The Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, and an ordained priest in the Congregational Catholic Church. In addition to his blog (http://www.christianlgbtrights.org/), he also has a web site entitled, "Radical Christianity" (www.radicalchristianity.net), that deals with some of his relatively recent articles concerning "progressive Christianity," and as he writes himself, "the need for Christians worthy of the name to confront the perversions of the Gospel of grace that have gained ascendancy so as to change the face of much of the organized "Church" in America, and threaten the very foundations of liberty and democracy in America itself."
His texts are always interesting, often worrying, and sometimes a bit too much for me to stomach. But he has good points, in my opinion, so he's worth listening to. An example of his writing is the following excerpt from his blog. The title is "Reclaiming Christianity".
"As you know, for Christians, embedded in the quest for civil and sacramental rights for LGBT people is the quest to reclaim Christianity from those who have perverted it into something that is frequently diametrically opposed to the only Gospel to be found in Christianity: The Gospel of grace (God's unmerited favor to us), faith (trusting God over and above seen circumstances), love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness. Those who have twisted, perverted, the Gospel, the Good News, into a legalistic, perfectionistic, exclusionary, and censorious construction of their own twisted mind-sets, have, unfortunately, been given the credibility by the media and by many of their followers, to define Christianity for others; they have made an an indellibly destructive impact upon Christianity that may never truly be avoided or transcended for the foreseeable future.
"These perverters of the Gospel have turned away countless intelligent, sensitive, decent people from Christianity; have given Christianity a bad name because what they espouse has not only absolutely nothing to do with Christianity, but is frequently diametrically opposed to Christianity as seen in the words, life, and ministry of Jesus Himself! Indeed, the situation has gotten so bad, that even some committed Christians have sought to avoid the term, "Christian," or have actually renounced that term, in favor of some other designation, as they don't, understandably, want to be associated with the perverters of the Gospel. However, I refuse to abdicate and relinquish the name "Christian," as I also refuse to renounce the term "evangelical," and allow them to be handed over to those whose exclusionary rhetoric and actions spit in the face of Christianity and of Jesus Himself!"
