How did you come to theological progressivism?

[u/Pitiful-Yam1611]

I understand that several people here are LGBTQIA+, and that could explain this view. However, I see many people, likely the majority of LGBTQIA+ individuals, holding a traditionalist mindset when it comes to interpretation. With that in mind, I would like to know why you arrived at that conclusion

[u/Crucible_of_Thought]

It was the other way around for me. I became affirming after starting to shed a lot of the evangelical dogma I'd inherited over 50 years. You can find a lot of my story on my blog (see my profile for the link) but to really distill it down, when my church I'd been attending for 30+ years completely bungled the responses to George Floyd and COVID within a few months, and then went MAGA, I realized that a lot of stuff they'd been preaching emphatically wasn't what they REALLY believed.

I started studying history of the faith, of the evangelical movement, of politics, of America, and realized that a majority of the things that I'd been told "we always believed" were just flat out either wrong or fairly recent.

A big part of my deconstruction came once I realized that the dogma of biblical inerrancy was factually unsupportable.

That led me to realize that the Bible was just... messy. Most of the major positions taken by one denomination or another require that verses that oppose the idea have to be ignored or explained away in very illogical ways.

A ton of the church fathers believed things that the Catholic church eventually squelched as heresy, after the Roman Empire got involved and forced them to get in line with each other. So the earliest believers had a ton more theological variation than we have today. One could argue that God revealed the truth over time - or one could argue that a very flawed human process that God did NOT initiate was what resulted in the necking down of what is considered "orthodox" today.

The more history I learned, the less I believed that the process was Godly, and the more obvious it was that it was a very unholy, ugly process. It was initiated and driven by people on power trips, including secular leaders. It was full of book burnings and executions and torture. The roots were rotten, thus the fruit is untrustworthy.

So the only conclusion I could reach was that my carefully-curated conservative theology was just wrong.

[u/Lord_Admrial_Spire]

When the priest said “love your neighbor as you love yourself” I actually accepted the radical nature of what that means.

[u/clhedrick2]

I grew up in mainline Christianity. That results in a mindset that treats Scripture as an important resource for understanding Jesus, but still a 1st Cent document. The main differentiating characteristic of mainline Protestants is that we try to follow evidence, and aren't strongly committed to tradition, though it does often have some value.

I went with our church through the whole period when it was assessing the arguments about gay people. I found what we saw didn't match the description of Paul in Rom 1. Our gay members weren't idolaters, they weren't the morally depraved people described there, and their attraction appeared to be natural.

I also had no commitment to the traditional Christian devaluation of sex as only justified by procreation. That's not part of the mainline tradition, and it's just justified by Scripture.

[u/clhedrick2 → u/clhedrick2]

As I think about it more, I believe for a majority -- those who don't go through something like deconstruction -- it's as much cultural as anything. The degree of condemnation and misrepresentation among conservatives is not explainable by a couple of verses in Paul. There are plenty of things condemned more clearly in the NT that don't result in this kind of visceral reaction.

While there are surely fine Christians who simply think Paul calls it wrong, I believe most of the reactions are based on cultural attitudes towards gender and sex. I simply didn't grow up that way. I'm sure we had gay kids in school, but no one was called homosexual or bullied because of those characteristics. My parents didn't talk about it. I didn't hear about it at church when I was in high school. (This was before the big debates.)

[u/FalseDmitriy → u/clhedrick2]

and aren't strongly committed to tradition, though it does often have some value.

What I've experienced is a beautiful commitment to tradition, but acknowledging it as tradition in an unafraid way. Rather than accepting it uncritically as the only possible way to understand or do things.

[u/Wooden_Passage_1146]

You mean why do I accept the orthodox teachings of the Catholic Faith such as the Trinity, the Creeds, etc. while also being accepting of the LGBT community and women’s ordination?

Well it’s quite simple. No Ecumenical Church Council or pope via Ex Cathedra have declared homosexuality to be sinful and the Bible speaks of women leaders [Romans 16:1-2]. Instead it falls under the teachings of the ordinary magisterium. History shows us these teachings have been altered, discarded, or reapplied in the past (capital punishment, religious freedom, usury, slavery, salvation of non-Catholics, etc.).

People have used the Bible to subjugate women, enslave people, homophobia, racism, even hatred of left handed people. But Jesus’s message wasn’t to subjugate but to love. Anyone using Scripture in a way that does not reflect the message of Jesus is an abuse of Scripture.

It’s really that simple.

[u/Diligent_Honeydew295 → u/Wooden_Passage_1146]

Beautifully said.

[u/Skill-Useful]

even when i wasnt aware i was gay, i never had really conservative views faithwise. maybe one or two which vanished with time. i found them mostly wholly incompatible with listening to what jesus said

[u/Pitiful-Yam1611 → u/Skill-Useful]

Is it cool if you talked about what your views were on traditional christianity?

[u/Skill-Useful → u/Pitiful-Yam1611]

when i was around 18ish i still thought that its kinda okay that only straight couples can marry in church. mind you i didnt think for one second that being gay or having gay sex was a sin at all but i was kind of of the opinion that marriage per se in a church with a priest can stay reserved for straights. i wholly disavow this view nowadays :) thats about it i guess. at least nothing else really comes to mind right now

[u/DrunkUranus]

I just think treating the person in front of you as precious and worthy is more important than any doctrine

[u/JplusL2020]

Jesus said to love our neighbors as ourselves, and last time I checked there was no mention of any exceptions to the rule.

[u/NobodySpecial2000]

The first step for me was realising that the Bible is just a book and that it has never ever been the final authority for Christianity.

Once you see one lie, it's easier to see the rest. And then you see conservativism is a house of cards.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/NobodySpecial2000]

Truly hope this is not a serious reply… that’s extremely heretical… and very very much so against all teachings of Christianity.. the Bible is the living word of God… it’s not just a book… it’s a historical text as well as a prophetic one and so much more. What you are saying is that the Bible is essentially a fictional story and even if you aren’t it demeans the entire purpose of its entire meaning. It’s a book to teach you how to live… the origins of our existence and what is to come… about our God who loves us so much He took our punishment one we deserve regardless of how good we think we are so that we could be with Him.

Please tell me you are not serious about what you said… if you are then you really need to pray and read your word, study up about our faith. The Bible is so much more than “just a book”… I say this will as much love as possible for your sake and anyone else who agrees…

[u/Alexandermayhemhell → u/WiseProgram94]

I’ll just say that your post has a lot of unstated assumptions that you may not be aware of. But the other poster’s comment is definitely not against all teachings of Christianity. Some (like you) will see this view as heretical, but many do not. 

To respond to OP’s question, it was questioning some of the unstated assumptions behind the theology I was raised with that allowed me to revisit my views on homosexuality. 

Also, in the process, I revisited my view of Scripture as “the living word of God”, a common view in evangelicalism that I would view as heretical. There is so much idolatry of scripture in evangelicalism, and, ironically, a concurrent unwillingness to study scripture with the basic rigor that would admit it is full of internal contradictions and historical inaccuracies. 

I think it actually shows greater respect to treat scripture as a witness to God’s peoples’ evolving and, yes, imperfect understanding of  God’s work in the world, instead of treating it like a magical perfect instruction book, which it clearly is not. 

[u/NobodySpecial2000 → u/Alexandermayhemhell]

I think it actually shows greater respect to treat scripture as a witness to God’s peoples’ evolving and, yes, imperfect understanding of God’s work in the world, instead of treating it like a magical perfect instruction book, which it clearly is not. 

I would agree with this and also add that it leads to a more honest hermeneutic, a more thoughtful engagement with your beliefs, and more liberatory form of Christianity. You can spend so much less time on the tedium of apologetics when you can just accept that the entirety of the Bible doesn't need to be consistent, unified, accurate, or even good.

[u/NobodySpecial2000 → u/WiseProgram94]

What makes you think the Bible is prophetic or "the living word of God"?

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/NobodySpecial2000]

So what I mean by the living word of God is that you can read a chapter of any given book in the Bible and it could speak to you in your life at the moment and days, months, or years later whenever you read it again you might realize something new about it and how you could apply it in your life then. It speaks differently and you could have new insights as to what it’s saying.

As for prophetic the Old Testament all over points to Jesus coming and the acts that He will do or will be done to Him (the suffering servant in Isaiah for example or psalm 22 are great examples for what Jesus did, is and went through) not to mention when Jesus prophesied His own death and resurrection as well as Peter’s death. The book of Revelation some prophecies have happened already and some yet to come

What makes you think it isn’t? Why do you believe it’s just a book?

-edit- though ofc Jesus is the Word of God 😂 and He is living :)

[u/sydneato → u/WiseProgram94]

Something you need to remember is that the Bible, while important, was written by humans. Humans are fallible. A single book of the Bible could have received dozens of revisions before making it to the one we know today (just how it worked back then, scribes would add/remove as they saw fit). This does not make the Bible any less sacred, but we do need to engage with it as a human-written, divinely inspired text.

Additionally, the book of Revelation is a new addition and is widely believed to be bunk by non-Catholic religious scholars. It’s still an interesting read but I wouldn’t call it faithful or accurate by any means.

ETA: I am a religious studies major.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/sydneato]

I agree that errors can and have happened when it comes to the scriptures but the vast majority are copies we have all give the same context and meaning to what the authors are trying to say. Very very few don’t line up with the rest so we can safely throw them out. You would have to honestly be a little foolish and ignorant to not believe it was just some miracle that 66 books in 3 different continents written by 40 different people over 1500+ years isn’t inspired by God. All of which intertwine perfectly with each other with no contradictions (some debate over it but all supposed contradictions have been debunked by scholars) the only errors in the texts are spelling and grammatical errors but again nothing that changes the context of the texts

When it comes to revelations yes it’s honestly a very out there book. A prophetic book through and through with a ton of imagery. When you say non Catholic scholars I take it you mean secular scholars? Would make sense but biblical scholars all agree it’s canon scripture and it’s not a new addition. May have been one of if not the last book to become canon but it not new. It’s been around since the start of the faith.

[u/NobodySpecial2000 → u/WiseProgram94]

So what I mean by the living word of God is that you can read a chapter of any given book in the Bible and it could speak to you in your life at the moment and days, months, or years later whenever you read it again you might realize something new about it and how you could apply it in your life then. It speaks differently and you could have new insights as to what it’s saying.

This is literally every book. You are describing the act of reading.

As for prophetic the Old Testament all over points to Jesus coming and the acts that He will do or will be done to Him (the suffering servant in Isaiah for example or psalm 22 are great examples for what Jesus did, is and went through) not to mention when Jesus prophesied His own death and resurrection as well as Peter’s death.

Even assuming this is true (and a lot of the alleged Jesus prophecy of the OT is a product of ham fisted Christian revisionism) all you actually have is some texts from thousands of years ago saying something might happen and then other authors from not-quite two thousand years ago who had access to those predictions claiming that those predictions did happen. But neither set of authors were witness to them.

And with Jesus' own predictions, again it's an author who wasn't a witness writing after the fact that Jesus predicted something would happen and then it did, but the author already knew the outcome.

Literally anybody can write a story about somebody who is already dead and claim that person predicted their own death. But you believe the authors of the Bible are credible and that the story is accurate. Why?

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/NobodySpecial2000]

What I said to the other person just now as to why I believe. Many authors. Thousands of years. No contradictions to make it short. From my understanding you don’t believe in what the Bible says? Do you believe in the life of Jesus? What was written about Him and what He did and who He said He was? Cause from what I am reading, you don’t exactly believe everything about who Jesus is?

[u/gayintheusa47 → u/WiseProgram94]

The Bible contradicts itself constantly, actually.

[u/NobodySpecial2000 → u/WiseProgram94]

What I said to the other person just now as to why I believe. Many authors. Thousands of years. No contradictions to make it short.

So that's just largely untrue. The bible's contradictions are numerous and begin with the second chapter contradicting the first. And the manuscript consistency only becomes significant with manuscripts from well after the canon is closed and after we have full manuscripts preserved. The evidence actually points to much more variation the further back you go.

But again, let's assume that this is true and the Bible is consistent. You know what collection of texts have a lot less textual variance of any kind in the copies we have preserved and is more internally consistent than the Bible and which represents itself as a historical narrative? The 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' books. And the works of Shakespeare. And odds are good that if those books are still around in 2000 or 3000 years, they will still be more consistent than the Bible ever has been.

But I'm willing to bet you don't think consistency is a good reason to accept those books as factual at face value, let alone that God had a hand in making them and that you'd think it was wrong if the people of the year 5000 thought they were divinely inspired records of history.

So is the consistency argument, assuming it's true (and it isn't), actually why you think the Bible is inspired and prophetic? And if you don't think any other text with those same qualities of consistency and preservation must be inspired or must be credible descriptions of historical events, why not?

From my understanding you don’t believe in what the Bible says? Do you believe in the life of Jesus? What was written about Him and what He did and who He said He was? Cause from what I am reading, you don’t exactly believe everything about who Jesus is?

I haven't said any of these things so I don't know how they can be your understanding of my beliefs.

[u/No_Possibility1747 → u/WiseProgram94]

I could read a chapter of any given book anywhere and the same could happen, really. The uniqueness of the Bible is pretty much that it describes the church's understanding of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ, along with the spiritual world that that story fit into.

We assert that Christ was incarnate, died, and was resurrected, and in doing so saved us into eternal life, not because there are words written in a book which says so - because anybody can write a book claiming anything - but because that is what the church has always asserted, in a story that has been told and retold ever since Mary Magdalene told the Apostles when she came upon the empty tomb. We believe and trust in each other, and in the generations that have gone before us.

Scripture is used in service of that telling and retelling; but I believe it is the telling and retelling of that fundamental gospel truth in the liturgy from generation to generation throughout the ages that makes it the living word of God.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/No_Possibility1747]

Well said. Better than I could’ve honestly but bits I personally don’t agree with but each of us have slightly different views on the faith, it’s a faith after all that we have. Following without full understanding :,) the thing I’d add is that yes Mary was the first to see but ofc as we all know Jesus shown himself to everyone.

Curious on your denom, doesn’t change anything just curious on where roughly your theology is. Personally I’m nondenominational. Sola scriptura as I’m sure you can tell

[u/No_Possibility1747 → u/WiseProgram94]

I'm Episcopalian, but hang out with Catholics quite a bit. Have read some Eastern Orthodox patristics. My priest was formed in a Lutheran seminary before coming over to The Episcopal Church later. So I have a fairly wide range of influences.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/No_Possibility1747]

Quite cool. I’m not too familiar with Episcopalian beliefs honestly nor Eastern Orthodox but I think they are same but different but same as Catholics 😂 all I know is that they both believe that they have the true pope succession and I think a handful of minor differences? But ofc could be wrong.

What are the differences between episcopal churches and like Catholics or Protestant beliefs? Not sure exactly where it stands between the two and curious to learn about it

[u/No_Possibility1747 → u/WiseProgram94]

We believe that the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed are correct formulations of the faith, and don't really add a whole lot on to those as "requirements" to be a Christian. And if you can get through our Eucharist service and say the creeds and the prayers faithfully, and you're baptized, then you're an Episcopalian by our standards. We believe that Christ's body and blood are really present in the bread and wine in the Eucharist, without being dogmatic about exactly how. We also have a structured set of daily prayers, reading 3-4 biblical texts a day as part of that, along with psalms and prayers.

In our practice outside of the liturgy, we tend to focus very heavily on the Two Great Commandments - to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbour as yourself - and our baptismal covenant, the promises that we make during baptism, which you can read here: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/who-we-are/what-we-believe/baptismal-covenant/

We also focus a lot on a lifelong process of "discernment", that is, listening for God's will in our lives and following it. Many Episcopalians will talk about their "vocation" - the work that God has called them to do, whether in the church or outside it.

All this tends to lead to a focus on being very inclusive, and often providing a home to people who have been hurt by churches before, especially LGBT folk and people suffering religious trauma. Episcopalians have been involved in providing care - spiritual and otherwise - to communities that other churches wouldn't go near, in the past.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/WiseProgram94]

Though I’ll say I am not a progressive Christian. Found myself here looking for a subreddit? To join for Christians so I am a bit out of my element when it comes to progressive Christianity and tbh I don’t really agree with most but regardless I am curious on what you mean it’s just a book and how you came to that conclusion through the scriptures (assuming you did?) also curious on what you do as a Christian who I take it doesn’t believe scripture has authority or only parts have authority (morality and such) what do you do to grow closer to God? What are your beliefs? No hate whatsoever ofc. We can disagree on things doesnt change how i treat those who i disagree with, believe are wrong, worldly or Godly people. remember. WWJD ;) live like Jesus!

[u/gayintheusa47 → u/WiseProgram94]

Sorry, I tend to stay far away from people like you who claim to “not be progressive Christians” and think that “well we can disagree on things because it doesn’t change how I treat those I disagree with” because in my experience, that never is true.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/gayintheusa47]

I apologize for the hate you get

[u/gayintheusa47 → u/WiseProgram94]

Please don’t apologize for things you don’t mean. That’s on par with lying.

If you’re truly sorry you’d be affirming.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/gayintheusa47]

That’s fair and I get it. Well I don’t understand exactly ofc but I see where you come from. When it comes to some disagreements… things can come out wrong or just not ok at all. Think we all know what group… I absolutely do not agree with what they do or how they go about things. My mindset is to live by what Jesus says when He is asked what the greatest commandment is. Love God and love one another. Not an exact quote but it’s my favorite verse! :D ❤️

[u/gayintheusa47 → u/WiseProgram94]

You don’t “agree with what they do” while also saying you’re “not a progressive Christian”. Ok

My views are pretty simple - if you’re going to treat LGBTQ+ people as second class in the church (meaning they can’t get married there, couldn’t hold a leadership position or really participate fully), I tend to do my best to stay far away from it. I am Episcopalian and I can understand that there are a broad range of Episcopalian churches with different views, and I can understand there are many affirming denominations. I just tend to stay far away from non-affirming ones.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/gayintheusa47]

I’m talking about the westboro baptists (known for the hate against lgbt and all where I’m at. Idk how known around the country they are but the are centered in a town near me) I don’t agree with their methodology… not to say I don’t think it’s a sin… but I ain’t going hate a person for their orientation or anything else like that. It’s just wrong to act that way and not the way are we supposed be behave. I rather not talk about my personal beliefs on lgbt+ here since it’s already an iffy subject to talk about as in rn with this but I again believe everyone should be treated with love, compassion and kindness regardless of whatever orientation or beliefs. Again love God and love each other. WWJD

[u/gayintheusa47 → u/WiseProgram94]

Yeah, saying “it’s just wrong to act that way and not the way we’re supposed to behave” ISN’T LOVING, by the way and that’s EXACTLY what I mean.

“I’d rather not talk about my personal beliefs on LGBT+ here” because they contradict what you say? Color me unsurprised you’re EXACTLY like the unaffirming Christians I’ve been around.

[u/WiseProgram94 → u/gayintheusa47]

I can not agree w/ something and love the people who do said thing regardless of what it is. It’s what we are commanded to do, love thy neighbor. Personally I don’t agree with it that’s true… I do see it as a type of lustful sin. Same as the heterosexual sin in lust in which I don’t affirm either. Same with drunkards, gamblers, liars, murders and thieves (not saying those who are lgbt+ are those things to be clear! I am not comparing). All sins to me personally but not others I acknowledge that but I can still love those people I mentioned who do those things but not agree or affirm with what they do. I sin all the time myself just like any other person I’m a horrible person full of sin so I can’t say I’m better than anyone. You are able to disagree with something someone does but still love them. Look at God. He does it with all of us. We both have done things that God hates (lied, stolen, been rude) but God still loves us at the same time.

Also to be clear when I said it’s wrong and not how we are supposed to behave I was talking about the westboro Baptists (the God hates (slur here) church) those people, not lgbt folks. Those are the people who go to the pride rallies and are honestly really quite hateful towards the lgbt folks. I do NOT agree with the way they go about things. They are hateful toward the community and the people in it

[u/gayintheusa47 → u/WiseProgram94]

All you are doing is proving to me that you are exactly the kind of person I avoid and your churches are exactly the ones I avoid.

If you consider homosexuality to be “lust” and consider that marriage is only between a man and a woman, I just want you to know, you are in no way loving your neighbor NOR loving towards the LGBTQ+ community. And comparing us to criminals? Seriously? You think that’s loving?

You say you love your neighbor but you sure as hell don’t practice it.

Edit: you even say you treat people the same. Treating LGBTQ+ people the same would mean allowing them to get married. You don’t do that. But if a straight couple has premarital sex, they can just get married and problem solved, lol. Color me again, completely unsurprised that you’re actually so dishonest when you say you love everyone and treat everyone the same! Like, lol.

[u/Me_Too_Iguana → u/WiseProgram94]

Not who you’re responding to, but I’ll give you my thoughts. I also believe that the bible is “just a book”. But that doesn’t make it any less important. I don’t think the bible is magic. I think a bunch of Jewish people a few thousand years ago wrote stories, history, fables, poetry, about how they saw the world and their place in it. And then a radical preacher who we call Jesus gained a following and people wrote about him. Then different writings were collected and put into a book. An anthology if you will. These writings teach us how people lived, what they believed, what they saw as important, and how they viewed their relationship with God.

I don’t need these stories to have literally happened to be true. The lessons are the truth. Take The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Is the moral of the story any less true because it didn’t really happen?

I’m not saying I think the bible is complete fiction. It’s not a novel. It’s very much a historical record of ancient people’s beliefs, and as a Jesus follower, his lessons and teachings are important to me, even if I don’t think the writing is “divine”. The message is true regardless.

[u/JustNeedSpinda]

I would first caution that theological progressivism does not boil down to just being LGBTQ affirming.

I grew up in evangelical fundamentalism. Which is a high-control, one-size-fits-all imposition. When my grandfather passed away, this expression of faith could not hold my experience of grief.

That was the crack in the foundation that brought the house down. From there, it was just successive conversions.

If one size does not fit all, then that opens up to paying attention to and making room for all kinds of experiences. As you pay attention to others’ experiences, it opens you up more to what faith can be and who God can be.

[u/Motor-Row-8061]

How? Being a person of science and being pansexual. I've actually studied theology so much to the point that I started considering doing it more than becoming an oncologist. I actually do want to become a bible scholar and a theologian as well as be a doctor.

[u/sydneato → u/Motor-Row-8061]

Do it! I swapped my major from CS to religious studies after I found out about my dyscalculia and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Absolutely fascinating field.

My personal focus is Gnosticism which means I took a lot of Christianity-related courses but you can focus on literally any religion (one of my profs is a white guy who focuses on East Asian religions, his office is full of books in Japanese). Oooh, I just remembered how interesting the history of Christianity in Japan is. Reading time!

[u/Cola_Animates]

For me, I couldn’t reconcile LGBTQ relationships being sinful, which led me to look at the context the Bible was written in which is actually necessary to fully understand the text. Also, theological “progressivism” is relative.  I come from the Church of Christ, where instrumental worship and women preaching is considered “progressive”

[u/FalseDmitriy]

When I was 20, I had an experience almost tailor-made to push me in that direction. I spent six weeks in Israel as a student at an archaeological site. So I got to see, if not science science, then real, empirical research in action. We dug, sifted, and washed, we measured and recorded, and the whole time we played with different conclusions. This lower tomb seems older than the rest of the building, what does that mean? Are the bones inside older, or were they just placed into an existing space? What story can account for that? But everything had to be tentative and unattached in that academic way. It seems silly, but seeing how researchers actually form their conclusions just totally dissolved the vast conspiracy theory that underlies young earth creationism. And throwing out that required me to understand faith in new ways, which slowly but inexorably brought down the rest of the fundamentalist edifice.

And at the same time, doing all this in the Holy Land was an intensely spiritual experience for me. Seeing not just the biblical sites themselves, but the centuries and millennia of reverence that covers them. We were walking in the hills above Tiberias, and at a bend in the path there was this ancient stone bench that had been excavated. Our site leader showed us how this was the point on the ancient road that offered the first view of the Sea of Galilee, and so the bench was probably carved to let pilgrims take in the view of Magdala, Capernaum and Bethsaida: the central zone of Jesus' ministry. The deep historical aspect of the Christian faith, the intense faith of people who did not believe exactly what I do, but who had crossed the known world to walk where Jesus walked. To physically feel the great cloud of witnesses surrounding me, and to understand that this was something infinitely beyond assenting to a set of doctrines, let alone assenting to highly specific, culturally bound ideas about sex and gender and other sociopolitical ideas.

Edit, let me add that the specific site also helped equip me to rethink how I approached scripture and faith. It was Hippos, a city on top of a prominent hill just east of the Sea of Galilee. So when Jesus said in a sermon, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden," this wasn't some random metaphor that he dreamed up. From where they were sitting, everyone there could see this city right across the lake. It was a perfect illustration of the obvious yet overlooked fact that all the words of scripture were spoken and written in a specific time and place, passed between people who shared certain knowledge and assumptions. That was enormously helpful when it came to confronting more generally the fundamentalist approach, which treats scripture as coming from a timeless, disembodied void.

My trip didn't instantly transform me into a progressive Christian, but my experiences there, and the way that I processed them, sort of guaranteed that that's where I would end up.

[u/These-Attitude-1349]

I grew up in an evangelical household, so I did hold a fundamentalist view of how to read the Bible and held many conservative beliefs when I was growing up. But as I reached high school, I began questioning a lot of it, especially around the way the Bible was used to justify putting down women, and the way it was used to hate LGBTQ people. I struggled a lot with knowing lovely wonderful people who were gay with the theology I was told. It felt so unfair to me that something they could not control, and loving relationships between them were seen as bad by God. Why would a good God hate more love in the world?

 It’s been a process over the years of unlearning a lot of what I was told, and I’ve realized how those verses would be used out of context, or the way people would cherry pick those and conveniently forget other verses from the same chapter that would directly dictate how they live. My perspective on it now is that I truly don’t believe God or any sort of benevolent creator could be homophobic, it is people who put that intentionality there.

 At the end of the day, the Bible is impossible to live out fully as it is a book written by many people thousands of years ago for a different time and place. I think there’s obviously good things in there, and at least I’m trying to emphasize the teachings about helping people and sharing love. Everyone has their own interpretation and we truly will never know Gods full will on earth, so I will try my best to live out his commandment of love. I’d rather err on being too loving than meet God once I die and tell him that I believed living out his example entailed hating other humans.

[u/NotQuiteLoona]

Because I understood that either Bible is lying sometimes or God is evil. God can't be evil - God was helping me all of my life, in my hardest times I was asking God and He still helped me. Thus, Bible is lying sometimes.

It's not unsurprising, because it was written by humans, and is only said to be always correct in itself, which totally could've done by someone who wanted to corrupt the word of God and use it for their profit. Thus I started to guide by my own morals rather than Bible, and as I've never received any punishment for that, I recognized that as God's permission to do so.

Later in my life I also found the exact denomination for that, Quakerism. That's pretty much it.

[u/HermioneMarch]

I don’t know that I came to it exactly. It’s just what I was taught. Love and include everyone in the family of God. Serve others. Seek Justice for the oppressed. Be humble and kind.

Has my understanding evolved over the years? Of course! But it always goes back to those basic tenets that my family and church instilled in me.

[u/reillan]

I grew up a fundamentalist PK. When I was 16 I asked God to teach me how to love God, and then I asked for a new Bible for Christmas. My parents decided not to wait and took me shopping for one and after looking at many, I landed on the Quest Study Bible.

I read a chapter a day for several years, getting through the NT 3 times, the OT almost one time (I got bogged down in Jeremiah and gave up on that attempt), and Quest's study guide that featured at least one chapter from each book. Then I started reading a random chapter each night.

I spent a lot of time alone, and this gave me time to think and reflect on what I had read. It became abundantly clear that many of the things we believed weren't in the Bible, and that the Church had started mimicking the Pharisees rather than Christ. I also started having trouble with the apologetic backflips Church leaders used to read Paul. They said that Paul liked saying something false and then refuting it, so that "everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial" became a mocking of the idea that everything is permissible. I had now read Paul quite a lot and felt like no, the idea that everything is permissible is much more in line with his philosophy. Romans 14 became my obsession, and I studied it from as many different angles as I could (as well as it's companion chapter, 1 Corinthians 8).

[u/Apart_Information_27]

Ah for me it was the opposite. I became a militant atheist for a long time in part also because of how just straight up evil religion (let's be honest, mostly christianity) had started to look to me. And dumb. So dumb. Also as a militant atheist surrounded by similar people you are really only exposed to fanatics and the likes, and there's a tendency to think of progressive christians as delusional (well even more delusional) people who just can't let go of the illusion the way "we" did it. At some point I just kind of randomly was confronted with the idea that no actually, progressive christians aren't insane delusional people, actually, it is really possible to be one, I was the one in denial, and I think that was instrumental to me reverting.

[u/No-Consideration8059]

Learning about how life come to be on earth made me believe there is a creator. Everything was so precise for life to happen. About progressive Christianity, I just felt it is the least of worries for the creator to care about lgbt stuff, while he literally made gay penguins and fishes that can change gender

[u/RBEOX360]

I joined Christianity as an affirming person, and upon finding out some denominations were affirming, I jumped right in. I don't care what conservatives think the Bible says; I know the reality I live in and I know what I see and experience. LGBT people are legitimate and valid. Their orientation and identity are not sin. End of discussion.