Steve Thorngate in his recent post at Theolog, Labeling Christians, points to issues surrounding several terms. He also notes that the term “liberal” has fallen into ill repute. During my military service, several chaplains from conservative traditions such as the Southern Baptists worked for or with me, respected me, and to my amusement could not bring themselves to describe me as a liberal, even though I self-identified that way.
Among the good alternatives to liberal are post-theism and progressive Christianity.
However, I like “liberal” in its classical sense of respecting a diversity of beliefs and, in a theological sense according to the Oxford English Dictionary, viewing many traditional beliefs as dispensable or at least needing new interpretation.
2 comments:
I seem to recall that, as a Naval Chaplain, you tended not to make your opinions known on controversial issues -- perhaps because you were mindful that you are preaching to more conservative congregations.
The challenge as a chaplain is to move people as much as possible while neither pandering nor alienating them. Over the years, I am not certain that I always hit that balance. Some people left, e.g., they were offended at the idea that God may have people on more than one planet or they did like my refusing to engage in bibliolatry. Other people came, attracted by an approach that was substantially more liberal than that of the average military chaplain.
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