The 10 Commandments of Progressive Christianity #2: Are We Born Sinners in Need of Salvation?

“At the very root of the modern liberal movement is the loss of the consciousness of sin.” –J. Gresham Machen (p.64)

I’ve been working my way through a new series entitled “The 10 Commandments of Progressive Christianity.” It’s an examination of 10 core tenets of progressive (or liberal) Christianity offered by Richard Rohr, but really based on the book by Philip Gulley.

We come now to the second of these tenets: “Affirming people’s potential is more important than reminding them of their brokenness.”

The core issue in this second tenet is the issue of sin. Are people sinners? If so, how big of a deal is it? And, more than that, how important is that people know they are sinners? Should we tell them? And how we do balance people’s sinfulness with their potential as God’s image bearers?

There are few issues that divide progressive Christianity from historic Christianity more than this issue of sin. Indeed, as the above quote from Machen indicates, it is the loss, downplaying, ignoring, or sometimes even the outright rejection of sin that fundamentally defines progressive Christianity. Read More