Sunshine Cathedral Blog

Question: I keep hearing that Sunshine Cathedral is a progressive church. Doesn’t progressive mean liberal?

Answer: A dictionary definition of “Liberal” is as follows: favorable to progress; favorable to concepts of maximum individual freedom; free from bigotry; open-minded; generous; not bound by tradition; doesn’t insist on literalism. Synonyms for “liberal” include: progressive; broad-minded; charitable. Opposites of “liberal” are: reactionary; intolerant; stingy.

In that we affirm the sacred value of all people, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identification, religious history, political affiliation, physical ability, or sexual orientation, we are clearly “favorable to progress” and to “concepts of maximum individual freedom”. We obviously don’t feel oppressed by tradition around here, and we take the scriptures far too seriously to reduce them to an anti-intellectual, overly simplistic, or unreasonable literalism. In at least these matters, we appear to be fairly open-minded, and we are always trying to be generous in spirit and sharing our personal resources is one of the primary ways that we worship. So, I think many people would characterize us as fairly liberal (and I, for one, am comfortable with that description).

How we typically understand our progressive spirituality is that our theology is “open” (there is room for a variety of opinions and one is free to change one’s mind as one acquires new information or experiences); we are pluralistic (respectful of non-Christian traditions); we value compassion; we are more concerned with following Jesus than with individual opinions about Jesus; we value relationships more than legalistic demands or restrictions; we are trying to be inclusive of more kinds of people by recognizing the sacred value of all people; we are challenging ourselves to care about issues of social and environmental justice; and our message is non-dogmatic, that is, we know that we need not all believe the exact same things to live together in love, harmony, and respect. If that is liberal, then so be it… we mostly tend to think of it as the Way of divine living that Jesus modeled.