I often find the conversation around "Progressive Christianity" to be concentrated almost exclusively on the United States. Even those who want to connect progressive Christians beyond the local and to each other often stop at the US border. This feels like a very arbitrary demarcation. In fact, it can be downright counterproductive.
While I love the land that raised me, and the diverse communities found in it, the narratives we tell ourselves as Americans often isolate us from the rest of the world. When people who are trying to live out a different way to follow Jesus do likewise, it is all the more frustrating.
Some of the best thinking and action in churches today comes from outside the United States. Likewise, many of the problems that we seek to address are conditioned by transnational relationships via corporations, ecological devastation, sexism, military aggression, and neocolonialism. It's hard to notice the peculiarities of your own context without hearing the perspectives of those who live outside them.
What if we focused on building transnational relationships with other progressive Christians, learned from their experiences and struggles, and reimagined our faith in light of these perspectives, from AIDS and sex worker activists in Guadalajara, to liberation Baptists in Buenos Aires, from Sabeel peacemakers in Jerusalem, to calls to repent of global oppression in Accra, Ghana?
Progressive Christianity does not rest at the shores of the USA. By listening to our sisters and brothers from around the world, we can learn how much of our own context has been hidden in plain sight from us: military aggression, condescending towards other peoples, and policies that seek control for our narrow gain. Imagine seeing ourselves from another angle and finding friends to help us change our ways. That's the kind of progressive movement I want to be a part of.
From the outside looking back in,
Timothy Murphy
Executive Director