Robin Rex Meyers is an American Christian minister, peace activist, philosopher and author of seven books on Liberal and Progressive Christian theology in Western society and the Christian left. He has been a syndicated columnist and a commentator for National Public Radio and was the Senior Minister of the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City from 1985 to 2020. He is a Distinguished Professor of Social Justice in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, where he has taught since 1991. Meyers is currently the Teaching Pastor of First Congregational Church of Norman UCC in Norman, Oklahoma, and Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Tenured at Oklahoma City University.
Early life and education
Robin Meyers was born in Oklahoma City, and was raised in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Dr. Robert Meyers, was originally an ordained minister in the Church of Christ and Professor of English Literature at the church-affiliated Harding University; however he lost his job in 1959 for supporting desegregation at the school. His father later left the Church of Christ to become pastor at Plymouth Congregationalist Church in Wichita from 1970-83.
In early 2012, a week after his father died aged 88, Meyers dedicated a sermon to him. He told the Congregation:
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Wichita State University (1975), Meyers received a Masters of Divinity from the Graduate Seminary of Phillips University (1979), a Doctor of Ministry from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey (1981), and a doctorate in Rhetoric (persuasion and preaching) from the University of Oklahoma (1991).
Career
Meyers is a fellow of the Westar Institute (home of the Jesus Seminar), and a frequent preacher and speaker at church conferences and communication workshops across the United States. He travels and lectures monthly in the United States on Progressive Christianity, has lectured in North Wales (Gladstone's Library) and toured Australia and New Zealand as the Common Dreams Lecturer in 2016. He has been a finalist for the pulpit of The Riverside Church on two occasions, the Earl Preacher at the Earl Lectures in Berkeley in 2000, and winner of the Angie Debo Civil Libertarian of the Year Award from the ACLU.
Meyers has appeared on Dateline NBC, the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and ABC World News. He has also written for the journal The Christian Century. Meyers delivered the Lyman Beecher Lectures at the Yale Divinity School in 2013 with addresses on "Faith as Resistance" to ego, orthodoxy and empire. These lectures form the basis of his second most recent book, Spiritual Defiance: Building a Beloved Community of Resistance.
Meyers credits the late American New Testament scholar, theologian and author Marcus Borg as a major theological influence, as well as his seminary Preaching Professor and mentor Fred Craddock. He is married to Shawn Meyers, an Oklahoma City artist; they are parents to three adult children and have two grandchildren.
Views
Theology and Church Reform
In his writing and preaching Meyers emphasizes the humanness of Jesus and the literary (rather than literal) nature of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, stating that: "I seek to build, not a collection of 'believers', but a beloved community devoted to embodying peace and justice". Meyers contends that Christianity "was once, and must be again, about following Jesus, not about worshiping Christ".
He calls on modern Christianity to return to the core beliefs and practices of the early Church before the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity; by focusing on orthopraxy (faithful practice) rather than orthodoxy (right belief). Meyers describes his approach to Christianity as "non-literal, non-dogmatic, and profoundly subversive". His goal to empower Christians to live subversively according to a different way of being has been compared to that of the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann and endorsed by South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. In 2012, Meyers told the Decatur Herald & Review:
Human Rights and Interfaith Dialogue
Meyers opposes the death penalty and attempted to save the life of Wanda Jean Allen, whom the State of Oklahoma executed by lethal injection in January, 2001, for the murder of her girlfriend. He spoke on Allen's behalf at an Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board clemency hearing and was one of her nominated witnesses at the execution. He appeared in the HBO documentary, The Execution of Wanda Jean, which was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.