Three reasons progressive Christians shouldn’t give up on conversion

Does the church today actually want to convert people? If so, we’re pretty coy about it. And we’re plenty articulate about why it’s not such a great idea.

We point out that conversion is all about the airport and silent about the trip. Christianity, we maintain, is about discipline and faithfulness—not one moment that solves and settles everything. We highlight that conversion is a way of making faith all about me and my experience at the center of God’s attention. An utter focus on God can be a mask for total focus on oneself and complete disregard for justice in one’s relationships and society more broadly.

We suspect that conversion keys into our profound desire to fit in and please and conform and belong. We identify it as a tactic of cultural imperialism, by which people are manipu­lated by those who wield religion as power.