Christianity is not defined in terms of "liberal" or "conservative." Still, many us fall into the trap of trying to do so.

Two conversations illustrate the point. In the first instance, a young man took me aside during a gathering and posed a quesiton: "Are you a liberal or a conservative?" I did not know whether he had religion, politics, genorosity versus miserliness, or something else in mind. He seemed very serious, almost as if the answer I might give would tell him something vital about me, or at least about the possibility of our developing an ongoing relationship. The second conversation took a slightly different turn when a woman said to me: "You're not one of those, are you?" She said nothing to help me understand what she might mean by "those," but I suspect she meant some group she believed to be too far left or too right of her personal position.

What disturbs me a bit was their unspoken but obvious assumption that my answer might tell them whether or not I am a Christian. How did this kind of thinking take root among us? The terms "liberal" and "conservative" are fairly new insofar as the Christian faith is concerned. Historically speaking, the terms are borrowed from secular politics. Until very recent times, they were never used to distinquish one Christian from another.As a child I was taught to believe that a Christian is any one who professes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Insofar as I'm concerned, that's still the only valid definition.

That's not to say that I mind describing myself with the terms, but I prefer to combine them! I sometimes think of myself as a liberal/conservative Christian. What does that mean? A few examples must suffice. I am conservative in that I believe Jesus is the Christ, the very Son of God, the One in Whom we see and experience God with us. In other words, I believe in the Incarnation. I believe in the Resurrection and all it entails and implies, not the least of which is that the Sermon on the Mount and all the other teachings of Jesus reveal God's way for his people. Which leads to the liberal side of my thought: If everything Jesus said and modeled is meant to be lived out by his people in this life, many established ways of thinking and acting must be discarded. We call that kind of perspective on life "liberal."

To put it in more nearly traditional language, the established gospel pushes us to see and undertake new things, things we never would have dreamed of were it not that we take Jesus so seriously!

So...it seems to me that asking someone whether he or she is liberal or conservative is non-productive at best. A much better question is: "Do you take Jesus seriously as Lord of your life and Lord of the church?" When we start dealing with such a question, we are not far from the Kingdom of God.