Richard Beck on “Progressive Purity” (with Rachel Held Evans)

Last updated on: March 24, 2015 at 10:04 am by Scot McKnight

Richard Beck on “Progressive Purity” (with Rachel Held Evans) 2015-03-20T12:11:48-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One of my favorite thinkers in the blog world is Richard Beck at Abilene Christian (with whom and Jana Kris and I dined recently). He doesn’t touch a thing without rearranging my thoughts. He sees American Progressivism and Progressives as creating a purity culture.

Here’s a clip of a few paragraphs from Richard’s post:

But I’m a progressive Christian writing, mainly, for other progressive Christians. Which is to say I think progressive Christianity is getting right some fundamental things about Jesus and the church in a way conservative Christians are not. Yes, I was describingpsychological similarities about how both conservatives and progressives reason about righteousness in the idiom of purity. And about how this “will to purity” creates similar problems for both camps. But at the end of the day, as a progressive Christian I’m oriented to see purity/righteousness the way progressives see it. That’s what it means to own the label “progressive” after all. (See my book Unclean for how I argue that Jesus reworks purity to align it with justice.)

So to be clear, the point of the post wasn’t to say that progressive and conservative Christianity are theologically “the same.” I don’t think that. But I do think that a purity psychology works among both groups and that this psychology, given that it’s a purity psychology, creates similar sorts of temptations….

I think many privileged progressives do use social justice as a route toward self-justification, as a way of overcoming liberal guilt. Especially if you’ve come out of fundamentalism or evangelicalism where a purity-driven moral performance has been inculcated into you, where you learn that you are good because you are being good. For many progressive Christians who are post-evangelicals it’s very easy to import that same purity psychology–I am good because I am being good–into the progressive fight against injustice and oppression. And the tragic aspect to this pursuit is that, as with all attempts as moral self-justification, we can’t ever fully get clean. Not in the evangelical way, nor in the progressive way.

So, yes, there is a legitimate concern that such efforts at moral self-justification in progressive Christianity do unwittingly center the needs, feelings and goals of the person fighting for justice rather than upon the needs, feelings and goals of the marginalized and oppressed….

Either that or you’ve weaponized the phrase “purity culture” so that it can be wielded solely against evangelicalism with the assumption being that progressive Christians are too enlightened or “pure” to ever be “contaminated” by that sort of thinking…

The reason for the ubiquity of “purity culture” is simple: purity is one of the ways humans–all humans, progressives and conservatives, privileged and oppressed–reason about morality. Purity is just a piece of our innate moral software. We can’t help but think of morality in the idiom of contamination. Progressives as much as conservatives. (Psychologists have called this “the Macbeth Effect.” For more again see Unclean.)

To which Rachel Held Evans offered this confession:

I know it may be an unpopular opinion with some of my readers, but I totally agree. I’ve been wondering why so much of what I’ve been feeling lately reminds me of the shame, exhaustion, and perfectionism I struggled with in fundamentalism, and this need to be “pure” in order to be accepted and loved in the progressive community is exactly what it is. Where I see the most overlap between the conservative “purity” mindset and the more progressive “purity” mindset is in the shaming that happens. Now this may be more of a symptom of the internet call-out culture (of which I have been a part; I recognize my complicity in this phenomenon, for sure, and am repenting of it), but what I see happen over and over again is people make what is deemed a mistake or say something “problematic” and they are not only called out for their actions but deemed totally unacceptable as human beings and publicly shamed. A massive pile-on commences. Their motivations and character are called into question, and they are “farewelled,” just like in fundamentalism. I confess this had to happen to me a few times before I realized how destructive it can be, and it pains me to think of the people I targeted in the past. (I understand people disagreeing with what I say or even what I do; what I don’t understand is the demonizing and dehumanization that often follows. This isn’t about critique. It’s about shaming.)

It’s also worth noting that nine times out of ten, this is privileged, educated white folks shaming other privileged, educated, white folks for not being good enough. Obviously, when a marginalized person tells you something is problematic, you perk your ears up more than you would otherwise. That’s a good practice, generally speaking. But I also see all sorts of folks taking advantage of and shaming decent, open-hearted people by appealing to their sense of justice and using words like “racist” “abuser” and “bully” so liberally that those words lose all meaning. (Kinda like how conservatives use the word “heretic” so much it’s lost its potency.)

When I saw you wrote this, I was glad, but I was worried. Because, to be honest, I am much, much more afraid to challenge progressives than I am conservatives. In my experience, the shaming is much more intense because it exploits things I do indeed care very much about – inclusion, equality, reconciliation, justice – and tells me I am disqualified from ever speaking on those things again because I made a mistake. I’ve really been struggling to write blog posts lately because of this intense exhaustion.

What I long for most is not one system of theological and behavioral purity over another. What I long for most is grace. It is grace that distinguishes activism motivated by Christian values from every other kind of activism. So if we’re going to call our activism “Christian,” there has to be room for grace.

Progressive blog world at its finest, folks, its finest.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 24, 2015

Hope is Our Foundation (RJS)

Next Post

March 24, 2015 It's Time to Change Time

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What nation took Israel into captivity in 722 BC?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Egypt Babylon Persia Assyria