Religion
In reply to the discussion: How can they torture me in hell? [View all]Thats my opinion
(2,001 posts)among millions of progressive Christians believing doctrines is not a focus. Original sin, substitutionary atonement, hell etc, have long since disappeared as concerns. They arose in the middle ages and the progressive church has gone far beyond these concerns
We are focused not on doctrines to be believed, but lives to be lived. Doing has overcome believing. Our focus is on the health of the planet, the rights of GLBTQ people, economic opportunity for all--etc. Where does this take place? In thousands of churches every week, in the seminaries of all the major denominations, in the various Councils Churches, in major publications such as The Christian Century, The National Catholic Reporter, the Center for Process Studies-, the Jesus Seminar and the Westar Institute, the Society for Biblical Research, the National Academy of Religions-- Divinity Schools like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, University of Chicago. Need I go on?
Fundamentalists and evangelicals still probably hold on to doctrines like that--and they get all the public attention, but for most of us who are not fundamentalists these old doctrines are gone. We do not say who is a Christian and who is not. Why bother with that. There are many other vital things to do in this world, and that is what we are about.