Can a Christian be Liberal? Question for the tough-minded among you. I have, I would say, slightly more conservative Christian friends than liberal Christian ones…but only slightly more so. One of my more Liberal friends, Lauren, runs Ramblings of a CM, which she’s currently taking a break from (grrrr!). She has written about this subject several times, mostly to highlight the surprise many people express in her being both Christian and Liberal.
To many, the two are mutually exclusive.
La Shawn Barber points to an article by Doug Giles that makes the case against being both.
For the “Christian” to lean politically to the left means that he must blow off huge chunks of the Bible and replace the scripture with the make-believe notions of postmodernism
Jesus, I know, was neither. He was, simply, Jesus.
That’s exactly the point I’m trying to make. Thanks for the link, Jeremiah.
Amen, dude…
Nice triangulation! If being liberal compromises your Christianity, I went to school with a lot of heretics. And I’d rather just call them idiots.
I opt for the wood, hay, stubble approach of 1 Cor 3. They may indeed be, and even get in, but only as if through a fire where everything they were carrying is burnt away, including the clothes off their back.
Perhaps, William, though I’m not absolutely convinced that even that is a surefire (no pun intended) response. And even if such a rubrick were to be used, I’m sure there would be quite a few conservatives who would just barely “make it”.
I suspect statements like William’s are the kind of thing that get me so frustrated I keep reiterating on my blog that one can be liberal and Christian. Like if I say it enough naysayers might start to believe it. Too bad it doesn’t work that way. As thick as I know my skin should be, part of me can’t help but feel personally attacked by his statement. In response…
Perhaps I will make it into heaven “only as if through a fire,” but if that is so I doubt it will be the direct, or even indirect, result of my political leanings, as they currently stand. And I question anyone’s ability to foresee what the fire 1 Cor 3 refers to will reveal. I try to opt for the “do not judge” Matthew 7:1-5 approach.
LOL! It told me my first comment had an error and didn’t work, so I tried rewriting it, and now my first comment is there. That’s great – just a tad embarrassing. Anyway, thanks Jeremiah, for the shout out and such. I’m back, but it appears it didn’t take long to get rusty :)
I’ll take out the duplicate comment, Lauren. Glad you’re back!
I believe that the most important point to remember when discussing religion and politics is that politics is a human endeavor. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus claim to be a Democrat or a Republican. Those of us who hold conservative or liberal views (or neither…) believe that we are on the “right” side of the argument. At the end of the day, however, we are merely mortal human beings using our little brains to come to our own personal convictions.
While I am firmly on one side of the “divide”, it would be of the utmost arrogance for me to say that someone who holds secular political views different from mine is somehow holding “un-Christian” views. Human beings take from Scripture what they want to back up their arguments on how secular life should be organized. We all have our own frame of reference when it comes to how we view the secular world, and we naturally look for all the “ammunition” we can to back up our opinions. And that is all they are – opinions.
It is extremely unhelpful and dishonest to say that someone who does not agree with your opinions about the organization of our political and economic life cannot be a Christian. No matter which side you belong to.