Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
@#$%
Are you a liberal
or conservative?
Oops.
Sorry.
The labels have
changed.
Are you a
progressive or traditionalist?
Oh, yeah, there's
a third label: centrist/moderate; as in, "I walk down the middle of the
road on things so people from all sides will like me and not draw me into their
debates because, you know, I'm just, uh, moderately,
uh, committed to things like faith, marriage, parenting,
patriotism, and..."
People who feel
caught in the middle are...
Whoa.
Getting back to
liberals aka progressives and conservatives aka traditionalists, my daddy says,
"Conservatives hate to see anything happen for the first time; and when
you look into the faces of liberals, you can't tell if they're having a vision
of God or didn't make it to the potty in time."
Prejudices.
Labels.
Liberals wanna be
called progressives because it sounds better than being labeled liberals.
Conservatives
wanna be called traditionalists because it sounds better than being labeled
conservatives.
It kinda makes me
think of that football team in D.C.
Anyway,
"progressive" is a good label for people who like to make up stuff in
keeping with whatever's good, right, just, and moral for them at the
time. They've, uh, progressed from old values, truths, and
standards. They're open to "more light" on things.
The "German
Church" that didn't go with guys like Bonhoeffer, Niemoller, and other
Jesus-loving-Bible-thumping guys comes to mind. That's why it was so open
and embracing to...
Ouch.
Progressions are
not always positive.
Not all
"change" is bad; and, uh, not all "change" is good.
I think of...
"Traditional" is a good label for people who long for the way things
never were or maybe were but are no more.
Though neither
will admit it, traditionalists have a lot in common with progressives because
they both make up stuff to bolster their beliefs that seem to change more with
their gonads than God.
Psst.
This is just for
Christians.
Did you know
Jesus wasn't a traditionalist? Read the red letters. Start with
Matthew 15 and 23. Read the reactions of civil and ecclesiastical
traditionalists to Him.
Traditionalists
are often like progressives in that they pick and choose what they want to, uh,
"conserve" to the liking of their, uh, traditions.
O.K., all of that
is imprecise; and I'm not really interested in debating those labels because I
don't like being labeled and I'm totally convinced until proven otherwise that
Christianity is a lot bigger and better and more
faithful than those myopically, prejudicially, and superficially
distinguishing labels.
For example,
every now and then, somebody asks, "What are you?"
I say, "I'm
trying to be a Christian."
"No,"
they go on, "I mean, what are
you? Are you a Presbyterian or Methodist or Catholic or
Pentecostal or Baptist or...a liberal or conservative or...?"
"No," I
continue, "I'm trying to be a Christian."
Then I say being
a Christian, to me not to mention 2K years of salvific history, means believing
in Jesus as Lord and Savior and trying to honor Him as such with behaviors by
the book.
BTW, if you read
those red letters in the book, you'll discover Christians don't fit neatly into
those other labels that much; because Christians are really liberal about some things
like social responsibilities and really conservative about some things like
faith and morality.
BTW(2),
considering Jesus is God, I prefer to be labeled as His rather than theirs or
mine or Presbyterian or Methodist or Catholic or Pentecostal or Baptist or...
If I have to
explain that to you, you probably need to start reading those red letters
again.
Really, when you
think about it, the labels that we accept for ourselves are closely related to
our loyalties.
Oh.
Are we loyal to
Jesus by the book or loyal to labels that are often only coincidentally loyal
to Jesus by the book?
Dr. Macleod
always told me not to end with an interrogative.
O.K.
Christianity
isn't about labels.
It's about
loyalty to Jesus by the book.
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
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