current society-wide regression will be solved, neighborhood by neighorhood, block by block…as we build back community and trust among a population decimated by lies, deceipt, and cruelty for decades now. Nobody trusts anybody any more. And, yes, we all have good reason not to.

But we will need insitutions, groups…yes, even churches…more than we ever have before. And we are not in a place where we can be precious about who is in, or who is out. Progressive coalitions must be built as wide and as deep as possible.

PRRI has shown that even in this last election, a majority of Democratic voters identified as some kind of religous person. Right at one half of all Kamala Harris voters identified as some kind of Christian. Throw in other faiths, and it’s still the majority of Progressive voters.²

But where are those Christian-leaning Progressive voters on Sundays? More often than not, either at home…or at some church that doesn’t fit their personal values.

Some churches have built their theology around exclusion.
No, we don’t need those places.

But some of us have built our witness around the idea of building bigger tables, and inviting more folks in…and we see this as the deepest part of Jesus’ Gospel. Our witness is, to paraphrase my friend Mark Miller, to “draw the circle wide.”

Again, these are fundamentally DIFFERENT views of what it means to be Chrstian and live the life of faith.

And so….maybe you need us in a way you can hardly name or don’t even realize. We need each other, because humans always need each other.

A Time For Renewed “Christian Realism”

Are our institutions/churches flawed?
Do they cause harm?

Yes, they are.
And yes, they do.

But that is because they are human, and not because they are evil. Some of us approach our insitutional life with a great deal of humility and soberness. Theologian Rienhold Niebuhr is the parent of so-called “Christian Realism.” He understood the inherent flaws of Mainline Protestants in his day (World War II, and following…)

He understood that we Mainline Protestants were likely too committed to the “Myth of American Exceptionalism.”
And he was right.

He understood that America was “transferring” its own unacknowedged sins through the external enemies of German Facism, followed by Russian Communism.
And he was right there too.

But! He still understood the importance of institutional life, as a force for stitching communities together.

Yes, churches do and have caused harm. And yes, we must still repent for this.

In our United Methodist tradition, our very first Methodist rule was “Do No Harm.” We still have harms to repent of…even as we still try built community. But the choice isn’t “either/or.” It’s not “repent” of our harm first, and then build community, later.

Our time calls for the messy work of both/and.

Once you deeply realize just how flawed and falible each of us are, then you abandon preciousness in favor of the hard work of building trust and community.

Everybody is needed, and everyone is valued.

Let me say it in a simpler way: Some of you Progressives who forcefully boycotted Chic-Fil-A a decade ago, are back to gnoshing on their irresistable, dopamine inducing, chicken sandwiches.

No, you are not evil. But, yes, you are human. And so is every church, neighborhood group, bowling league…you will ever consider joining.

Speaking of chicken…

The Chicken/Egg of How This Witness Can Grow

Yes, far too many Christian pastors are still far too timid.
But, pastoral leadership is always like the old “chicken/egg” riddle…

Which came first, the prophetic pastor or the prophetic layfolks?

My answer, after meditating on this for thirty years?
BOTH.

To use “Family Systems” language, churches are a family system. And for them to evolve, grow, change…for them to not regresss… everybody —leaders and followers— must show more courage.

Yes. Pastors should show more courage, and yes the should do this more often.

But, also yes, they need “flocks” who give them support for showing that courage, too. And if you’ve opted out…whatever your good and valid reason for this was when you did it…then you are not there to support the courage you think we need.

The way we all show more courage is that….we all show more courage.
We’ve all got to “go together” in this work, because a local church really IS a system of people, who all affect one another.

Why You Cried About Pope Leo Yesterday

If you’re non-Catholic who cried tears of joy and release when you heard the announcment of Pope Leo yesterday, the final word today is for you.

Because, honestly, you’re the real audience for this whole essay, and your tears are a “tell” about what you need in your life right at this moment.

Yesterday, I think I probably heard ten or more folk say, “I’m not even Catholic, and this makes me so happy…”

There’s a reason of this. This is because you understand that insitutions really do matter. You understand, somewhere inside you, that those insitutions need good leaders who can give us hope, expand love, and speak to grace and compassion.

Yes, we need leaders who will stand up. And you were so grateful to see it happening yesterday that it made your cry.

For a moment, even if you’ll never be Catholic, you were grateful for Pope Leo and his church.

So….if I may…find your own, neighborhood “Pope Leo.”

No, they won’t be the head of a billion-person superstructure. Yes, they might be the pastor and members of some small, dusty, mainline church, at the end of your block with a few dozen grey haired ladies in the pews.
You know, that place you walk by all the time and wonder about.

Beautiful stuff can happen in places like that. And maybe the pastor of that church? Maybe she would love to be a little more edgy.
And you? Maybe you’re gonna be crying again soon, about some other issue that touches your soul in this time of national crisis.

Maybe both/and.

So, give them a visit.

Yes, they’re boring.
Yes, they’re flawed.

But those tears you shed yesterday are a clue; that, whether you know it or not, you need them.
And yes, whether they know it or not, they need you too.

1. That said, I hope and trust everyone understands that, throughout this past 50-years, up until 2024, the United Methodist Church was being attacked from within by evangelicals bent on destroying our progressive Christian witness. For all we were timid, we were also defending ourselves against this attack as well.

2. This is one of the more maddening features of the political and social left. And, has been for decades…
We love to vision the future…,because we’re progressive…
But we fail to account for the present.
Yes, the category of “Nones” and “Dones” and “Fuck you, I’m done with all organized religion” IS growing…
But, the reality of NOW is that the majority of Harris voters still identify as some kind of religious person. Yet, conversation about religious issues and voters is often completely absent in progressive spaces…leaving the “low information” voter to assume that to be “Chrsitian” is to be “Republican.”