Christianity and Liberalism
Part 6
Alright, so I lied! I would like to do one more installment on this subject. It is just so easy to see the comparision between liberal thinking and the Christian institution, and it is the institution I am confronting. It is just that over the years I have slowly begun to realize that, for decades, I have been defending the beliefs and doctrines of orthodox Christian teaching and not the scriptures, and there is a difference between the two.
Liberalism has always maintained the idea that big government, the source of liberal leaderships' income, is our support and our 'parents', if you will. It is that which we become dependent upon to survive, not to thrive mind you, but to survive. Through big government and the media, liberalism creates the national paradigm. It defines our views of virtually everything from taxes to foreign affairs. Most of what the American public understands about the Middle East is spoon fed by the liberal media. Most of us have our views of 'secular' life formed by liberal thinking, and these views seem very natural and logical.
Mishlei 14:12
"There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
I believe that there are traditions, practices, doctrines and behavior in our dominant religious culture that 'seem' natural, logical and right. The religious institution I was raised in created the sacred paradigms of righteous living, and all my life it 'seemed' right to me. Personally, when I began to read and study the Book of Life, in the language and culture from which it was written, I quickly began to realize that governments and religious institutions are not my parents, and neither of them are going to define my world view. Liberalism and it's traditions, practices, doctrines and behavior has much difficulty existing if the Constitution, our founding document, is interpreted in light of the language and culture in which it was written. The traditions, practices, doctrines and behavior of our dominant religion would melt away with a fervent heat, if the Book of Life, our founding document, were interpreted in light of the language and culture in which it was written. The first thing that each one of those institutions do is to render obsolete the lives and perspectives of the writers of both of those documents. It is an historical fact that 'new' paradigms cannot be created unless first the old paradigms be disparaged, demonized, and condemned. This is why self evaluation is not a prevailing activity in liberal thinking of most religious organizations. The dominant activity is criticizing and condemning everyone else. I suppose it appears as if that is what I am doing at this moment. There is one BIG difference. Our ministry is designed to play our part in bringing ALL believers in Yahshua BACK to the roots and model that they have cut themselves off from, just as Sha’ul predicted in Romans 11.
In Rush Limbaugh's second book, he provides a short lexicon of liberal definitions. I would like to use some of these definitions as a springboard for what I believe some definitions would be in the typical Christian lexicon. Here are a few examples.
The Liberal Lexicon: The Bible is a dangerous book that should be removed from school libraries.
The Christian Lexicon: The Old Testament is a dangerous book that should be removed from seminaries.
The Liberal Lexicon: Capital punishment is a cruel, unusual, and barbaric practice.
The Christian Lexicon: Capital punishment is a cruel, unusual, and barbaric practice typical of the Old Testament.
The Liberal Lexicon: Christopher Columbus - the originator of genocide, racism, sexism and homophobia ...
The Christian Lexicon: Moses - the originator of genocide, racism, sexism and homophobia ...
The Liberal Lexicon: The Cub Scouts - junior members of a subversive, homophobic, paramilitary organization.
The Christian Lexicon: Children of Israel - junior members of a subversive, homophobic, paramilitary organization.
The Liberal Lexicon: Contributions - government confiscating the American peoples hardearned income to increase government spending.
The Christian Lexicon: Offerings - church leaders confiscating the flock's hardearned income to increase the 'work' of the kingdom. (ouch)
The Liberal Lexicon: Earth - the source of life
The Christian Lexicon: Earth - the eternal home of the Jews.
The Liberal Lexicon: Faith - something you need a lot of to be a liberal.
The Christian Lexicon: Faith - the opposite of obedience
The Liberal Lexicon: A Father - a non-vital member of the family.
The Christian Lexicon: The Father - an almost irrelevant second banana to the son.
The Liberal Lexicon: Freedom -hedonism (living your own way outside the law.)
The Christian Lexicon: Freedom - hedonism (living your own way outside the law.)
The Liberal Lexicon: Chosen - liberals by virtue of being liberals.
The Christian Lexicon: Chosen - Christians by virtue of being Christians.
The Liberal Lexicon: Labels - what liberals try to stick on conservatives.
The Christian Lexicon: Labels - what Christians put on refrigerators, shirts, and bumpers as definitive evidence that there is a Christian on board.
The Liberal Lexicon: Litmus test - something liberal presidents, but not conservative presidents should use in choosing Supreme Court Justices.
The Christian Lexicon: Litmus test - the sinner's prayer.
The Liberal Lexicon: Morality - defined by individual choice.
The Christian Lexicon: Morality - defined by individual choice.
The Liberal Lexicon: Omniscience - the Federal Government
The Christian Lexicon: Omniscience - something only the God of Israel has, but is not taken seriously.
The Liberal Lexicon: Right - wrong
The Christian Lexicon: Right - something voted upon at yearly conventions.
Well I hope I have adequately stirred up things. Every day I see more and more evidence that these two entities are very closely aligned philosophically. The conclusion to all this is simply this; The God of Israel is my Father, and all teaching and behavior will be in harmony with Him and His ways. If it is not, then it is time to re-evaluate MY ways, and not to manipulate His ways.
Shalom Alecheim!