Dear Jonathan,

One of my problems with people who have problems with Progressive Christianity is that they usually don’t know enough about Christianity to know that the Bible is NOT all about Jesus being “the resurrected Christ, the son of God.” You definitely ARE confused — just not in the smug, self-satisfied way you’re trying to project.

The Bible is a sprawling, diverse library of texts written by dozens of authors across more than a thousand years. It contains myth, poetry, law codes, folk tales, prophetic rants, erotic love songs, wisdom literature, political satire, apocalyptic visions, and yes, some stories about Jesus. But to say that it's ALL about Jesus being the resurrected Christ is like saying the Library of Congress was built to house The Art of the Deal.

Funny thing, Jesus is almost never mentioned in Hebrew scripture (or “Old Testament,” for you Scriptural Supremacists). What you WILL find is a rich tapestry of stories about human longing, brokenness, struggle, liberation, and covenant. It’s about a people wrestling with God, yearning for justice, learning from failure, and trying (however imperfectly) to build communities rooted in compassion. Jesus knew these texts, prayed them, quoted them, and stood firmly in their tradition. They do not, however, “predict” Jesus in any way.

Even when reading the New Testament, you’d be hard-pressed to identify any unified doctrinal statement or claims about Jesus. Instead, you find a collection of testimonies, letters, visions, and parables about the parable-teller from Jesus’ early followers. And guess what? They don't all agree. The Gospel of Mark doesn’t even include a resurrection appearance (unless you tack on a much-disputed ending). Paul, who wrote the earliest Christian documents in the canon, speaks of the “risen” Christ, but what he means by “resurrection” is not necessarily what modern-day fundamentalists assume. The gospel writers themselves tell four distinct and completely contradictory resurrection stories. So even within the Bible, the understanding of Jesus as the resurrected Christ is diverse and evolving.

Face it, Jonathan. Your real problem is that Progressive Christians take the Bible more seriously than you do. We don’t eviscerate it to create convenient fundamentalist sound bites. We recognize and embrace its complexity, its contradictions, and its humanity. We see Jesus not as a cosmic loophole in some divine ledger but as a radical embodiment of love, inclusion, justice, and healing. The resurrection is meaningful, yes, but not because “belief” in it checks some box on your doctrinal purity test. It’s a symbol of hope, transformation, and God’s refusal to let violence and empire have the last word.

So no, Jonathan, the Bible is NOT "all about" your narrow definition of Jesus. It's about humanity’s struggle to encounter the Divine, to love one's neighbor, to seek justice, and to walk humbly along the way. Progressive Christianity isn't a departure from the Bible. It’s an embrace of its deepest and most enduring questions.

And maybe, if more people actually read the Bible (instead of weaponizing it to benefit their own agendas) we’d be having a very different conversation — and the world would be a better place.

~ Rev. David M. Felten @dubiousrev