When you think of conservative versus liberal, what would you say you are referring to?
Dr. Albert Mohler says a conservative is someone who is faithful through voting Republican because Republicans vote for the pro-life movement.
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Mohler has made himself the bastion of conservative Christians in politics, working hard to give Republicans control of the House and the Senate again. Is this what it means to be “conservative?
How about if we think of conservative Anabaptist as opposed to liberal Anabaptist? What are we talking about with that?
Are we referring to women wearing physical coverings on their heads?
Are we talking about the way we understand creation to have happened, whether it was six 24-hour days or over a period more nuanced than Young Earth Creationism?
Who gets to define what a conservative is?
I was recently referred to as a “liberal” because I spoke positively of wearing masks back in 2020.
Does being against masks make one a “conservative”?
Is a “conservative” church one where there are no women in leadership? Is it one that doesn’t allow same-sex marriage?
Maybe a “conservative” church believes God’s word is the authoritative message of scripture. But if that is how we define “conservativism,” what do we do when it’s also those churches who tend to be most resistant towards loving people from the LGBTQ community? Many of them actually think it’s wrong to enter into the stories of people who identify as LGBTQ and become friends them. It’s also those people who are most resistant toward addressing the racial biases that we hold within our churches.
It’s those churches who are more dogmatic about Complementarianism than they are about acknowledging that women in the New Testament carried more influence and had more of a role in the ministry of the Gospel than women in their own churches have today.
If “holding to the truth of God’s word” is how we define “conservative,” I don’t see very many true “conservatives.”
When the scriptures challenge the ideology of the one who claims to hold to the authoritative word of God, then I begin to wonder if they are actually “conservative.”
You see, “conservativism” is always compared to something.
On its face, “conservative” simply means “averse to change or innovation and holding traditional values.” So what is the status quo? What are the traditional values? Once we figure those out, we will better know what being “conservative” means.
If my guiding post for change or values is the scriptures, being a “conservative” Christian means I will flex my ideology in order to stay close to what the scriptures say.
A “conservative” Christian ought to find it difficult to see their values represented well in either political parties. Both Republicans and Democrats depart from the scriptures.
A “conservative” Christian will struggle to fit into churches that either add to or let go of biblical values, at least if their guide post truly is scripture.
It seems to me, however, that in America today, “conservative” now means a very narrow, particular ideology and not just a way to describe the posture one takes toward particular values.
You tell me, what do we mean when we talk about “conservatives”?
When we speak in belittling, derogatory ways of liberals, who are we thinking of as we do that?
You see, far too many Christians today—even Anabaptists who more or less claim to not be influenced and participating in the political systems of this world—have adopted a very secularized and politically driven understanding of what it means to be conservative.
Should we even be that concerned about being or staying “conservative”? Should our goal not be to know Jesus and to embody him in the world?
Unfortunately, I hear this phrase a lot, “conservative this,” “conservative that.”
“I’m a conservative….” or “The liberals are really upset….”
Who and what are we talking about when we say things like this? You can share your thoughts in the comments below.
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