Over the past five years or so, I have begun encountering a kind of person I call the “Liberal Trad.” The Liberal Trad fully accepts political liberalism, to include late liberal norms that are often described as “progressive.” The Liberal Trad normally supports the LGBTQ+ movements and abortion rights. But these Liberal Trads also identify as Christians, even of the churchly kind. They typically do not affirm biblical inerrancy, and they usually do support women’s ordination to every ecclesiastical office. But the Liberal Trad also affirms and promotes the Nicene Creed and other aspects of historic doctrinal orthodoxy. The Liberal Trad is very often a religious exclusivist, believing that salvation from sin and death can only be found through an active and living faith in Jesus Christ. To top things off, they are even liturgical traditionalists, often knowing more about the authentic tradition of their church than most of its other members do. Within the Anglican universe, the Liberal Trads often promote the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, believe that the minister should stand at the north side of the Communion table, and even wear the classic surplice with academic hood and tippet. I’ve even seen them in preaching bands!
And so, the Liberal Trad certainly codes as a lib on social and political issues. They might be a democratic socialist or something of that sort. A lefty even. But within the church, they advocate for many things which would normally be considered traditionalist. They are not interested in the Boomer reductions, either to social-gospel activism or generic evangelicalism. They don’t go in for contemporary repackaging of the church, nor are they much interested in charismaticism. They are fans of Thomas Cranmer and Richard Hooker.
What are we to make of this?
The first thing that has to be said is that the Liberal Trads present a case where the simple friend/enemy approach to things doesn’t work so well. The Liberal Trad almost always exists within Mainline Protestantism, and so within that framework there are many ways in which they are forces for good. If they have success, churches like The Episcopal Church or the PCUSA would return to a more biblical preaching and teaching and would reapply their confessional documents. Even within an overtly political organization, wouldn’t it be a good thing if the Liberal Trad was able to draw greater recognition to a sort of Christian cultural identity? That would be a nice corrective to an aggressive secularism, right? And perhaps, through their witness, some people who are not yet believers might even be inspired to consider Christianity and eventually even truly repent and believe.
And on a personal level, most of the Liberal Trads that I have come across seem like entirely pleasant people with whom I would get along. I’m sure we like the same music, watch the same movies, and read the same books. I think our temperament is usually quite similar. For a lot of day-to-day life, even life in the church, we would be on the same page.
And yet it’s not so clear. If the price of Christian representation is a foundational revisionism, a disbelief in the Biblical text itself and the Church’s consensual reading of it, and a revision that just so happens to bring things into line with the late 20th century, then what initially appeared encouraging might actually be a very dangerous trap.
When you consider things from a more strictly political perspective, the negative implications become easier to see. When faced with a binary choice, the Liberal Trad is going to support the liberal option over the conservative one. I’m sure there are exceptions when it comes to politics outside the church. There may be Liberal Trads who vote for Trump (I genuinely don’t know). But within the world of the Church, they will support the leadership of the mainline churches and oppose the various evangelical or breakaway options. They will not mount effective resistance movements within their ecclesiastical bodies. At best, they will carve our protected enclaves. The power structures will not be challenged. They may not support Bishop Spong, but they do support the mechanisms and devices which created and protected him. And the other members of those mainline groups know that if push ever came to shove, the Liberal Trad is on their side. In fact, the Liberal Trad can only exist after the institution has been fully captured by liberalism.
Some people might think that a rather cold sort of political pragmatism, but consider what has actually happened to our churches, as well as many of the institutions that had been formative elements of the American ideal. They are largely destroyed. We are living in a crisis, and we cannot afford to offer support, however reluctant or half-hearted, to the agents of continued decline. When it comes to matters like abortion or the redefinition of human sexuality, we are talking about grave evils and active harms.
Spiritually speaking, we can also press to the ultimate considerations. Yes, the Liberal Trad might read the patristics. They might have exquisite liturgical tastes. They might even be willing to proclaim the glories of justification by faith alone. But if they also promote or encourage people to live in a state of unrepentant sin, and a sin that the New Testament routinely says will exclude one from the kingdom of heaven (Rev. 22:15, 1 Cor. 6:9), then what has been achieved? The people who are influenced will move from being nonbelievers to being false brethren. You might argue that this is worse.
To attempt to evade this objection by appealing to differing interpretations does not work, because in this case, at least one interpretation is spiritually existential. It’s not the sort of thing that we can agree to disagree over and still walk together. It’s not even a topic that we can reasonably choose to pass over in silence. It’s one of the most pressing issues of our day. It is the sort of disagreement which requires lines to be drawn and guarded. We can be friends out in the world, but in the church, one of us must always be on guard against the other.
As interesting and potentially attractive as the Liberal Trad might be, the option is ultimately a dead end for true followers of the Christian tradition. We need not pronounce judgment on each individual’s spiritual state. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And people are works in progress. Maybe the next decade can bring true reconciliation. But until such a time, we must earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. We must banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s word, using both public and private admonitions and exhortations. We must do this even when we have so much else in common and otherwise get along so well.