Liberal or Conservative: Does Anyone Really Care?

I, for one, am pretty tired of the banter than runs across the political and religious lines accusing one or the other of trying to destroy the (pick one) community/church/country. Whether one is right or wrong does not even come close to what the argument, name-calling, and mud-slinging is intended to accomplish.

I tend to lean toward the conservative side, but my "liberal" friends and I have a pretty good time taking cheap shots at one another and poking fun at the politicians who are in the headlines that particular day. More often than not, we move away from the banter laughing rather than scowling. Why? Because none of it is worth getting upset over. Whether religion or politics, we are still talking about man's perspective even as some among us might try to make a prophetic claim to be speaking in the Lord's behalf.

At one time I was adamantly and unapologetically conservative, a died-in-the-wool Reagan Republican who had little use for those *ahem* liberal "patriots". I would just as sooner have had teeth removed with a screwdriver than to listen to liberal blather. Not long ago, however, I took an online survey/test that evaluated one's tendencies. I scored just "left of center". I cried for a week.

Lately I've been exploring and evaluating what this survey score could possibly mean. Is it possible that I am so weak-minded that I have been overrun by liberal thought? Was I nothing more than a cork bobbing in the water waiting on a good strong wind to blow me back into position? Was I lost and unable to find my way back?

Since entering into the blogging world, I have had opportunity to read many posts from many different persons across the political and religious spectrum. While I have found that political tendencies do not seem to affect grammar and spelling, I have also found that too many of us are bound by labels. We are hopelessly adrift in a sea of hatefulness that knows no boundaries except those boundaries made possible by these same labels.

It is not enough to attempt to use a point to counter an argument. We choose to go for the jugular. We aim to belittle and destroy those with whom we disagree. We are intolerant of any opinion that differs from our own even as we DEMAND tolerance, and we find ourselves sounding not much different than those with whom we may disagree when the dust settles.

I suppose I have found that if a more liberal point of view uses good information and sound reasoning, it really does not matter whether I will ever agree. What matters is that I am the better for having allowed my mind to be open to another perspective, another point of view that serves to broaden my own perspective and even to help me think a little more clearly. I have also found that if I listen with an open mind and a closed mouth, I am far more likely to hear as much as I am heard.

I long for a day when reasonable discussions can be done with civility with an honest effort to sway and influence, of course, but also with a genuine desire to learn as much as can be learned before rendering a "final decision".

It is enough that we simply respect one another.

Have Peace.