Let me start off by saying this thread is not about beating up liberals or Christians. The questions I ask are an effort to gain in perspective and nothing more. To me liberal Christian seems a conflicting term. I see liberals as generally progressive while Christianity I see as rigid and establishment oriented. I just do not see how one could espouse progressive views while having faith in God who is a benevolent dictator. To me dogma is a path of predetermination where liberalism is an open path of progressivism. With that said what constitutes a liberal Christian is subjective. My brother identifies himself as a liberal Christian but compared to me he is very conservative... compared to our father he is liberal... while I identify myself as liberal but compared to my wife I am fairly conservative... so it is all quite subjective. Thoughts? I would especially like to hear from those who would say they are liberal Christians. Again I am not here to judge, I am here to understand.
My only comment at this point is that you appear to be taking a rational approach on the subject matter. Congratulations.
According to the Gospels, Jesus Christ was/is a liberal. Since He is a liberal, then those people who follow Him should also be liberal when it comes to social issues. Therefore, the phrase "Conservative Christian" is an oxymoron. A person is either a conservative or he is a Christian. It is impossible to be both. When a person punches on the left side of our face, He did NOT say that we should shoot the other person, fight him, run away or cry. He told us to allow that person to punch us on the right side of our face. When a person forces us to walk a mile, we are NOT supposed to shoot the other person, fight back, run away, or cry. We are supposed to offer to walk a 2nd mile. If someone takes our "coat", we are NOT supposed to shoot the other person, fight back, run away or cry. We are supposed to offer the other person our "shirt". We are supposed to love our enemies, including homosexuals, women who get abortions, etc., we are NOT supposed to shoot them, ridicule them, take away their rights or treat them like second class citizens. Since Jesus Christ NEVER owned or used a weapon, neither should any of His followers.
Religion and politics do not a match make. There are all kinds of christians resulting in all kinds of differing interpretations, dogma and religious perspectives. Nothing in christianity precludes a belief in liberal politics and nothing in liberal politics precludes belief in christianity or any other religion. Seems the conservative right wants to believe that god is on their side, while liberals are the devils spawn. Yet another political distortion that fits nicely on a bumpersticker.
I would say it's all in the interpretation. The Bible is not as clear as some on both sides of the debate would have you believe. The interpretation I was most familiarised with wouldn't dream of the kind of pastiche conservatism I hear about American Christianity. That's not to say that there aren't people in the Church of Sweden who aren't against abortion or contraception, but the general understanding is more varied than that. The more I learn about different religions and different interpretations of religions, the more I am of this opinion. It seems to me that those who claim there is only one way to understand something are the ones who have been duped into thinking so.
Ref. Post #3: Jesus taught a doctrine of exclusion and there was nothing liberal about it. It was all about "do as I say and pray to me or I'll have my angels throw you into the lake of fire". He told his disciples to stay away from the Samaritans and the Gentiles. He spoke in parables so that outsiders wouldn't understand what he was talking about. He cursed entire towns to eternal damnation because the local yokels didn't believe in him. When returns he will establish a theocracy and rule as a dictator. Whatever Jesus was, he wasn't a liberal.
Here is a hint: 1Ti 6:15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
I started out as a liberal Christian---meaning I believed in God and went to a Christion church, but didn't see the Bible as without error or to be taken literally and I didn't see God as personal. I don't think I totally latched on to the concept of Jesus either---believing Jesus was God's sinless son and didn't accept the full meaning of the father, son and holy spirit. I didn't believe in Demons and that sort of thing. I made it what I thought it should be at the time. Once I understood the Bible as inspired by God and meant to read as written (not as a myth but real events)....then my liberal days were over---because it made commonsense. The one thing liberalism is not in my opinion---is commonsense or truth.
You mean you don't have the spiritual gift of discernment? Try reading the verses preceding that cited verse.
Well, I have to give you some credit. You've twisted it to pieces but you do have certain things correct. Jesus did make clear the concept of hell and who will go there. Those who do not have a relationship with God, through His Son Jesus...will go there. That is the rule as it were and I take it seriously. Though frankly...mercy knows no rules, its at the whim of God and He ultimately decides. Jesus freaked his Disciples out by making a point to speak to gentiles and Samaritans...so that argument holds no merit. Plus---He sent Paul, and Peter and the rest of the disciples to do just that--talk to the Gentiles. And when Jesus comes back--Satan will be put away which naturally brings peace--a supernatural type of peace we've never experienced. A theocracy will not be necessary.
Jesus was accused of being as Samaritan himself. When he ended up surrounded by his former townspeople he had to talk to them. But when the Pharisees asked him directly he ignored the question. The fact remains that he told his disciples to stay away from Samaritans and Gentiles. He only spoke a couple of words to a Gentile in his entire life. He considered them to be dogs and swine.
As you already know Christianity is the majority religion in Canada and there are more liberals than conservatives. So to answer your question liberal christians makes sense. Are you coming at this from american POV? You do live in Canada..
Nope. You're wrong. Its just not there. He talked to Romans, to Samaritans (remember the well? Or did you get that far?) God purposely went to Peter to get him in line and talk to Gentiles. Jesus met Paul on that road to Damascus....and Paul took on the mission of spreading the word to the entire world. Where are you getting this stuff? From someones anti-Christian blog? Why don't you try the New Testament instead.
I can't dispute that but I prefer him because of his ideas for the future. And his strong stance that Liberal MPs be pro choice because the new Liberal party is a party of the Charter of Rights & Freedoms. Hurrah.
If no one has ever seen God how did he go to Peter? Peter never saw Jesus because Paul created the the Jesus character. If Peter had actually spent years following after Jesus every day he wouldn't have been able to have Paul tell him what Jesus was all about. The Peter character might have been a cult member of The Way that Paul had been trying to exterminate. And by Peter's own words we know that Jesus wouldn't have spoken to non-Jews because it would have been against Jewish law.
I assume that liberal christians would stay as far away as possible from this forum. Theist and atheist alike hate them here. (I'll give you a pass on that judgement rob, but look at the post to your thread if you want to see my evidence.)
Yikes...you're ranting like a crazy man. Please...just read it and stop getting this crazy stuff from the net.
I think religion goes to the core of who a person is. For the faithful religion is the basis of morality, ethics, virtues... etc., and as such play an important part in politics. A persons faith has an influence over every aspect of their life... including their politics... just my opinion though. In my years sampling Christianity this is what I was led to believe.
Anyone who feels the need to preface the word "Christian" with either "Liberal" or "Conservative" when labeling themselves is not discussing their religious beliefs, but their political ideology.
Well, not technically, no. Within the church there are liberals, moderates, and conservatives politically, yes. But those are also used to described how scripture is interpreted by any given group. The more literal scripture is interpreted in general the more conservative one is considered, i.e. a "conservative church" would mean one that interprets the scripture very literally in a lot of moral areas, i.e. homosexuality is definitively a sin, women can't be pastors, etc. A liberal one would necessarily not interpret scriptures literally or would attempt to find explanations that narrow the interpretation of the scripture, i.e. a church saying that romans 1 was addressed to the romans, specifically, and was talking sent because of something like orgies and has nothing to do with homosexuality being sinful would likely be a liberal church. Of course, like in politics, these lines can get blurred very quickly and there are many people who fall into both camps on a lot of things and it's also true that a lot of things *do* correlate with politics, they aren't necessarily mutually inclusive. There are several entirely apolitical Christians who would still be able to be identified as "liberal" or "conservative" (or more likely would be labeled conservative by the liberals and liberal by the conservative) for the purposes of scriptural viewpoint. You are right in saying that people usually will not attach these descriptors to themselves, i.e. you're rarely going to have somebody walk up to you and identify themselves as a "liberal Christian" or the inverse of that, but different doctrinal positions are generally considered liberal or conservative, within the church at large, without being necessarily attached to anything in a secular political sense.
There is a religious left. Jim Wallis is a good spokesperson for us. The UCC is a denomination that pretty much epitomizes it. Christians aren't all intolerant hateful Bible thumpers. There are others of us out there, but we just don't yell as loudly... in fact, we hardly ever yell at all.
