God’s Most Favoritest City

Portland Monthly recently ran “Jesus’s Favorite City“, a cover story that touched on the unique nature of Christianity in Portland by speaking to prominent Portland pastors.  “A group of emerging liberal Christian leaders is rethinking GOD—in Portland’s image” the subheading reads, which confused me a bit, because Rick McKinley and Bob Hyatt aren’t liberal in any theological (or, as far as I know, political) sense.

The article, while decent, makes a number of those little mistakes.  Granted, the intricacies of Christian theology, particularly in a less conservative environment like Portland, are difficult to convey, but this article doesn’t seek to explain on even a basic level.  To infer a guy like Rick McKinley is a liberal Christian rethinking God in Portland’s image is just flat out incorrect.

In its biggest misstep, the magazine then trots out Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell for a debate/interview about Christianity with the always entertaining atheist Christopher Hitchens, a premise that seems roughly the equivalent to bringing in Elizabeth Hasselbeck to argue the Wilt Chamberlain v. Bill Russell rivalry with Bill Simmons.  It does result in some hilarious tidbits, though:

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Sewell: Let me go someplace else. When I was in seminary I was particularly drawn to the work of theologian Paul Tillich. He shocked people by describing the traditional God—as you might as a matter of fact—as, “an invincible tyrant.” For Tillich, God is “the ground of being.” It’s his response to, say, Freud’s belief that religion is mere wish fulfillment and comes from the humans’ fear of death. What do you think of Tillich’s concept of God?

Hitchens: I would classify that under the heading of “statements that have no meaning—at all.”

Ha!  There are many more moments like that, and you can read them for yourself.  I suspect you’ll find yourself in the rare position of rooting for Christopher Hitchens.  Unitarianism: the Oscar Bluth of organized religion.

Based on the opening bit, this piece was probably inspired by Tom Krattenmaker’s column in USA Today, which is also a good read.