The language of ideology

I mentioned last post to look for a wedding post soon. Keep looking. Maybe sometime in September? We'll have the venue officially then.

So I also mentioned last time that I've been thinking a lot about activism. And thats still true. And I've been thinking about how the term "activism" seems to be a positive thing for liberals and a negative thing for conservatives. Like how conservative media pundits complain about "activist judges" when they really just mean "liberal judges". And I get it. Judges shouldn't have a political agenda. They should hear cases from an unbiased place. But conservative judges have an agenda too, its just different. You never hear liberals complain about activist conservative judges though... I don't know why that is, other than just to say that we like to use language to draw lines in the sand between our ideologies.

Liberals tend to hate the term "evangelical". We associate it with unrelenting, pushy, close-minded and judgemental people. And that isn't fair either. What is evangelism but a specific form of activism, anyway? Although I would never want to be in step with the Hagees and Dobsons of the world, I would consider myself an evangelical in the literal sense of the word. I believe in loving your neighbor. I believe that we should "love one another for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." And I try my best to be a loving person.

And this is my problem with the liberal/conservative dichotomy. I live in an extremely conservative area. And I get a LOT of liberal jokes, which is ok because thats how my co-workers show friendship and comfort with other people. By picking on them. But the main point of most of the liberal jokes is that liberals are too soft, too peaceful and too keen to believe that there is good in all people. But isn't that what we're called to be as Christian people? Aren't we called first to love our neighbor, whether they're poor or lazy or don't look, talk, act or believe the way we do? We aren't called to condemn people. I can't find a single verse in the bible asking us to use our government as a tool to marginalize and punish the wicked. Good thing, too. We'd all be screwed.

I don't see Jesus going to Rome to demand that the Sabbath be observed. I can't find any basis for evangelism through government. I cannot understand the belief that we should force obediance to our own belief system simply because we may have the majority.

(Side note: There's a lot in the Bible. There's a lot we don't focus on. Why is it that we pull out the parts that deal with what makes us different from one another and hold them up as though there's a divine hi-lighter on that particular part of that particular verse? Homosexuality is an abomination. So is eating shrimp. They're mere verses apart. Why do we care more about one than another?)

Christianity calls us to love our neighbor. The Constitution exists to protect the minority from the majority. I believe that both those ideas work toward the same goal of unity. And I'm going to continue to try and figure out my place and my desire to use activism and evangelism to stop people from using the language of ideology and selective bible-reading to drive wedges between us.

And I'm going to try to do better about that myself.

Later Days,
Laura

P.S. This was incredibly stream of consciousness. So if something doesn't make sense or seems weird or contradictory, leave me a message! Or, if you just want to debate with me your comment is welcome as well. I think that most of us are faithfully trying to figure out what we believe truth is, even though we may come to vastly different conclusions. I recognize the possiblity that, from time to time, I MAY be wrong. :)

P.P.S. Isn't that the beauty of Christianity? It forces us to accept that we're flawed and imperfect and often wrong. But thats ok.