Anyone Have Conservative and Liberal Friends/Relatives....

[ChristianCritic]

. . . who don't see eye to eye and who don't get along? It's like they're speaking different languages and are from different worlds entirely! Sometimes I feel caught in the middle or feel compelled to side with one side or another or to act as a peacemaker but I also don't want my own views to be sacrificed in the process! What are your experiences and how do you deal?

 

[Zoness]

My best friend of 12 years is really conservative politically but not so much religiously (probably the reason we don't kill each other). My family considers of conservative baptists and Catholics and then ...me. The majority of my friends are pretty liberal and several of them are not Christian (athiests, wiccans, neopagans) but that doesn't bother me. I try to be the stabilizing force between everyone but often I get stuck siding with one side or the other given certain circumstances and that is definitely really hard to handle.

Peacemaker job is difficult, I try to do it but usually it takes someone else.

 

[Qyöt27]

My dad's parents are Democrats and Catholic, whereas after he and my mom got married he swung away from both of those and became a Republican and more or less thoroughly Protestant (nominally Methodist like my mom's family, but influenced by a bunch of the Baptist and Dispensationalist preachers on AM Radio). He generally tries to simply overlook those differences but sometimes gets dragged into those heated rants if it turns to politics.

I, on the other hand, was raised with those elements in place, but almost contradictorily, my family also stressed centrism (or moreover, 'vote for the one that you think will do the best job, not just because they belong to your party', and equally held respect for both FDR and Reagan). I sharply swung away from the religious underpinnings we were raised with, and came out pretty thoroughly Methodist rather than just nominally - however, I'm also ecumenical in that I don't share any sort of conviction that Catholics are wrong at all (my disagreements mainly concern the question of validity - I hold to multiple validity because I see Protestantism as part of greater orthodox belief). I remember that when I actually came out and said I was a preterist and didn't agree with such things as the Rapture my dad retorted with 'don't you take anything in Scripture literally?' From that point on I just decided it was easier to try and ignore it and not bring it up unless it was way too blatant, which hasn't really happened yet - I have enough on my plate just attempting to choke down my irritation with dispensationalism whenever that rears its head.

My interest in the history of the Church and getting back to tradition made me 'liberal up' by the standards we were raised with. That's also what happened politically - my opinions are broadly reformist with left libertarian/Old Progressivist undercurrents, which deviate from the almost rank-and-file middle Republican, conversative household I was raised in. Likewise, I don't agree with the sort of rhetoric from staunch liberals that there are no redeeming qualities in the other side, or with social democratic talking points just because. That's why I'm a registered Moderate, not a registered Democrat (even if the Democratic Party is kind of becoming a big tent these days). I really don't think tangible, lasting change will occur until we break out of this two-party system.

So with all that considered, I don't mind trying to play peacemaker, but not in my own family - that's a minefield I don't really want to approach.

 

[Maid Marie]

Thankfully, my two groups don't know each other much for me to feel stuck in the middle of a battle. My mom's family are conservative. My college bud is liberal. So, when I am with the fam I put on my 'conservative' hat and with my bud and her friends, I put on my 'liberal' hat. My other college buds, who are conservative just kind of ignore the liberal bud when she gets going on a topic.

My mom did say that if it wasn't for me explaining my bud's motives and actions, she would never have seen her for anything except a looney liberal. And I work at helping my liberal bud see that not all conservatives are greedy, selfish, ______.

Usually, it is not a problem for me. Although at times they will make comments. Family will ask me how can I stomach watching that horribly liberal CNN...meanwhile lib bud will ask me how can I stand to watch that horribly conservative CNN? I ignore them both and continue to watch CNN.

I am concerned though that I am becoming a camelion...I'll keep quiet about my own beliefs at the sake of peace.

 

[Izdaari Eristikon]

On the religious front, I have friends who are militant atheists, friends who are practicing pagans, and friends who are hardcore Word of Faith. In politics, I have friends who are gay rights activists and friends who are rabid Rush Limbaugh fans.

Hardly anybody I know shares my peculiar combination of views: a moderate (conservative on the basics, liberal on much else) charismatic Christian who is politically libertarian-right and a member of the Libertarian Party.

So I've learned to be diplomatic. I'm not shy about expressing my views, but I express them in a gentle way. I get along pretty well with most folks.

 

[SistrNChrist]

It happens all the time in my family. My brothers and I are liberals as far as politics go, while my dad and uncle are on the conservative side of the political spectrum. Every time my dad's side of the family gets together, one of my brothers has to mention something about how the Bush administration made a mess of things, which gets my dad and uncle started on how Obama is messing up the presidency. I like to stay out of the situation by either leaving the situation or in cases where I can't go anywhere, turn up my Ipod really loud so it drowns out the whole discussion. Same thing happens with religion. I once got drawn into a debate with an atheist cousin because he was saying how he was glad that the government in Spain (where he's from) has legalized abortion. As you can imagine, things didn't go too well, especially since my cousin is one of those people who think they are experts on everything in the whole world and no one knows more than them.

 

[spinningtutu]

I certainly have friends and family all over the place, both religiously and politically. In terms of religion, I'm leaning strongly towards Conservative-Evangelical these days... but due to my own "wanderings" I'm certainly in a position to judge no one... And politically, I'm such a maverick that when people are all on Bush's case - I really pretty much agree... and when people predict that Obama is going to have a devestating effect on the country, well - I pretty much agree... I think that politically speaking, to actually be political and to also have a shot at actually accomplishing anything, one pretty much has to go down an evil road (lest we forget that from the beginning the idea of human governance was always evil). Sure, God can bring good out of evil administrations... and good came out of the Bush era and good will come out of the Obama (but that doesn't make the administrations themselves good).

 

[lismore]

. . . who don't see eye to eye and who don't get along? It's like they're speaking different languages and are from different worlds entirely! Sometimes I feel caught in the middle or feel compelled to side with one side or another or to act as a peacemaker but I also don't want my own views to be sacrificed in the process! What are your experiences and how do you deal?

Hello

My auntie is very conservative and her daughter quite liberal. My auntie always starts off saying how wrong homosexuality is, then her daughter says she has a gay friend. If you let them continue on, they would come to blows.

Its a generational thing I think!

 

[laurasmonologue]

I live in the South in the US and have pretty liberal views compared to 99% of the people in this region. My parents are both extremely conservative and my sister and I are more liberal. It always makes for interesting conversations. My dad tends to try to preach a lot and brow beat me into seeing his position and it doesn't work. I try to debate with him gently but he never lets it stay gentle. Once it escalates I either take myself out of the conversation or just say "okay dad. okay dad" at anything he says.

I am quite odd in my mixture of political views and religious beliefs so I have given up finding someone who shares those same beliefs. I have learned to state my opinion gracefully and let that be that.

It seems like most of my friends are atheist for some reason. They usually have questions regarding God and religion and I try to answer to the best of my knowledge. I really rely on God to give me the words to tell them as I would undoubtedly put my foot in my mouth. I try to answer their questions without preaching to them or trying to convert them. They know that I'm always there if they need that, but they don't feel pressured which goes a long way to getting them to listen.

Basically, it's tricky and you really have to handle those situations with respect for yourself and your beliefs but also respect for your family/friend's beliefs as well.