Why I Am A (Liberal) Christian

Posted November 8, 1997

I believe that life is a free gift which we can experience as meaningful, purposeful and valuable.

And I believe that this gift-like, valuable quality of life is not only evident in occasions of happiness or beauty, but in occasions of evil, suffering and death as well.

In a sense, then, I believe that life is established and can be joyfully affirmed even in the face of death.

Atheists or other skeptics will, of course, be quick to note that one need not be a Christian to affirm such beliefs. And they are right.

So I suppose what makes me a Christian is an identification with the Christian community that finds a coherence between my experience of life and the experience of life communicated by the biblical writers. Their worldview, despite (or maybe because of) the considerable difference between their conceptualization of life and our late 20th century conceptualizations), exemplifies a hopeful realism concerning life which seems rarely witnessed to by either Christians or secularists today.

Biblically speaking, I believe that God has overcome death in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that this foundation of human experience - this presupposition, if you will - is freely accessible to all, and that the only significant difference between people is that some consciously and intentionally celebrate, share and respond to this foundation while others - as of yet - do not.

I wish I could say that those who intentionally celebrate and respond are Christians while the rest are not, but that seems - to me - apparently not the case.

For while ultimate judgment of any person or any act is God's alone, it seems quite possible to me that many people who profess allegiance to the Christian Bible, the Christian creed and the Christian church (in any of its many flavors) do not evidence a serious encounter with the revelation of God while many people who profess other faiths - or no faith at all - DO evidence such an encounter.

It is by reason of my commitment to the revelation of God (as I call this experience of life as gift) witnessed to authooritatively, in my estimation in the Bible, the creeds and the church that warrants my claim to be a Christian.

And it is by reason of my openness to a living encounter with God mediated through whatever means are at hand - including tragedy, suffering, and death as well as through encounters with people who are not Christians nor even theists - that I will reluctantly accept the modifier "liberal".

And it is my paradoxical appreciation for God's self-disclosure through Christians and non-Christians, through the sacred and the profane, through joy and suffering, and ultimately through life and death - an appreciation aptly symbolized by my membership in a (proudly) heretical UU church - that characterizes my encounters in the xtianity list.

Like the presuppositionalists or reformed Christians, I believe that Christian faith is ultimately circular, and that this circularity is implicated in ALL theological or philosophical systems. That is to say, I believe there is no such thing an an uninterpreted fact. All facts are (to steal from some scientist whose name escapes me) theory laden.

However, like the atheists or other skeptics, I believe that presuppositions are only functional as presuppositions in a context in which they are accepted by all sides.

And as the xtianity list is manifestly a dialogue in which the proposition that the triune God of the Bible is the self-evident ground of all knowledge CANNOT be taken as accepted by all sides - if communication is to occur at all, other presuppositions must be found.

But until such time as the secret judgment of God is revealed on each human thought and action, I will continue to be on the lookout for God's serendipitous self-disclosure in the Bible, the atheists and the presuppositionalists, as well as in such other unlikely places as God may choose.

And I will also continue to grant the hidden motivations of others - Christian or skeptic - the benefit of the doubt even if I find their theologies (or the lack thereof) inexplicable :-)

Return to top of page.

Return to Apologetics page.

Return to Archive

Return to The Inclusive Christian

Bill Bekkenhuis

Return to top of page.