The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

The self-emptying liberal churches



Those who don’t accept “supernatural religion” have little reason to go to church or pay for the upkeep of the hall.

And, anyway, if they want to they can always migrate to the nearest UU outpost where the "services" and talk are sure to be more congenial.

On the other hand, it is exactly the “old time religion” that is the best-selling product of the successful, Evangelical denominations.

And Doubthat is right about the past of progressive Christianity and the power of the Social Gospel.

Think of William Jennings Bryan.

Those Christians, like today’s Catholic clerics, combined the most stubborn theological and moral conservatism with political progressivism as regards its core economic agenda.

But in our time among the Protestants it looks pretty much like the theological conservatives have formed a permanent alliance with the Wall Street, bare-knuckle capitalist wing of the Republican Party and left the old progressive agenda to the self-emptying, theologically liberal churches.

All the worse for progressives.

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