A Conservative Liberal Stance

SAT., OCT. 3, 1992, 6:44 AM
FARM, STUDY

Often I have told you that there is no political system that I favor over all others. Likewise I do not have a clear favorite when it comes to economic systems… or social organization in a broader sense. This morning, however, I will comment on the way I see your development in these terms. And, yes, the title could just as well have been “a liberal conservative stance.”

Let’s begin with relationship with Me. You are conservative in that you are fairly comfortably a part of a Christian denomination, the tenets of which you generally hold. You know the Holy Scriptures reasonably well, and you clearly are one of those who wants to conserve the Christian faith as a basis for life. You are not attracted to New Age thinking and movements. And yet you accept My assertions to you as “present-day Scripture,” which is called “liberal.” Further, you accept My liking of diversity, and so you’re not concerned that all of the earth’s people come to see Me as you do… or that you should be coming to Me as so-called “fundamentalists” do.

You believe in the value of cooperation and working together for the good of all. In theory you like the communist ideology, with its call for all to benefit as they need, without excessive extra benefits to those who produce the most. And yet you also value yourself as an individual, and do not see your identity tied to groups. You are both an active part of your church and an independent spiritual being. You are a still active member of your profession, but still quite an individual within it.

Economically, you work for the state, and therefore your income is dependent on taxes. You therefore have to be in favor of taxation, and more taxes would benefit your university and, perhaps, you too. As a young person with a low salary you were in favor or merit raises, rather than those that were in equal percentages. Now you do not oppose this benefit to the more productive, but you also are pleased when you are rewarded as well. You realize that, as a Christian, you cannot favor letting people who have no jobs and no income go hungry and homeless when your country is still a rather wealthy one. You almost abhor the display of wealth, but you’re not comfortable with a particular way of distributing that more equally. You are quite aware that I have not allowed humans to be created and develop equally. How to deal with the inequalities pulls you in both directions.

And thus it is with government too. You have some strong feelings that government should do less rather than more, but balanced somewhat by needs that are not being met in private, free enterprise ways. You are conservative in that you don’t want to have unpaid debts, and you feel that governments should also not incur debts. Yet how to achieve this without cutting or not instituting needed services and without taxing ordinary people excessively is a question hard to answer, from your position.

In relation to grading in courses you teach you want to reward those who truly seem to have learned what you want them to and yet it is hard for you to give low grades which can chill further desires to learn. In class sessions you are liberal in accepting some variety of interpretations, and yet you have some clear objectives that you wish to accomplish… and push for these.