I have increasingly notice how useless and downright harmful the terms conservative and liberal are.\u00a0 In the political arena, religious matters, or wherever.<\/p>\n
I, for one, plan to ban their use from my vocabulary.\u00a0 What does it mean to be conservative?\u00a0 To be a liberal?\u00a0 The best I’ve ever heard of is that it is a title under which we lump our favorite agendas and favorite demons.\u00a0 If I were to ask 20 people the definition of those terms and what one would classify under each title, each person would likely put their own favorite issue(s) under whichever one they wish to alienate or affirm.\u00a0 These labels often turn into firebrands upon which we like to point fingers and make tongue-wagging generalities.\u00a0 When someone starts saying ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ anything, I find that it’s usually an attempt to be divisive, polarizing, and as vague as possible.\u00a0 Even more harmful is to use these terms to classify people.<\/p>\n
When I hear a person using these terms, I have yet to see it convince the person they are talking too if they are of a differing opinion.\u00a0 I think it’s because we all can see the broad generalities they are appealing to and not actually saying anything about the real truth of the matter.\u00a0 If someone is wrong about a viewpoint then the argument should be directed to correct the particular viewpoint or argue that one topic.\u00a0 Making a blanket statements they are liberal or conservative seeks to lump a person with tags they cannot really fall under.<\/p>\n
Is a whole person’s viewpoint really conservative or liberal?\u00a0 At best we could use the term with the one stance or topic.\u00a0 We are all far too complex of people to be satisfied with such foolishly simple terms and harmful judgments based on one position.\u00a0 Far more often I find that the real reason people are so polarized or set on a particular topic is because they have personally been hurt or carry a lot of emotional, spiritual, or mental baggage with the topic that was never healed.\u00a0 Often this pain or anger is carried subconsciously.<\/p>\n
One of the best deacons I’ve ever met lives by the creed that it is only through loving relationship that any conversion happens.\u00a0 I have come to believe more and more this is true.\u00a0 Love implies relationship.\u00a0 Unless we are willing to be in a genuine relationship with the other person, to really listen to their concerns and work with the questions *together*, we are not loving anyone.\u00a0 Without love, there is no change.\u00a0 God brought salvation to this world through the very real and human person of Jesus.\u00a0 He didn’t do it from ‘on high’ but from real, human relationship and that is an example we should take to heart.<\/p>\n
One does not deny there is wrong or evil in our understandings, but one needs to affirm that there is good in the person first.\u00a0 It is the the power of real, loving relationship that\u00a0 correction and change can happen.\u00a0 One is far more likely to listen to someone that they know cares for them and listens to them than yelling at them with labels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have increasingly notice how useless and downright harmful the terms conservative and liberal are.\u00a0 In the political arena, religious matters, or wherever. I, for one, plan to ban their use from my vocabulary.\u00a0 What does it mean to be conservative?\u00a0 To be a liberal?\u00a0 The best I’ve ever heard of is that it is a title under which we lump our favorite agendas and favorite demons.\u00a0 If I were to ask 20 people the definition of those terms and…<\/p>\n