[open] For those of us who are liberal, why?

[Im_A]

i figure this could be a testimonial thread of some sort to explain why we are liberal if one would feel the need to put their faith on their sleeve in case it helps to encourage anyone struggling, or maybe just for personal means.

 

[Im_A]

i was briefly in a discussion about the inerrancy of the Bible. that topic is becoming one i love to talk about, and it got me thinking.

one reason i think i'm liberal is because this is our story of our generation. not meaning to say our generation, or our modern times is quo say "liberal", but i'm tired of passing on stories that i cannot relate too. i may believe the miraclous stories of Christ and all that mythological expression it details, but i'm tired of passing on stories that i cannot relate to.

i cannot relate to the mentality of the ancient times. no matter how hard i try, i just cannot do it. i accept mythology as truth, but i keep it where it is at, it just so happens that i believe mythology can be real and living, cause it has been around for so long, so there must be a reason why that i see no reason to take it out of its context to appease my itching ears cause they do itch quite a bit.

but i find that liberalism and secularism is the story we are passing on. it is the place that i can go to God and feel that i am being honest with God, instead of lieing to God. i can be honest with God and honest with my brothers and sisters in the faith, i can put aside all the biased things i would love to believe and seek truth as it is.

in a weird poetic, metaphorical, mythological expression i suppose, it is the best place i can put all that i struggle with at the alter of God and say to God, here i am, reject me or welcome me in, the desicion is yours.

frustrated with the disfractionalized church in its attempts to give emperical truth that i only find biased along certain types of thinking, even the liberal side being guilty of it at times. to look at things from more of a historical context, instead of my own beliefs, is refreshing.

and here we have the story of passing on to other generations of God's Divine intervention at a time that really only can be defined as "the end times". i'm not meaning a prophetic end of the world type of idea, but the end of an era and the beginning of a new one and that shows that God still acts in our lives.

liberalism to me is nothing about being Christ-like. the call to be Christ-like rises above all the pigeonholding terms we hold to...even the word "Christian" being included in my opinion at least. it's just about being realistic and above all, honest, to know that i never lie to God and others around me.

i suppose liberalism has had a huge affect on me since i started posting h ere. stuff like existentialism, the writings of John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, Brian McLaren, are modern authors that i'm grateful for and i am sure i will find more, especially Paul Tillich the more i read his writings.

to just be a part of the telling of the story of our generation, and be a part of God's active involvement today, not yesterday and to be humble and honest to God.

 

[amused]

Deep man deep! I think for me, I class myself Liberal because I dont agree with quite a few things the conservative view teaches. Although I am not going to pick it all apart right now. I just know I have run into so many problems where I dont agree with something and I get shot down. I come here and my ideas are either prethought by someone else (usually the case) Or they are considered. I feel free to be who I am and not ashamed that I am not the carbon copy cut out of a pop culture christian. ARGH! RUNAWAY!

cheers

 

[HeavenzAngel]

my story is short

I'm liberal because I know the bible is the word of GOD, but I feel he can change his mind and rules, he is GOD, he can do what he wants! Liberal also gives me more freedom to accept people the way they are. I feel sometimes very religious people can be hateful, not all of them though.

 

[DailyBlessings]

God spoke, I listened.

 

[JulySheMustFly]

Because the Holy Spirit moves. Where He was at 100AD is not where He is today and I will follow God not man.

 

[Abbadon]

I'm liberal because my philosophical opinions are two schizophrenic between traditional, moderate, and radical to be conservative or moderate.

To some extent, I could well qualify as an evangelical. But I avoid this label, since I would cause unnecessary arguement with ideas like "well, needing Christ for salvation doesn't necessarily mean that Plato or Lao-Tzu didn't get into heaven -- They seemed to have figured it out" or "Just because the Bible is inerrant doesn't mean that Moses wrote the first five books."

 

[stanleyg]

I am liberal, because any civilized society that seeks to preserve peace and justice will secure the civil liberties of its civilian citizens.

Otherwise, it may subject itself to civil strife and/or war by attempting to enforce martial law upon civilians to secure law and order.

Martial law is like pouring gasoline on fire!

 

[FLANDIDLYANDERS]

I am Liberal (by others - esp cf definition) because I can only respond in grace to people.

This is not to say that I am always a gracious poster around these parts

But in the day-to-day real world, I cannot help but offer Grace. To put peoples freedom first. It is how God, IMO, treats us. God pours grace upon us and offers us our freedom, and we choose how to use or abuse that freedom. I try to be this way in all things, or where it matters the most.

Also, as I am not God, I am so, so very wrong so very often that to be ungracious would be hypocritical.

I see little grace in traditional/orthodox church and/or theology/lifestyle. This is a thing that must change.

As christians we have been guilty of treating humans as converts. We were driven by guilt or fear or love to preach or do things for them. When all along what we needed was to experience the grace of God, and do so in turn to others. We come in an opposite spirit.

Freedom in all things. Freedom can only come through extreme grace. Only in freedom can we truly reassess what the boundaries should be. And this is a messy, heart-breaking, rewarding process.

For this, I am Liberal. When I thought I was just doing what makes my Daddy proud!

 

[Multi-Elis]

destiny. Because the way the events turned out in my life and the way I interpreted them has lead me to where I am. Because given the choice between asking questions and holding on to answers that didn't make sense any more, I chose the questions. And questions aren't answers! Tatted's post made me think of how in manyways I have incorporated a certain way of thinking of our era, that has both advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes I worry if this is called worldliness. I might think differently if I were in a different enviroment. But then I guess that isn't completely true: I started to think differently while still heavily immersed in a more close-minded setting. I don't think that I can vérify whether in a different enviroment I would think differently, because I tend to avoid environements that don't think in the direction that I am in general moving to. I sometimes wonder if it's a matter of being too influenced by what I read. Yet I tend to be more influenced by one type of reading than other types which I progressively leave behind. I sometimes wonder and worry that I might be going a bit in the extreme, as a sort of reaction to my father -- who is quite liberal in both senses of the word, and yet refuses to go on beyond a certain point: rather than examening all the facettes and utilities of certain modern philosophies, he gets alergic to even to the mention of their name. So does that push me to embrace these philosophies all the more? Or am I just in general rebellious?
So in a sense, I am the product of my era, my experience and the way I have interpreted that. And well... "liberal" has perhaps become too mild a term to describe me.

 

[Teshi]

I'm liberal because I know I might be wrong.

 

[united4Peace]

Im liberal...as I believe in equality...fairness...even though the world isnt fair at times, I still believe that we all need love, some sort of love, and that we all have some sort of love within...that's what makes us human isnt it?

Saying that...I do have thoughts that are Conservative
I think we all do.
I think Rightwinged people tend to be liberal in certain situations also.

 

[non-religious]

I do think there are a lot of inaccurate generalisations associated with being a "liberal" Christian. We are not all quick to forgive or accept others ways of thinking. We are not all out there fighting the "cause" and helping our fellow man. Not all liberals are tolerant and even dare I say perhaps many of us are guilty of thinking we have more knowledge and wisdom than those who take a more literal approach to the Word.

My liberal side stems from my politics first and when I became a Christian I guess I identified those things with what Christ strived for. Helping those who are on the margins of society, reaching out to the so-called unreachable. Jesus did that and I am all for helping those less fortunate.

I am struggling with the liberal/Theological side of my walk however and I find myself leaning toward a more literal Word based theology. It's a path I'm comfortable treading because I'm learning more as I go

 

[KnightoftheFaith]

that supporters of democracy, labor, women, minorities, and the environment are on the right side of history. I learned from the Bible that supporters of the poor are on the right side of history also, even though at times it seems like they aren't.

Society just functions better when everyone gets an equal say and no one hogs anyone else's chance at a better life.

 

[Da_Funkey_Gibbon]

that supporters of democracy, labor, women, minorities, and the environment are on the right side of history. I learned from the Bible that supporters of the poor are on the right side of history also, even though at times it seems like they aren't.

Society just functions better when everyone gets an equal say and no one hogs anyone else's chance at a better life.

Guess I'm a liberal too then.

 

[CaDan]

Why?

Because that's what they call me.

 

[Catherineanne]

This is an interesting question.

I think the best way to answer it is that I searched until I found a place where I belong, in terms of intellectual rigour, sprituality and emotion. I find this place to be completely consistent with the God I know, and the Christ I find in Scripture, and am only surprised that others can find a completely different God and Christ, reflecting their own path and spritual needs. (And often seeming to me more like a recalcitrant toddler than a deity.)

Having found one's own place spiritually, it is quite another challenge to find a church within which that sprituality can grow. Having been rejected by my local church and its ministers, because of my disability, I find mine by centering myself in the Church Fathers, in the saints, in history, in theology, in Our Lady, and in finding God wherever I am, and whatever I am doing.

My first word for all of this would be 'Christian'. If that needs any further clarification, I would say liberal Anglo Catholic; same as Our Lord.

 

[*Starlight*]

I'm a liberal because I believe that all kinds of rules are meant to serve people, not the other way around... and because I don't believe that there's one group of people who's exactly right about God, the world, meaning of life, and things like that, while everyone else is wrong... I tend to believe that the truth can be found by looking for common ground between faiths, ideologies... instead of fighting those which are different....

 

[stanleyg]

I am so grateful to live in a free nation.

 

[stanleyg]

I am liberal because the Northern Union Army won the American Civil War to save our Federation Union from the Rebels of the Southern Confederate States Army, who opposed our United States Constitution (USC) and our Flag of the United States, because either offered civil liberties for African Americans, yet favored the Articles of Confederation (AOC), because it furnished a Fugitive Article to return runaway slaves to his or her rightful owner. Since the abolitionists, who liberated my people from slavery were liberal-minded Christians, I am duty bound by my faith in Christ to assert my liberty to save others, who have been cast back into slavery by the Rebels, who have survived to reap havoc upon our Union by electing Dixie loyalists to serve in civic office to take God out of our Pledge of Allegiance, because it promises to God liberty and justice for all.

Amendment XIII​

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.