A New Kind of Christian Deism

Discover a New Kind of Christian-Deism  

Folks, there is a new Facebook page out called Jesusians, I urge all Deist and/or Christian Deists to take a look, it promises to be an interesting site.

While the term “deist” best describes, for me, both my religion and my philosophy, as my recent posts have highlighted, I’m not necessarily anti-Christian. At the same time, yes, the label “Christian” makes me wince because I certainly don’t believe all, or even most, of the things that orthodox, traditional Christians do. Let’s face it, Christians don’t have a very good public profile in our culture. They are often seen as unloving, judgmental, anti-intellectual, superstition...us “sheep” who only know what their Bibles or churches tell them. I certainly have no desire to be that kind of person. Yet, there are certain kinds of Christians, mostly the liberal and progressive kind, who tend to favor the teachings of Jesus over the teachings of the balance of the Bible, or over the teachings of the Church or Christian traditions. I get along fairly well with these kinds of Christians. They seldom, however know what Deism is. I spent 35 years as a fairly conventional Christian before moving into Deism. Leaving Christianity has been freeing for me, but I also retain many things from the religion of my youth that, in my opinion, are still true and of value. With this in mind, I’ve decided to create the group, “Jesusian Deism”.

The purpose of this group is to discuss how both our understandings of God and the teachings of Jesus influence our lives. Deists generally believe in God as our non-intervening Creator. Jesusians find meaning in the philosophical and moral teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, apart from the teachings of the rest of the Bible or of the Church or of Christianity. You may join if you like. It is asked that participants respect both deism and the general teachings of Jesus in order to maintain an amiable atmosphere.

To visit this Facebook group, click here.

By William McCracken

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Deism and Christianity (Part 2 of 2)

(The following is my view, not representative of all Deists. Comments are welcome.)

As I mentioned in Part 1, Deism in America grew within a Christian culture. What I mean by this is that most American Deists were associated with a local church. But it also had a “love/hate” relationship with Christianity that has not abated. Deists affirmed, along with Christians, that God is our Creator and that the creation is good and shows God’s handiwork. And it also often affirmed the central teachings of Jesus about loving God, loving others, and making our world a better place. But it didn’t agree with the Church that all knowledge was confined to the Bible. It didn’t agree with the Church that we had nothing left to learn about ourselves or our universe other than what the Church or the Bible says. Deists embraced the “new knowledge” of the Enlightenment, advances gained in the fields of science, medicine, astronomy, sociology, and even psychology. Deists strongly felt that God was the source of all truth and that God has continued to lead us into truths that people in the Bible days just weren’t privy to. Can you imagine trying to explain to a Roman soldier or a Jewish peasant how an inoculation shot works? Deists embraced these advances in the sciences and in the arts, even in theology (how we think about God), and felt that humanity needed to grow up and out of some of the superstitions of the past.

The Church, to a large degree, was extremely slow in accepting any new knowledge. It felt that everything God wanted us to know was either found in the Bible (for Protestants) or found in the Vatican (for Catholics) or found in the Church Fathers (for Eastern Orthodox). Granted, the Church has made some strides over the last few decades, but, let’s be honest, it only recently allowed for inter-racial marriages and it still is opposed to gays “because the Bible says so.” Deists don’t feel that all knowledge is confined to the Bible or the Church. They feel that God teaches us through everything in life and that we should never stop growing. Our beliefs should come from what we think, given the information and wisdom available to us now, not just residual knowledge held onto simply because people 2000 years ago believed they knew all truth.

So this is where the relationship between Deism and Christianity can often be strained. Deism accepts and incorporates new knowledge wherever it finds it, using reasoning as a measuring stick to judge truth. Christianity looks primarily to the past for what it believes is truth, to the way people thought and believed from 2000 to 4000 years ago. If you were sick, would you want to go to a doctor that only had the medical training from the first century? Or would you want a doctor with the latest in medical training? Similarly, if you want to understand God, would you consider only what people 2000 years ago had to say? Or would you want to consider other sources? Granted, some things from the past, many things in fact, are worth holding onto. But not if it no longer makes sense (like keeping women out of church pulpits) or if it is superstition (like believing God impregnates people) or if it is harmful, as many of the supposed commands of God in the Bible are.

Personal note: As a Deist , I don't want to be “anti-Christian”. I think most Christians are good, decent people, even though I reject much in their belief system. I want to be known more for what I'm for than for what I'm against. Furthermore, I still believe in freedom of religion, as did our deistic Founding Fathers. Some Deists want to see all religions eradicated everywhere. That is not part of my agenda.

Click here to read part 1.

By William McCracken

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Deism and Christianity (Part 1 of 2)

(The following is my view, not at all representative of all deists. Comments are welcome.) 

I thought it would be interesting to consider what Deism shares with the Christian religion. This topic could be a bit tricky because Deists have no set of codified beliefs. We consider ourselves to be free-thinkers, so we don’t tell each other what to believe. But, in a nutshell, Deists believe in God as revealed in nature, and then use reason to determine for ourselves our other personal beliefs and practices. This makes me reluctant to speak for all Deists everywhere, so I’ll just share the similarities that I know of.

In the first place, modern Deism grew out of Christianity. The earliest Deists, at least in America, were members of churches, usually Anglican. They believed in God. They appreciated and tried to follow Jesus’ teachings, especially the Golden Rule and the importance of loving God and others (something I still hold to). But they also realized that the Church held to many beliefs which just didn’t seem to line up with progressive human understanding. For instance, they questioned the doctrine of the Virgin Birth because everyone knows it takes a male and a female to produce a child. They didn't believe that God impregnates people. They questioned the Christian doctrine that everyone is born evil (Original Sin). They also rejected the doctrine of Substitutionary or Penal Atonement, the notion that Jesus had to die in order for God to forgive our sins. So while the Deists affirmed the reality of the Creator and the core teachings of Jesus Christ, they dared to question whether or not Church doctrines or biblical doctrines really line up with reality, with how we know the world really works. But they still affirmed, along with Christians, that God is real and that Jesus taught us how to live good lives.

Another strong tie that Deism has with what Jesus taught is a reverence for nature. Many, if not most of Jesus’ parables concerned nature – plants, seeds, tree, water, fire, farming, the sun, the wind. He was quite the “country boy” and used stories about nature to illustrate what human relationships to God and to each other should look like. Like Jesus, Deists looked around them at nature and found, not only evidence for God, but spiritual lessons that can teach us how to love, appreciate, and care for one another.

Many Deists consider Jesus to be a great teacher, perhaps an extremely enlightened person who had keen insight into how to relate to God as a Father and to humanity as brothers and sisters. Deists also strongly believe in Jesus’ social gospel of helping others. And many Deists, though not all, believe in some sort of afterlife, another subject that Christianity focuses on.

If Christianity consisted only of the central teachings of Jesus concerning loving God and others, many Deists might consider themselves to be Christians. But Christianity has added many other doctrines to its religion over the years that go far beyond what Jesus taught, and Deists find many of these added doctrines to often be irrational, superstitious, and sometimes harmful. Because of all the “extra baggage” that Christianity currently has, most Deists would probably not choose to self-identify as Christians.

Click here to read part 2.

By William McCracken

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