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Progressive Christianity won’t give you measles

Progressive Christianity won’t give you measles

Last updated on: February 8, 2015 at 4:41 pm by Dan Wilkinson

Progressive Christianity won’t give you measles 2015-02-08T16:41:22-06:00 Dan Wilkinson

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Last week evangelical blogger Samuel James wrote a post in which he compared the anti-vaccine movement’s rejection of medical authority and expertise with progressive Christianity’s rejection of church authority and theological expertise.

I’m sympathetic with James’ warnings against anti-intellectualism and rejection of authority, but I’m disturbed that he only identifies those tendencies in groups he disagrees with. Such characteristics cut across cultural and theological boundaries, and while the progressive Christian movement has shortcomings that merit examination, the intellectual problems of evangelical Christianity are far more pervasive.

Evangelicalism has always had an uneasy relationship with intellectual pursuits. There’s a very good reason Mark Noll titled his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and not The Scandal of the Progressive Christian Mind. There’s a very good reason we aren’t reading about measles outbreaks in mainline Christian churches, but yet the anti-vaccine movement continues to find a foothold in conservative religious communities.

Samuel James’ own evangelical background and his ties to the Southern Baptist Convention undermine virtually every word he writes in critique of progressive Christianity. Southern Baptists widely reject scientific expertise, especially in the form of evolutionary biology, and widely reject the consensus of mainstream biblical scholarship when it comes to biblical issues such as the inerrancy and historicity of the Bible.

On the other hand, progressive Christianity, though a nebulous movement, doesn’t reject church authority per se, it simply rejects the authority of conservative Christians to define the limits of God’s kingdom. Progressive Christians don’t reject science and scholarship, they reject the theologically-motivated duplicity that is the hallmark of right-wing biblical interpretation.

There’s little value to be found in comparing anti-vaxxers and progressive Christians, but there is an important lesson to be learned from the anti-vaccine movement.

Amid last week’s stories about on-going measles outbreaks, National Public Radio science correspondent Shankar Vedantam drew attention to a recent study which showed that simply touting the facts about the safety and benefits of vaccines is ineffective and counterproductive when it comes to changing the minds of those already opposed to vaccines. When presented with the facts about vaccines, those parents actually become less willing to have their children vaccinated.

Why? Vedantam explains:

We filter how we interpret the evidence through our pre-existing beliefs and our loyalties to various groups and tribes. And we see this in all manner of settings, not just in public health settings. … So vaccines and the concerns about vaccines are an example of this much larger phenomenon, which is once you believe in something, it’s very hard to debunk that belief. And when someone comes along and tries to debunk that belief, they get seen as being part of the conspiracy theory.

The motivations behind beliefs about the dangers of vaccines, theological beliefs about biblical inerrancy and moral beliefs about the sinfulness of homosexuality are often the same. People maintain loyalty to their tribe and rarely change their position on the mere basis of facts and arguments.

Given such intransigence, how then should we interact with those we disagree with?

For Samuel James the answer to such challenges, whether of a medical or theological nature, is a naïve deference to “facts, evidence, research, and arguments.” He encourages progressive Christian bloggers “to commit themselves to churches and teachers of the church who know more than they do,” and condescendingly concludes that “even if you’ve had coffee with more interesting people this week than your local pastor, you still need to hear him.”

But, just as trying to convince anti-vaxxers to change their positions by presenting facts about vaccines will likely fail, James’ well-intentioned advice is also likely to backfire, pushing people further away from the church, and in some cases, away from Christianity entirely.

Many ex-evangelical Christians live in near-paranoid fear of authority. That fear is real, and is the product of the often flagrant abuses of power that checker Christianity’s past. Demanding that these Christians ignore their very real and often very painful experiences and instead quietly submit to the arbitrary authority of a pastor is the height of arrogant insensitivity.

The way to address our differences isn’t to demand that those in power be heeded — it’s to demand that those in power heed the concerns of those living in fear and distrust. Addressing how to deal with anti-vaxxers, Vedantam says

The way to go is actually to build relationships and build trust. … So the place to start might be to acknowledge that fear is real and to deal with it. So when doctors and public health officials start from there — when they start from the heart and not from the head, they might actually make more headway in getting parents to vaccinate their children.

Evangelicalism, especially the brand advocated by Samuel James, is far too intent on asserting power and dogma instead of listening with compassion and understanding. Christianity isn’t about blindly submitting to a pastor’s authority or deferring to the “expertise” of Southern Baptist “scholars.” It’s not about hypocritically calling out your opponent’s lack of scholarly credentials or smugly telling those you disagree with that they need to listen to people who are smarter than them.

The Christian story is an experiential narrative of love and redemption that calls us to seek God’s truth and to share God’s love. We are called to do that by respecting the conclusions of science, medicine and academic scholarship while pursuing ever greater understanding. We are called to do that by respecting the historical traditions of our faith while remaining open to development and even reformation. Most importantly, we are called to do that helping those in need, by working together to lessen pain and suffering, by treating our neighbors with compassion, yes, even by vaccinating our children.

Dan Wilkinson

Dan is a writer, graphic designer and IT specialist. He lives in Montana, is married and has two cats. He blogs at CoolingTwilight.com.

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