Liberal Christianity, Music Festivals and Impasse

Sometimes there is no tent large enough

I spent a day at Greenbelt. Greenbelt is a progressive Christian festival focusing on justice, music and the arts. It was fun, but also a culture shock, since when I was a Christian, I would not have gone. I felt both scared and excited to do something slightly transgressive - talk liberal to me, baby.

"Progressive Christians? Who are they?" I suggest you learn two key Christian tribal blocks. There are Evangelical/conservative Christians who think that the Bible is literally true and so LGBT+ behaviour is bad, that men and women have different roles and other stuff. And there are Progressive/liberal Christians take more mainstream views on these topics and often focus on love and justice in the world today. Note that liberal Christians don’t hold liberal views, but this is a word that gets used. Nor do conservative Christians hold conservative views, though in the US this is more closely tied.

These two blocks don't like each other¹. In some sense adherents each think the other has got Christianity tragically wrong. It’s like they watch the same film and each party thinks the other has completely misunderstood the central message. “Of course gay sex is sinful - the Bible says so!² God hates it” vs “Of course LGBT+ people are accepted by God. Love and acceptance is His whole deal.” Honestly it might be easier if they just thought they worshipped a different God.

So. Greenbelt.

Greenbelt is a typical small UK festival with some social justice on the side. People camp and then there are several stages, lots of booths from different, mainly-christian charities and talks from politicians and activists. ~10,000 people go over the weekend and in the past they’ve had Bono and Russel Brand (I’m told).

I found the experience kind of jarring. As a young adult, I think Greenbelt would have left me deeply uncomfortable. My faith wasn’t easy to maintain, knowing many people disagreed with me, taking odd positions in arguments and not having sex³. But other people’s combativeness provided a kind of counter pressure that kept me stable. To find myself in a Christian environment that was politically left-wing, flirty and functioning might have caused a breakdown. Perhaps I could be like this, maybe I would be happier? Am I allowed that? I wish there had a been a space like this that had felt safe for me.

There is a small, still-evangelical part of me that hates places like this and the is frustrated at the people who go to them. He thinks that they ignore the Bible and take stances that are popular rather than true. I feel this annoyance pulsing through me at times, like an angry neighbour in the flat below. I do not hate him, in fact I love him, but I also feel sad that he’s so hurt and furious. It’s like being angry over the rules of Warhammer - it’s an interesting discussion but it doesn’t matter. Liberals do not deserve his spite. 

A woman said to me “It troubles me that the evangelical Churches are growing more. I don’t see God in them”. I found this strange, because evangelicals don’t see God in her church either. There is a sort of breakup in UK Anglicanism over trans and LGBT+ issues, and I guess each group of Christians thinks the other has gone completely off the rails. It’s kind of sad to me that she should be so un-self-aware here (not that evangelicals would be much better). Each group thinks they hold the sole understanding of what God wants. Sigh. 

I work on technology around compromise and I’m pretty optimistic in general that people can agreement. But there are some discussions that aren’t easy to find middle ground on. 

Here is my attempt at the fundamental disagreement, written in different words, several times:

• What happens when the previous Christian norms and current societal norms strongly conflict?

• If the Bible and society strongly disagree, is it possible that your interpretation of the Bible is wrong?

• Is the common sense interpretation of the Bible usually right, however that works out in the world?

• If a common sense reading of Christian behaviour seems harmful, is it likely to be so?

And so I’m not optimistic for compromise or resolution between these two Christian tribes. What would one even look like? “Practising gay people should be respected, but also it’s okay if your church won’t let them marry, lead or play in the band”. What does “respect” even mean in that sentence? Likewise “the Bible is always literally true and useful, but some passages add very little to our understanding of what God wants”. Isn’t that a lot like saying those passages aren’t true or useful at all?

This leads to power relations. There isn’t a way to talk this one out. So either you agree to stop fighting or its a contest of strength, whether military might, the courts or the court of public opinion. And I’m not joking about the military - wars of religion are about many things, but usually somewhere there is a deep disagreement that people can’t compromise on. These wars were centuries of European bloodshed.

Can’t conservative christians just accept LGBT+ people? Well, it depends what that means. If it means what they think respect means, sure. If it means “allow gay people to get married in their Church and not say they are sinning when asked” then no. Evangelicals would rather pay a lot than do that. And similarly progressive Christians cannot just accept what they see of mistreatment of women and minorities. In both cases people might be peer pressured if they were alone, but they aren’t - they have a tribe - so they don’t want to back down. If anything the counter pressure makes their belief stronger, as it did for me.

People can be serenaded where they can’t be shouted at. There are ways to change minds, in both directions. Spending time meeting a great female leader. Reading and meditating on the Old Testament. Some people go from progressive to Evangelical and vice versa. But I think rarely does direct pressure change minds. And when it does I’m not sure that’s a healthy thing.

Even when minds change, it’s not compromise. Note that we aren’t talking about some midpoint. People are moving from the UK to the US, they aren’t sitting in a boat in the Atlantic Ocean. I know few people who hold some very conservative Christian views and some very progressive views. Or that the Bible is literally right but only half of the time.

How do people end up in different parties? Generally, the conservative Christians I know had an experience of God or truth that led them to think “huh, this Bible has got some great stuff in it, I wonder what else it says” whereas I think that liberal Christians meet the community and think “I want to be with these people”. In some sense one is a top-down approach whereas the other is bottom-up. Sure, conservatives have some homophobic intuitions, but I don’t believe their anti-LGBT+ stances would survive without the Bible. Similarly, without the modern world, progressive Christians would be beaten into submission by people pointing out the text of the Bible, as has been true throughout history. It’s strange that two groups can be so similar and so different. 

I’ve changed a lot. At greenbelt a friend told me this story: We went to a conservative Christian wedding about 10 years ago and the talk was about the Nutcracker - how the Sugar Plum Fairy has to listen and follow her man in order to get what’s good out of life. My friend turned to me and she said “this is mad”. I said “sure, but there is nothing that we can disagree with”. While it makes me smile to hear my polite disagreement, my former self and I are very different. Women can make their own decisions. But I guess I also want to understand my former self without pity. What would have changed my mind? What did I really want?

For clarity, while I vibe more easily with conservative Christians, I think the liberal ones are right on the object level. LGBT+ lifestyles are just like any other kind, women shouldn’t be banned from loads of roles and the Bible should be taken with at least a pinch of salt (I suggest a quarry). It’s funny to me that my vibe sense and my intellectual sense are so at odds here. 

I can always find something I love in someone. My friend Hannah is a nursery teacher and she says it’s important for her to find something to like in every child in her class, otherwise she’ll start to treat them differently. So every year, she works at this. For some children this takes no time at all. Other children take longer, sometimes the full first half-term. But she does it. And I imagine it makes her a better teacher. I believe this about people. I try to find something I love in everyone and I honestly can’t think of a person for whom I fail at this. And this gives me an anchor point to deal with even the most difficult people or those with whom there isn’t a compromise.

We live in a world with many unnecessary conflicts, and it’s worth having a box for “those two are gonna argue until one of them dies, hopefully of old age”. Sometimes there is no consensus point. But also I find that developing a fondness for the individuals involved helps me listen better and think better. Plus, sometimes it’s an experience and experiences are fun.

My thanks to my friend Rachel for inviting me to Greenbelt. And to my other friend Rachel (yes I have 2 friends), Conor and Joe for feedback on early drafts.

1. If you ask them, they may claim not to dislike one another, I know what dislike is when I see it

2. And the Bible does say so. I don’t think the Bible is true, but if you do, the common-sense reading is pretty homophobic

3. Taking odd positions and then no positions at all