How Do You Tell Our Story?

I am trying to write a piece for our local newspaper about the recent change in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I am finding it difficult to choose where to begin the story. I am tempted to begin with, "Once upon a time that were two utterly innocent human beings living a paradisaical garden, when one day the woman spied a  piece of fruit hanging just beyond her grasp." I figure this approach might take me way past my 750 word limit.

If I were writing from the progressive position, where would I begin? It would no doubt be from the story of the Exodus. Headline: God sees the suffering of His oppressed people. The Witherspoon Dr. theology is one of setting free all those who are held captive by wicked social systems. There meta-narrative  begins with the Abolitionists Movement. They want desperately, and above all other aims, to be on the right side of social progress. It is pretty heady stuff to claim that God used you to end slavery, to emancipate women, to create child labor laws, promote collective bargaining for exploited workers, to create a Christian Century where all nations will form a one world government, to bring Christian civilization to the farthest reaches of the globe, to the establish civil rights for racial minorities, to promote equal pay for equal work, put forward the equal rights amendment to the constitution, to promote the abolition of all nuclear/biological/chemical weapons of mass destruction, to end war (oppose every war, end all war), to end all want and disease, and finally, to save the planet. (We might need to change Superman to Liberation Man and that to Liberation Person and that to Liberation Animal, and that to Liberation Life Force.)

The "Gay Liberation Movement" is where the Presbyterian Liberation Movement stalled for a while. It has taken nearly forty years, great effort, and great expense. But, now, at last, they can see the Promised Land. This vote was one small step for man (sorry, for humans) but it was a one giant leap for mankind (that is, humanity - maybe, Life Force.)

What is this story really about? It is about some folk's notion of liberation more fully realized. It is about building the Kingdom of God (sorry, the Reign of God - I'm sorry, Divine/Human Cooperative, sorry, Divine/Life Force cooperative. Mea Maximum Culpa, just Life Force.) on earth.  It is the sweet sound of justice flowing down like water, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. For the progressives among us (and there are many) - this is the era of Jubilation. This is where wrongs are righted.

As one who is looking from a non-Liberationists perspective, my meta-narrative might be the pair in the garden, just as they eat from the tree that promised knowledge equal to God's - but I think a more fitting story is the Tower of Babel. "Nothing shall be impossible to them."

My meta-narrative is the incarnation, the suffering, the atoning death of God Himself, and the victory over sin and death. My Promised Land is Glory, the White Throne Judgment and the Wedding feast of the Lamb. What is yours?