Despite my constant denial and vain attempts to appear moderate I am with out a doubt what I would have called a year ago a “flaming liberal.” As a Christian pursuing religious studies, I hold a very liberal interpretation of the Bible and hold the same interpretation when it comes to politics. The position that I currently hold is a stark contrast to my position when I first arrived to this university which was what I affectionately call my This seems to be a normal event that happens with many college students and wouldn’t normally prove to be written about but there is something else that is thrown into the mix of the story.
I am in a long lasting relationship with someone who I grew up with in my home town but who presently attends a university much different than mine. The main difference between our universities is that where mine harbors the transition from conservative to liberal hers simply harbors conservative and allows students to remain in their ideology. This has proved to spark many debates between the two of must of which have ended with the two of us understanding something about where the other is coming from. But lately this has not been the case. A recent argument erupted when I mentioned that a Christian conservative organization claimed that it “informed” others about Islam but only distributed books that claimed that the religion harbored terrorism. This obviously angered her because she could view all the good that the organization was doing, i.e. the countless mission projects resulting in building shelters, churches and so forth. Was she ignoring the bad or was I ignoring the good? The answer to this question lies ahead.
Innocent until proven guilty is the ideology that the United States justice system is built upon. It states that if you are convicted of a crime the accusers must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you committed the crime or you are free to go. But is this the way that our society really works? What I have discovered is that many of us deal out our sentence, innocent or guilty, along with our first impressions…and I am no different. I have done this repeatedly not only to people but to groups of people and organizations.
In my attempt to become a moderate, able to view both left and right sides of the fence, I have become a liberal, only siding with my fellow lefters and accusing the rights of stealing the lefters’ property. I cannot change the fact that I have a liberal interpretation of the Bible but in my attempt to be open minded I have actually closed my mind. I previously mentioned that I have become a “flaming liberal” but neglected to explain what ramifications this causes. A “flaming liberal” is one who views all conservatives as destroying our nation and what is wrong with society. The truth is that our society and our nation need liberal and conservative and moderate ideology in order to survive. For one side to claim that those on the other side of the fence or those seated on the fence are ruining the land is in fact idiotic and is in fact what I have been taking part of. My views have not changed only they way I see other’s views. I believe to claim that one has an open mind one must be able to be open to both ends of the political, Bilbilica, etc. spectrum.
Conservatives: Innocent until proven guilty
Liberals: Innocent until proven guilty
Moderates: Innocent until proven guilty
Saturday, March 29, 2008
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2 comments:
I prefer not to put names to groups who have certain view points. It angers political science majors when you collate Christianity and conservatism.
I believe that by you saying "look at all the terrible things this group truly believes", you are a far better person. If a group truly believes that Islam only promotes terrorism, my response would be that the group is a terrorist group who is brainwashing people to attack another group of people. Christians with this mentality generally drive me insane. They are also the people who usually have the multi-million dollar "campus's" to do nothing else but create the terrorist of the future. I realized not long ago, that to be a good Christian I didn't need to convert people, I didn't even need to go to church, all I needed to do was to believe in God, and be a good person. As a religion major, you may disagree; I can understand that. These Church's that feel that they should brainwash children to believe that Disney is bad, and that anyone who is not Christian is going to hell, and that they are going to hell too should give up... since they are going to hell too.
B"H
I have a hard time accepting, as you know, that both liberalism and conservatism seek to accomplish the same ends, as you suggest. For instance, where "conservative" is defined as the Republican Party in this country, I think we can clearly see a deviation from your "innocent until proven guilty" mentality.
For instance; the writ of habeus corpus has been suspended-- you may be arrested without charge. Guantanamo Bay remains opened-- our government has condoned torture at this facility where foreign nationals are held without trial, without due process of law. Private organizations have received government immunity upon agreeing to spy on American citizens-- this is unconstitutional. Indeed, our failed foreign policy that includes meddling in foreign affairs and trespassing on the ideological and physical territory of sovereign nations has, in a sense, served to convict the whole world as guilty of not recognizing our power to do so.
In short, American conservatism has tacitly perpetuated, if not actively proponed, the torture of foreign nations, the murder of US prisoners, the McCarthy-era style of privatized information, the lack of care and commodities for low-income US citizens, the blatant hate-propaganda toward the gay community, the idea of legislating from the courts so as to elect legislatures for life, and the time-honored conservative tradition of making the poor poorer and the rich richer.
On the religious scene, any religion that perpetuates intolerance toward another religion strives only for violence and discord. There is no viewpoint around hateful indoctrination. There is no "good" done in the name of hate, there is no activity that justifies or rectifies indoctrination against a group of people. Conservative Christianity seeks to deal in ideologies and abstractions-- but the people they slander are real, and the hell they create is not in some mythical afterlife, but is, instead, all around them.
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