What is liberal to you?

[deadman1204]

I'm curious as to what peoples reactions and thoughts are of those they think of as liberals.

I'm not referring to religious, financial, social, or political liberals in specific. Simply your thoughts on the group in general. (The group being composed of those you categorize as liberals)

Also, please feel free to explain why you think that

Edited January 5, 2006 by deadman1204

[Razberry]

Liberal, to me, describes one who feels everyone has the "right" to do whatever they personally prefer, without regard for others. Whatever feels right to them, regardless of consequences. Actually, there should be no consequences. With no regard for God's law whatsoever. One who feels there should be no hindrances or rules if it stands in the way of personal preference. It's all about freedom. Freedom from rules, God, judgement, and consequences. If it feels good, do it.

examples--

Abortion is a right and should freely be used as a birth control method, if need be, without judgement. The law is on my side. There's nothing wrong with it, so why condemn it? It's not a baby, it's a blob, or something.

There's absolutely nothing abnormal about homosexuality and people should be free to sleep with whomever they want without fear of judgement. Shame on you if you don't accept this ideal. You're a homophobe!

Marriage can be changed with the seasons--why work at a marriage? If you're not happy, get out.

etc, etc.

I think the definition of Liberal continually widens, more and more intentionally omitting God. Religious freedom has come to mean "freedom from religion". Liberalism emphasizes our it's-all-about-me society, where men/women have become lovers of selves more than lovers of God. Christians are now considered narrow-minded and ignorant.

This is simply my opinion, and yes, I'm a proud member of the vast right-wing conspiracy. I may write in Bill O'Reilly's name for president during the next election.

Edited January 5, 2006 by Razberry

[apothanein kerdos]

They are often infected with post-modernism and other false philosophies. However, they aren't wrong on everything and they certainly get it right sometimes....at the same time, I have a hard time trusting them.

[hebrews_beauty]

Right about some things, wrong about others...just like everyone else, really.

[Iryssa]

The term "liberal" for me inspires distrust for many reasons. First, I've known many self-proclaimed liberals, and most of them have actually hated Christianity (again, self-proclaimed). Second, it is the name of a party that has been in power for a long time in Canada, and they keep doing things like the sponsorship scandal, and blundering into insulting important political figures of other countries.

[Razberry]

To me a liberal is a person that doesn't think of things in absolute terms. Everything is grey and therefore there is no absolute right or wrong in anything anyone does.

When it comes to the Bible, it is full of good ideas, but cannot be taken literal.

When it comes to the Constitution, it is a living breathing document, which means they have the wiggle room to make it say anything they want it to.

I am 100 percent in opposition to that way of thinking so I voted, does their favorite number have 3 digits in it? Obviously, I do not think all liberals are the anti-Christ, but do believe the last days false religion will be composed of liberals. Conservatives are too dogmatic to accept minor differences over doctrine, so they will never accept a one-world religious order.

I hope what I have said is not blown up to mean more than I intended. I would hate to have someone come back and say I called all liberals the devil.

You called all liberals the devil! oops, never mind, that was me.

I agree. I particularly like the part of your post referring to "gray" areas. That does seem to be true with liberals. But when there are no absolute rules, everything falls into the gray area. That makes wrong decisions seem more justifiable to them.

(I don't mean to sound like I'm harshly judging. I'm simply going by my own past experiences, and yes, I've tried to justify a sin or two--in the past. <smacking myself in the head>)

Edited January 5, 2006 by Razberry

[Guest stevej]

When i was a kid we watched the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National convention in 1959. We also watched the debates. As a child i did not understand the hoopla. As a child i came to the conclusion that a liberal was anyone who did not agree with my families point of view.

My view became more liberalized with time and sadly because of Watergate became disenchanted with the right. When each of the hostage situations took place after watergate my views started moving back to the right. After the 9/11 attack my conservative views were firmly in place.

The point here is..as we are younger we see things differently and with time, experience and a little common sense are views are molded one way or the other. I am grateful to my family for their conservative views and embrace them.

[Northern Princess]

The term "liberal" for me inspires distrust for many reasons. First, I've known many self-proclaimed liberals, and most of them have actually hated Christianity (again, self-proclaimed). Second, it is the name of a party that has been in power for a long time in Canada, and they keep doing things like the sponsorship scandal, and blundering into insulting important political figures of other countries.

First, allow me to state my position as coming from a Canadian point of view

Yes, we have some liberal leaders that messed everything in our country up, we've had a few of them actually. We've also had some conservative ones who've messed things up royally too... so associating the recent sponsorship scandal and Paul Martin in general with liberalism probably isn't the best way to talk about liberalism. Mainly because while I don't agree with liberal ideals in and of themselves, which is why I'll do my very best to vote them out of office this coming Jan. 23, I'd like to make it clear that not every liberal person embezzles 100 million dollars out of their government while the finance minister "doesn't know" and then later becomes Prime Minister. And not every liberal person on earth is a bumbling idiot when they get in front of the microphone. Lots of people that aren't liberals do it too, but if it isn't televised, we don't know.

I voted in this poll as they don't do everything right, but they also don't do everything wrong. Pierre Trudeau (a Liberal PM in Canada) gave us our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Not everything in it is good, and not everything in it is bad. And its important to keep in mind that Trudeau, while, yes, Liberal, was one of our best Prime Ministers.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while liberal people are associated with being pro whatever they wanna do... its hard to judge an entire group of people like that. The liberal party in Canada is pro homosexual marriage, which is wrong. They're pro a lot of things that are wrong. And I therefore will never vote for them, but grouping everyone who votes for the liberals into this category is a little.... stereotypical I think is the word I'm looking for.

The problem with twisting it toward politics is that it doesn't matter what political party you vote for, there are generally going to be things you don't like. The Liberal party of Canada wants to legalize homosexual marriage (sadly already has in Ontario), but the Conservatives want to destroy our Education System, our Health System, and dump money into our military. As a pacifist, who is against homosexual marriage, you can see where I have a dilemma.

SO to conclude. I don't like liberalism. And I don't like Conservatism. Liberals have a "no absolute truth" way of looking at things, and conservativism, at least what I've seen of it in the Canadian government, is equally as misguided, just in different areas.

Laura

Edited January 6, 2006 by Northern Princess

[jeffnevins]

God is above liberalism or conservatism. Christ-centered is where it's at.

Liberals often don't deal with logic. Conservatives are often out-of-touch with the non-wealthy.

[DaniJ87]

Conservatives are often out-of-touch with the non-wealthy.

where does that come from? my family is definitely not wealthy- but we don't feel that this is true about conservatives.

I think this sounds a lot like what the liberals WANT us to believe.

I don't like liberal beliefs at all. I live in wisconsin, and frankly, when the election comes around, I will vote for ANYONE other than Gov. Doyle. He is horrible and has been standing in the way of giant victories for the cause of sanctity of human life. vowing to veto the cloning ban, shooting down the "Fetal pain awareness act", (mandating that abortion clinics MUST inform women of the intense pain that an unborn child feels while being killed) and an act for the prohibition of the transport of minors to other states for abortion, in order to evade the state's parental notification laws.

Basically, I feel that liberals do not believe in morals, personal responsibility, and absolutes. In addition, they do not understand the problems in the world around them- they don't seem to understand that more money does not fix everything. Giving people free welfare money, for instance, does not fix the problem that is underlying them being poor- we need to find them good jobs, and teach them to manage money wisely. This would best be done by the church, rather than by the government, and would give us, as Christians, a better reputation if we were contributing to society in such a way.

they believe in absolute freedom for women, and abortion on demand, and yet they see nothing wrong with hiding the true side effects and risks of abortion, and even hiding the details of the procedure itself.

Conservatives can be wrong, too- but at least they are pro-life! Pro-life is the first thing I look for in any candidate- all other things are secondary, to whether or not a man or woman views life as precious.