a:5:{s:4:"Name";s:15:"Darian G. Burns";s:5:"Email";s:19:"darian@tobesalt.com";s:24:"Existing Blog or Website";s:19:"www.darianburns.com";s:47:"List the topic you are interested writing about";s:5082:"Can We Be Friends? 
by Darian G. Burns
To my progressive brothers and sisters in Christ.  I’m not your enemy.  I promise.  In fact, I am just trying to find my way and figure this thing called life out as best I can.  Just like you.  I may be a little more conservative than you are and not have as much confidence in government solutions as you sometimes do.  We may sometimes disagree, but I am not your enemy.  I am your brother, and I would like it if we could be friends.

To begin with, relax.  I am not out to change your mind about politics, social issues, progressivism or evangelicalism.   I have lived long enough that I am not sure enough about anything that I would try and change another’s mind.  What I do want to ask is, can we talk about our souls and spirits and God’s heart for us as his family?

In the 1980’s I was a young college student at a fundamentalist school, and I drank the religious right’s kool-aid.  I uncritically took my marching orders from its leaders.  I marched, wrote letters, and even became a Republican party delegate.   Don’t worry, I became disillusioned with the whole movement long ago.  But many of the destructive things that the right did to you and to Christ’s body I was a part of and I am sorry.  I truly am.  

Since I was in the thick of things, I can tell you that many of your judgements of the religious right during that time are dead on.  Did we trade humility for power, the spirit for politics, servant hood for being served?  Yeah, we did.  We did that and a lot more.  From outward appearances, what we were doing seemed to work for a while.  We won a lot of elections, passed a lot of laws, raised up a number of powerful and vocal leaders.  We became the Moral Majority and established the Christian Coalition.  We got our own television networks and had radio stations filling the world’s airwaves.  We had power and influence.  Things were looking good if you were a conservative Christian.  Or so we thought.

But something happened on the way to our modern Canaan; we traded grace for law, spirit for influence, prayer for persuasion.  We changed laws but not hearts.  We lost the soul of a generation while we pursued amendments to constitutions.  We alienated a lot of people we should have loved.  We chose power over mercy and decided to wage battles over values rather than see people as individuals.  I am very sorry that I was a part of something so foolish.

When I spend time with my progressive friends, there are things I recognize in their eagerness to right the religious right’s wrongs.  They want change the world, create a world and country where the poor are fed and clothed; the homeless housed; the sick healed and accomplish so many other things.  I see the fire in your eyes and hear the conviction in your voice. It is familiar.  It is me not so long ago.  The issues are different, and the politics have changed but the passion is the same.

Looking back, are there issues the religious right got wrong, and I would not longer support?  Of course.  There are many.  But ultimately what caused the most damage to the cause of Christ was how the religious right did what they did.  They abused power and were judgmental. They were heavy handed when dealing with those of you who disagreed with them.  They even went so far as to proclaim you were not part of Christ’s body.

Here is my fear - are you going about things in the same way?  

I am in process.  Ideologically I do not fit anywhere anymore.  I escaped the religious right years ago, but I have not found a home.  Recently, I have dipped my toe into the progressive’s water, and it has not always gone as well as I would have hoped.  I’ve seen how ugly things can get if you are not progressively pure enough.  I’ve been called ignorant, uneducated, hateful, mean-spirited, homophobic, un-Christ-like, and, yes, unchristian.  If I have asked questions, I have been labeled, placed on the fundamentalist shelf and ignored.  I have been seen as an enemy by those that I have sought out as friends.  It has been assumed that I do not care for the poor because I have not agreed with one political party’s approach to helping them.  

I have seen pictures of your leaders with the president, Democratic big wigs and powerful leaders of the left.  It reminded me of the night I shook Ronald Reagan's hand and had my picture taken with him.

You can pass laws as we did.  You can gain access to power as we did.  You can win elections as we did.  Your influence can reach throughout the world as ours did.  You can do all these things but miss the mark and lose a generation.  Power corrupts.  Be careful.  Guard your hearts because, you see - it is so easy to become that which you despise.

I am not your enemy.  I want to be your friend.


Darian Burns is a writer, poet, minster and speaker who lives in Greeley, Colorado.  He blogs regularly on the intersection of faith and culture at www.darianburns.com.  Darian hopes that his memoir "Micah's Touch" will soon be published.";s:64:"Current or New WordPress Login Name (We'll send you a password.)";s:5:"grace";}