Jesus Was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All

Am I reviewing the book or the service. This is a wonderful book which helps us to remember what real love is all about and the need for social justice.

Well worth reading if you wonder what happened to Christianity. Although I don't agree with everything in this book, I didn't expect to, and I don't find that particularly worrisome when I read something. I have found the religious right confusing for some time now. Jesus was nothing if not a champion of the poor and marginalized members of society. Its strange to me that people who claim to be Christian would be against universal health care or other social programs. As this book points out, in times brought up, the top two things covered in the new testament are redemption and social justice. Gay marriage - not mentioned. Abortion - not mentioned. Don't worry about the fact that the author is a Unitarian or doesn't believe in an active deity - you can still get things out of this book. I am not sure exactly when or how Christianity moved away from people like Martin Luther King and toward the very conservative people you mostly see associated with it today. Time to move it back. I think if a few more Christian people stopped and asked themselves - "Where would Jesus stand on this issue" they might come to some very different conclusions. Jesus was a socially liberal Jew from the Middle East. If anything of those things make you want to freak out, you should ask yourself "why?"

In this thoughtful, carefully documented book, Scotty McLennan has some reassuring words for those of us interested in peace, at home and abroad, and in social justice. This though many of us have occasionally been embarrassed to identify ourselves as Christians of late. Jesus, McLennan explains, was up to promoting those same things. He probably wouldn't even have been pointing an exclusionary finger at people who are different. At a time when ultra-conservative Christians command large audiences from a few convenient bully pulpits, and when conservative congregations are admittedly growing (and surely doing a lot of good things!) it's easy for us centrists and liberals to wonder what to do next. So when McLennan shows how Jesus consistently stood for peace, and against poverty, discrimination and environmental degradation, it's like a breath of supportive fresh air. "We need to find each other and support each other," he says. This good book offers ways to do that, and food for the liberal soul.

Book Review by Jim Burklo, Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California, and author of BIRDLIKE AND BARNLESS: Meditations, Prayers, and Songs for Progressive Christians: JESUS WAS A LIBERAL: Reclaiming Christianity for All by Rev. Scotty McLennan (Palgrave MacMillan, 2009) This review was published in the Summer 2009 edition of THE PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN magazine. "Liberal" is anything but a dirty word for the Dean of Religious Life, and pastor of Memorial Church, at Stanford University. Scotty McLennan is proof that while Christians may be a minority group within it, publicly professing followers of Jesus still thrive in the Unitarian Universalist Association in which he is ordained. He has written his opus on progressive Christianity without disparaging the conservative Christians or the public atheists to whose positions his book carefully responds. With his typical generosity of spirit, Scotty shares how much he respects and learns from those with whom he substantially disagrees, while using them to locate progressives in the center of the Christian tradition. Scotty is the real person behind the figure of Rev. Scot Sloan in Doonesbury, created by McLennan's Yale roommate, Garry Trudeau. Contrary to his comic-strip caricature as the pastor of a nearly empty church, McLennan's big audience will grow bigger with the launch of this new book. JESUS WAS A LIBERAL is the best introduction to theologically and socially progressive Christianity that I've read in the past several years. McLennan offers a concise definition of "liberal" Christianity, and applies it concretely to hot-button social issues and common confusions about biblical interpretation. He describes what is right about the long, venerable liberal religious tradition more than he argues against what is wrong with atheism or biblical literalism. He makes his cases unequivocally but without being shrill. He offers a defense of abortion rights grounded on the Christmas story in Matthew: "Precisely because Mary's situation is utterly unique, it places in bold relief other girls and women who have not voluntarily chosen to become pregnant." (p 16) He shares the bases of his public opposition to the war in Iraq in Christian "just war theory". His analysis of the impending conflict, and his predictions of the outcome of the war expressed in his sermons and a newspaper editorial, turned out to be uncannily accurate. The book is flavored throughout with both the earthy and the intellectual. Scotty moves between insights from religious scholarship and stories from his own and others' experiences of pastoral ministry. He illustrates with stories from his stints as a poverty lawyer, as a disciple of a Hindu priest in India, and as a university lecturer. He neatly addresses the common concerns of lay people who are struggling with basic Christian concepts like the Trinity, the "body and blood" of communion, being "born again", and the apocalypse. But h

This book comes highly recommended by Nationally Syndicated radio talk show star, Stephanie Miller. Which is how I found out about it in the first place, she did an interview with the author on her show. As a person who considers myself spiritual, and who identifies most strongly with Christianity, it has been frustrating me for a long time that the extreme right wing in the United States (and elsewhere, but mostly in the United States) have somehow managed to claim Jesus Christ to be on "their side." Their side just happens to be: pro-torture, pro-war, pro-death penalty, pro-revenge, pro-wealth at the expense of all else, pro-public displays of personal religion, anti-taxes, against helping the poor, and against women's rights. This book, point by point, cites chapter and verse of the Bible and shows that not only was Jesus a "hippy Liberal" who hung out with the prostitues, the poor and the downtrodden, but that he was outspoken against pretty much all of the issues the extreme right wing keep trying to claim he would be for. The author points out that it was Jesus who said "turn the other cheek," he did NOT say, "let's bomb them back to the stone age." The author points out that it was Jesus who said, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. [...] But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." [NIV] That pretty much flies in the face of those screaming hysterically about public prayer in the schools. The author also points out that it was Jesus who said, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God." [NIV] And, "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." That seems pretty clear as to where Jesus would come down on the whole multi-billionaire issue. The author hits the nail right on the head for all of the talking points the extreme right ring like to bandy about on the national air waves, and refutes them with Jesus' own words. It is refreshing to have it all at your fingertips. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has extreme right wingers in their family (like me) who they are constantly getting dragged into debates with. It is great ammunition for those inevitable Thanksgiving dinner arguments. I am aware that there are people out there who are going to disagree with this author, the conclusions he makes, and my review, simply on the basis that we do not agree with them. I fully expect to get many "not helpful" marks for this review, and I am fine with that. I think this review IS helpful, and I challenge any of you gett