McLaren - "This is Not Actually a Blog Post About Homosexuality, Part 2"

http://brianmclaren.net/archives/blog/this-is-not-actually-a-blog-post-1.html

snip>
Eventually, Sojourners may change its policy. The organization may decide to switch its focus from a broad anti-poverty coalition to a multi-issue progressive coalition, the kind that many folks thought Sojourners was already leading. Or maybe more Evangelical and Catholic Christians will stop refusing to be part of coalitions with gay-affirming folks, making it possible for Sojourners to stretch the coalition faster and farther. Or maybe Sojourners will stay on their current course, staying focused primarily on poverty and paying the price by having to remain silent on other issues. If so, new organizations will need to fill the role of leading a progressive Christian coalition.

But as soon as that new coalition forms, you can count on this: some folks will sooner or later want it to be more outspoken on more issues than the coalition originally intended. And tensions will arise. And these could be destructive tensions, tearing the coalition apart. But they could also be creative tensions, growing pains if you will, pushing people out of the status quo into terra nova. I wouldn't have moved from conventional to accepting-but-not-affirming to internally-conflicted to coalition-building to being an ally/advocate if it weren't for a lot of this creative tension. And I'm still in process, unfinished, phasic, because my tensions are not resolved.

That's one of the curses of being progressive, I suppose. Once you make progress on one issue, if you stop and conserve those gains, you become conservative. (That's an important job. Somebody's got to do it.) If you want to stay progressive, you must move on to new issues. Progressivism is a moving target.

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in Baltimore in May. He's a thoughtful man, open to new ideas and willing to share his struggles and growth. I have deep respect for him. Thanks for posting this!

is the only one I still follow regularly. I enjoy Rob Bell as well, but he sometimes comes off as being too altogether and sure of himself...I'm probably not expressing that quite right - hope you get my drift. :hi: