Born A Buzzword
I was born a conservative.
Oh you think that’s an exaggeration?
Do you remember Michael J. Fox’s character, Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties, who had a Richard Nixon rattle in his crib as a baby? Well, I was about 20 years later, but it’s not that far off.
The story goes that when I was a toddler, I recognized someone at a restaurant, who looked like one of my heroes. I called out, “Look! It’s Ronald Reagan!” And according to my parents… that sweet lady really did bear striking resemblance to the prez.
After one election, where the conservative candidate didn’t win, one family member was in tears, another declared that the country was “going to hell,” and yet another got in trouble at school for turning their chair away from the televised inauguration. I’ll let you wonder about who was who, but it’s all given us a good laugh in the years since.
I regularly advocated for trickle-down economics…
…as well as conservative social values when I was growing up. In high school I did so in the school newspaper. This did not help with popularity contests. I also joined the young conservatives club, which met at lunch to talk about things we couldn’t vote for, yet.
In 2000, I was on a retreat in Pigeon Forge, TN when it was finally announced that George W. Bush had won. My friends and I drove around town, hanging out the windows of a car, making “Ws” with our fingers, and shouting celebrations.
I held a sign in a pro-life demonstration in childhood and attended a Republican presidential candidate’s rally in adulthood.
We were talking about media bias decades before “fake news” became a phrase.
When I first moved to Georgia, I was still registered back home. So, I drove 15+ hours in one day to vote Republican.1
My Cub Scout leader was a Republican elected to Congress, (who replaced my also Republican neighbor). I am fairly well acquainted with a couple folks in national conservative media.
I was a bit surprised when I was first called the “L” word.
You understand, I am sure. I literally thought this word was akin to cussing for many years! Who would want to be called that?!
Particularly because it came in a church context, I was absolutely baffled.
Listen, I adore so many people who would call themselves “liberal.” So many churches that preach “liberal theology” (which is actually different from liberal politics/social values) are full of wonderful people. However, I am thoroughly dedicated to combating liberal theology (and any aberrant theological system) as part of my vocation!
If you’ve read my blog for a while or know my story, you’ll know that I did the “deconstruction” thing 20+ years ago.2 I was taken in by some of the errors of liberal theology (all while remaining very conservative politically, by the way) long ago. So, I love helping people really understand the good news of Jesus, and what Scripture is about, where it came from, etc. instead of these tired critiques that have falsely paraded as enlightenment for hundreds of years now, and fooled me for a bit.
The funny thing, though, is that becoming more orthodox theologically is actually what opened me up to hearing from people who thought differently from me politically or socially.
My governmental thoughts have not shifted much.
I still believe a society functions best the more it resembles the moral code of the Bible, and that the results will be disastrous the further it gets from this.
I still think generally lower taxes are preferable for a variety of reasons, and that any responsible entity will seek to spend less than it takes in.
I still think that usually, a slower pace of change is better for a nation.
I still think it’s unwise for governments to get very tangled in providing a large portion of the population’s income.
I still believe living human beings in a womb have an absolute right to life that must not be infringed in any way.
Do you know what I discovered the more that I have spoken with friends who lean more to the left than I do?
Many of them would agree with much of what is written above, or something very similar to it.
Most of the right-leaning people I know would also affirm:
Human beings who are different from the majority population in some way must be treated with dignity and respect.
Average, hardworking folks should be able to reap reasonable rewards for their work, and be able to care for their families.
It is good to think for and care for the poor in society.
We should be responsible in our stewardship of the earth.
Government can have a role in addressing societal issues.
Clearly, that’s leaving a lot out. There’s still so much to disagree about! And, of course, you could parse each of these statements down to the connotations of each phrase or word and discover that even in consensus, our thoughts about application might diverge significantly.
But they also might not.
Regardless, I think it’s worthwhile to consider how often we agree, when we subtract the buzzwords.
Pro-this-or-that, libertarian, progressive, laissez-faire, socialist, reactionary, populist, even conservative or liberal themselves shift very quickly from helpful shorthand for a set of principles to labels for humans to fear or battle.
That’s how your Thanksgiving table turns into a shouting match.
It’s how parents just stop hearing from their kids one day.
It’s how once enjoyable platforms for keeping up with friends’ kids and life events became digital dystopian wastelands for many of us.
Is it really worth it?
Perhaps your policy principles are so close to your heart that you’d say yes. But I wonder if a shift in the way we discuss these things (even if there is absolutely no shift or compromise to be had with the other side) might help us find a way forward with people we dearly love… or people we could love if we could stay in the same room for a while to find out.
What would it look like to drop the labels? Could “Oh, so you’re ______” disappear from our mouths and keyboards?
I am sure our applications might look a little different, but I would love to urge our culture, particularly those who would claim to follow Christ, to try to drop the buzzwords, and attempt understanding those with strange thoughts and views.
One caveat- if you have totally agreed with me so far, but you’re thinking right now “Yes! If only those people would try to understand me!” I’m afraid you’re reading this wrong. We can’t control anyone else’s choices or reactions to anything at all, ever.
We can make our own choices, though.
By faith, we can choose to try understanding.
There will always be bad actors in life, who meet even your attempts to understand with malice, tell all your mutual acquaintances that you are (choose your buzzword) and generally enjoy or benefit from chaos. Sometimes you have to just shake the dust from your sandals, as it were, and move along.
But that doesn’t make it a waste of time to continue trying to get it, and treating others as if the charitable interpretation of them is the accurate one.3
In fact, particularly right now, even while the whole world can seem on fire (maybe exactly because the whole world can seem on fire) I think it might be a part of making the best use of our time to seek understanding as opposed to categorization of others. Many things may appear more pressing, but this is a thing that I have control over.
I want to try understanding for the sake of the gospel in particular. The rewards of being right will wear off fast, but the rewards of bringing the beautiful reality of Jesus to bear with my voice, my work, my relationships will endure eternally.
For so many reasons, I want to try understanding.
Would you join me?
UPDATES ON UNION ATHENS
In many ways, this is exactly our work in planting Union Athens, and honestly, I think it’s a big part of why the work is particularly difficult in this season. My day to day interaction with human beings (who appear to be coming from wildly different cultural and political backgrounds from one another) is pretty consistent and friendly.
However, the increasing polarization all around us means that the work of specifically attempting to bridge gaps is not very popular. If you know me, you know that probably appeals to me even more. I am usually repelled by trendy things. Particularly because I am convinced that this is the right thing to do in this season, and that this specific manifestation is my unique calling, I am glad to do this work, regardless of whether it is in style or not.
It is hard, though.
I am convinced that this church will not be planted if God is not the one doing the planting.
I just don’t have what it takes.
However, he keeps providing for us, in his unique way. Two things appear to be coming together even this week that are good examples of it, yet again. I will likely share about them in the next blog, after all the details shake out.
It’s gotten to the point that when the crisis bomb drops on us (and any church planter will tell you, there are so. many. dang. crisis bombs) I just shrug and say “Well, I haven’t made any of this work, so far. So, we’ll just see what he has in store for us this time.”
That doesn’t mean that I sit back on my haunches. There’s still so much work to be done. But ultimately, I know that when I make the calls, or go to the appointments, or send the emails, or whatever, I am really just receiving whatever God is putting in my path, not causing anything to happen, myself.
That’s a significant stress reliever, as well, in a crazy season. It doesn’t mean I don’t have hours or days where anxiety wells up in me. It means that when that happens, I am reminded that we are simply dependent on the Lord, and that even if he chose not to provide, my life is in him, not my ministry effectiveness or success.
Our team repeats often these days, “prayer is our strategy.” It’s really true!
Please join that strategy and pray specifically for us that God would bless our outreach to the community this spring and grow us with others whose hearts long for this mission!
Yes, I called the Secretary of State’s office to double check that I would not be breaking any election laws.
For some people, “deconstruction” has just meant letting go of a fundamentalism that is not actually in the Bible. So, it’s largely been good for them, and they’ve found themselves in more orthodox churches. For most deconstructers the concept has seemed to follow the philosophical inclinations from which it was named, unmooring from not only beliefs, but also the methods by which one could even arrive at truth. This is, to put it lightly, less helpful.
Note that I’m merely speaking in terms of attempting to understand others in general human interaction. Significant wisdom is necessary to determine how, if at all, to move forward relationally with bad actors within an organization, or in some type of negotiations, or if it seems clear someone is using your charitable interpretation manipulatively.