Conservative -> Liberal

is it me or are most liberals ex conservatives? and when do you ever get a liberal turned conservative?

I thnk that may happen, but not always. I have been pretty liberal most of my life. The change coudl be attributed to faith stages. One theory says we go from being highly rule driven in our faith, through an abolishment of the rules, to a reinstatement of rules as guides to a better life. In this last stage, the key word is guide. The rules do not have the "life or death" connotation they have in the earlier stage.

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hmm I have also noticed that many deconverted Christians tend to come more from a conservative background. I believe that they follow a similar path to that of 'deconverted' conservatives turned liberal.
Now it is fairly well known that conservatives rules are pretty much written in stone with no room for manoevure or for personal opinions. Conservatives can only have one opinion, anything else is deemed 'wrong' or even 'heretical'. Now, due to modern times you will have some people who disagree with certain parts and take their own interpretation, these people are quickly denounced as 'heretics' and pushed away, abandoned almost. Now, this is where the vital difference between an atheist's and a liberal's path is. An atheist takes this negative attitude as the attitude of Christianity and usually, as a result, deconverts and becomes an atheist. However, a liberal will realise that it is the people and not Christianity that dictates these rules and will therefore continue to be a Christian but not living under certain rules made by conservatives.

I think liberals turned conservative is quite rare as a result although it probably has happened. This could be in response to personal experiences possibly.

I went from conservative to liberal.
tulc(seems to get most things backwards from other people)

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For most of my life I was conservative (hey, I was even a Nixon supporter!). As I got older, I started to see the world as less clear cut, less "black and white". My wife and daughters had a lot of influence in this regard, they helped me to see that I had a rather intolerant mind-set. I am now fairly liberal in my thinking.

Forget conservative... I went from downright apolitical fundie to social democratic liberal Christian.

It all has to do with one's capacity for credulity. Conservativism is the way to believe fundamental things without stretching one's mind to areas that are at least initially ambivalent to the minds of those within it; the liberal simply has a deeper conviction of such things necessarily being the case. I can't imagine it being any other way.

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LOL - I saw the OP and just had to respond. I went from far left liberal to right wing conservative. I was liberal when I was young and when I became born-again I became old(er) and conservative.

People get conservative when they have children. It's like magic.

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"An inordinate fondness for beetles." -JBS Haldane

I was the opposite - I became liberal after having two daughters (although the liberalization process really began after they became teenagers).