This topic contains 3 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by 
irreverance 4 months, 1 week ago.
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Something has been bothering me about the last two churches I visited and I’ve finally figured out what it was. In both cases, the senior pastor has said they were (religiously) conservative. They owned that. They want to stay that way.
But I’m not. I’ve identified with the term progressive. To me, this means a world-view based not on the strictures taught to me in formative years, but one that starts from a new and fresh re-reading of what Jesus is claimed to have said and done. It could be summed up as more about accepting people for what they are instead of requiring they meet an artificial standard first.
Or at least, that’s a cardboard-cutout rendition of the differences.
Certainly by that definition, I don’t really understand why people want to stay there.
Could it be about preservation?
I think that perhaps a conservative would say he/she wants to stay true to the truth – whether that me political or religious truth. They don’t want to go with what’s trendy, but with what God says is right. They might think the trend in the church and politics is away from the truth, established, traditional way. They may want to pull us back to the right mores. They could also possibly consider truth knowable and something on which they have a firm grasp. I used to be conservative, so hopefully this is somewhat fair and accurate.
When I think of the word “conservative” I think of an emphasis on “orthodoxy” (right belief) over “orthopraxy” (right behavior). So I think of people who think that there is actual a core kernel of Truth that has been held as true by all true Christians at all times and in all places.
Not for me.
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