I said in my last post that I'm a post-label kind of guy. To think of it, I really hate labels. Heaven must be a place where no label exists. There are two labels which I hate especially: conservative and liberal. I think people use labels as verbal violence to attack others instead of creating an environment where dialogue and understanding can happen. Thus, I'm through with labels. Do you know that labels can change over time also? There are several examples we can look at in this short blog.
First, how should we label the Reformers? Hmmmm ... let's see, to the Pope at the time, Luther and Calvin must have looked like a few liberals whose only purpose was to disturb status quo. Yet, today, in my discipline of Pauline studies, those who like to stick to the interpretations of Luther and Calvin (which are different at many fine points) are called conservatives, while those who advocate some changes in reading Paul some other ways are called "new" and even liberal.
Second, how should we label William Wilberforce the social reformer? To his opponents, he was a social liberal whose purpose was to disrupt law and order of his own society, especially within aristocratic ranks. Today, no decent person would disagree that Wilberforce had done a good thing. Today, no one who is not racist would negatively call him liberal.
The above two examples show that labels are very real but very situational. They represent reality incompletely. They make the complex simplistic. The resulting rhetoric does nothing to improve intellectual integrity. I suppose I have been called both sides of the label. Some may consider me conservative while others consider me liberal. Neither label represents me. Neither should they represent you or your opponents. Labels are just anti-intellectual and empty rhetoric. They are used by enemies of the intellect who want to bypass honest complex thinking so that they can appear "right" and gain power. Only those with intellectual handicap still use such labels. It is a game no Christian should participate in, but I'm afraid, too many Christians have participated in too long. If I had my way, I would banish these two labels from my classroom and pulpit FOREVER. Amen!
