“What in the world is going on in our small town?”

That thought flashed through my mind after I started reading last week’s Times and came to a letter to the editor written by eight local pastors. These ministers were announcing a series of upcoming sermons entitled, “Progressive Christianity: Fact or Fiction.”

As my wife and I are members of The Fountains, a progressive church, and friends of Pastor David Felten, I looked over at Ann and said, “Wow, we’re Christian rebels of some sort. At our age that’s kind of exciting.”

Reading on I came across a very large advertisement in which the pastors listed the subjects to be covered over a six- week period.

I thought “Boy, they could be sitting across the table shaking their uncompromising fingers in my face while telling me in no uncertain terms where I’d be going because I did not believe in the virgin birth, the literal interpretation of the Bible, the physical resurrection, or the divinity of Jesus.”

I felt like I’d wandered onto a movie set and the script called for a stranger to arrive in town, look at the city ordinances and say, “What do you mean I can’t do this or that?”

(Church Elders enter stage left.) “Because that’s the way it’s always been!”

Repetition of litanies, creeds, hymns, even sermon themes can lead to great comfort as participants learn to enjoy and accept predictability. However, it does a disservice to people when they are told: “The truth? We have all of that we need.”

I’d like to end with a single sentence from Thomas Jefferson (Letters on Religion 1785): “Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blind faith.”