"Progressives want the FRUIT of the Christian revolution (justice, care for the victim) without the ROOTS (grace, redemption, Imago Dei). Grace without roots leads to judgment without mercy. We see cancellation instead of redemption; purges instead of restoration."
On a certain level, we all believe that we are right and that our worldview is the right one. With that being said, I think that religion is something we really need. I recently listened to this very good audio essay by Tripp Fuller. I find his criticism of modern progressive movements to be very real, and I see the consequences of them firsthand. Having a robust moral and theological system leads to robust and moral lives. Without that, we often can lose our way.
Nadia Bolz-Weber makes an interesting point that we need religion because, when presented with the buffet of spiritual practices, we tend to skip the practices that are, in fact, the most transformative. Admitting you are wrong is not something that comes naturally to a lot of people. That is why having a tradition that imposes the practice of humility is so important. We cannot grow or maintain healthy relationships if we are not able to truly empathize and truly exercise humility.
Having an established symbol system and rooted traditions grounds us in ourselves and helps us tend to our inner-selves and relationships. It is easier than ever to exist alone in an echo-chamber of surface-level relationships. These fake roots can't replace the embodied support of a religious community. That community, and that ability to tend carefully to our relationships to others, is a necessary baseline for so much of human flourishing.
Embracing, however zealously, the leftist fight against tyranny, is ultimately ineffectual if we only embrace it insofar as it makes us feel good about ourselves or earns us social capital. You can rave against the immorality and callousness of the US government, but you can be blind to your own shortcomings. Admitting that we are flawed and in need of guidance is uncomfortable, and not a very appealing item at the buffet. However, it is perhaps the most important.
To make it personal, a friend recently hurt one of our friends with some careless comments and has yet to apologize. He will posture for days about how just he is in comparison to the evil conservatives, or how much more enlightened he is than those backwards Christians, but when it is needed, there is no repentance. His actions caused harm, and his lack of apology is causing tension. There is nothing in his life that causes him to reflect on his own missteps, so he is blind to them. I have little doubt that having a weekly practice of repentance, or admitting to where we fall short, would help him.
While I will be the first to admit that there are people who weaponize this reflection, and groups that overstate the issue in ways that are harmful. That doesn't take away from the initial truth, that remembering that we are sinners is key. You cannot fix something if you cannot name the issue, and you cannot name the issue if you don't have the language to do so. That is the gift that religion gives us. Church and tradition, at their best, give us a safe space for self-assessment, and a framework for self improvement.
Religion of any kind is important because it forces us to confront ourselves and answer to a higher authority in a way that secularism hasn't been able to replicate on a large scale. Times are dark, and I can only imagine that they will get darker. Connecting to our roots, being fully present, and caring members of our own small communities, is the only way we can grow into meaningful change agents. Change agents in a world that is desperately in need of change.
