If you want to kill a friendship before it even starts, then introduce yourself as a conservative Christian. This is bound to send most people into a hasty retreat unless they, themselves, also happen to be a conservative Christian. In that case, there will probably be much back-slapping, ‘me-too-ing,’ and instant affinity.
But why run the risk?
More often than not, the conservative Christian Church is seen as holding society back from its assumed march towards social progress. In fact, the current social and cultural narrative about Christianity is that it’s pretty much a hegemonic, oppressive, and homogenous white boys’ club.
To be honest, who could blame people for holding this view?
The Church’s attitude towards the LGBTIQ+ community, its climate change denial, its systematic sexism, misogyny, and misuse of power, among other things, has raised the bar for belief so high that it might as well be an Olympic sport. A tension exists between Christians who want to be responsible global citizens while still adhering to their conservative faith. It’s almost as if, when you walk into Church, you need to check your moral sensibilities and intellect at the door too.
But, conservative Christianity was never supposed to be this way.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines conservatism as the “Commitment to traditional values and ideas coupled with an opposition to change or innovation.” With that in mind, I define conservative Christianity as preserving the values and ideas of early, historical Christianity and subsequently contend that conservative Christianity is- ironically- very progressive. This might come as a surprise to you, but let me explain.
Why Real Christianity is Actually Progressive
When we look back on the early Church in the book of Acts, we observe patterns and behaviors that, at the time, would have been remarkably progressive — quite the opposite of what many observe in the modern-day Church. It would be easy to imagine, back then, hard-line Jewish adherents shaking their heads in disgust at this strange, emerging sect of Judaism which seemed to be dispensing with many of the time-honored traditions thereof.
How was the early Church a progressive movement? I’m glad you asked.
Conservative Christianity was culturally diverse
When the look at the Biblical narrative as a whole, you observe the grace of God extended to people of all nations in ever-increasing circles — starting in the Old Testament where God sends a reluctant prophet Jonah to a pagan people who Jews generally despised, and culminating in a prophetic vision given to the apostle Peter in the book of Acts revealing, in no uncertain terms, that God is for all people.
The Jews at the time believed that they were the chosen people of God, but they didn’t realize what they were chosen for — to be the vehicle of God’s plan for his all-inclusive love to extend to the far corners of the earth to people of every tribe, tongue, and nation.
Therefore, racial superiority has no place in conservative Christianity. It is abhorrent that the Bible has been used to justify racist behaviors and attitudes. How embarrassing that certain Christians have arrived at the idea that Americans are God’s new chosen people. God is indiscriminately a God for everyone, and the early Church came to understand this and opened its doors to people of all nations and cultures.
Conservative Christianity was radically inclusive
When it became clear that early Christianity was taking root in other cultures, among people who were not Jewish adherents, the early Church faced a dilemma of sorts. They were forced to confront the question, “Do we force these new believers of different cultures to adopt our Jewish law and cultural practices as well?” (things like circumcision… ouch!)
The first annual general meeting of the Church was held, formally known as the Council of Jerusalem, to discuss this very issue. In the end, the early church leaders believed it was the will of God NOT to impose Jewish cultural law on non-Jewish Christians. Or, to put it simply, people were free to follow Jesus without the requirement of cultural conformity.
Therefore, in its early days, conservative Christianity was a celebration of a common belief expressed in culturally diverse ways. Imagine a church where you didn’t have to conform to a set of cultural and social norms! The early Church removed barriers to belief and cut out all the rules peripheral to Christianity’s core. Early Christianity was radically inclusive, therefore.
Conservative Christianity was socially progressive
When people view the Bible through their 21st-century lens, they tend to view the Bible as repressive towards women. Who could blame them? After all, the fact that many churches use obscure biblical texts removed from their cultural context and apply them to our modern 21st-century Church only perpetuates this idea. Verses like, “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority” (1 Timothy 2:12) is a favorite of the gatekeepers of the misogynist boy’s club that is church leadership.
In fact, in the Bible, women direct armies, defeat prominent enemies, save communities from genocide, give birth to God, fund Jesus’ ministry, sit at his feet as disciples, and are the first witnesses and preachers of the resurrection. They are church founders and leaders, prophets and apostles. Women are co-laborers with God and men and image-bearers of God who are meant to participate in God’s work in the Church and the world.
With Jesus leading the way, the early Church actually opened up a world of opportunity that never existed for women. Prior to the birth of Christianity, Jewish women were not even allowed to worship in the same room as Jewish men, and, of course, the room assigned to men was much closer to the inner sanctum where the presence of God dwelt.
However, with the birth of Christianity came the somewhat radical idea that men and women could worship together as equals, in the same space before God. Moreover, it is evident from reading the New Testament that women held positions of leadership and responsibility in the early Church.
Jesus’s own inner circle consisted of many women — a ground-breaking and counter-cultural advancement in its day. Moreover, the early Church was full of faithful and influential female leaders — women like Phoebe, Chloe, Junia, Lydia, Eudia, Syntyche, Susanna, and Priscilla.
This was radically progressive — at the forefront of gender equality.
Photo by Thomas Vitali on Unsplash
Conservative Christianity was sacrificially philanthropic
Did you know that in the early Church, there was no poverty? Why? Well, those in the early Church who had plenty sold their possessions to provide for those who had little. What a counter-cultural idea!
In fact, the early Church quickly appointed leaders to oversee food distribution to those in need and provide care for widows, orphans, and the sick. The early Church was the birthplace of charitable services, and believers gave sacrificially to support it.
For this reason, people were drawn to the Church because of the demonstrated, practical love that Christians showed toward each other. They wanted in on a community where people were mutually cared for, esteemed, and honored.
Going Backwards to Go Forwards
Where conservative Christianity once provided the impetus for social progress, it has become a social stumbling block at best and a laughing stock at worst. However, I maintain that real, authentic, conservative Christianity is a strict adherence to progression and inclusion, which constitutes a return to that which we once were.
Imagine a church defined by its diversity rather than its uniformity, its inclusiveness rather than its exclusiveness, its progression rather than its repression, its generosity rather than its greed.
After all, Christians are fundamentally called to be a bastion for everything we deem good — human rights, freedom from slavery, freedom of thought, equality, charity, environmental stewardship, hospitality, and everything else that entails loving one’s neighbor as one loves oneself.
Indeed, Christianity is one of the only philosophies that can provide a grounding for all these good things; that we are made in the image of God and all have inherent worth. Despite this, we sometimes do a pretty horrible job (to put it lightly) in fulfilling our Christian mandate to love others and to love God.
Therefore, to truly call oneself a conservative Christian, one must go back to the very progressive and ground-breaking ideas that early Christianity espoused. The way forward is backward.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: KL Yuen on iStock
