It's not what you call yourself, it's how you live your life

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today, is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

-- dcTalk
"What If I Stumble"
Jesus Freak, 1995

Being a “red state radical” to me doesn’t mean that I’m a conservative zealot or a left-wing lunatic; rather, it means that I don’t see myself as someone who doesn’t quite fit in a nice, neat, old media stereotype.

It means that I’m tired of having to people attempt to lazily peg others with these labels so they can go on and not think about what they are saying. This goes both ways – conservative and liberal. Its not about debunking one ideology or lifestyle, its about listening and learning that we (though smart and clever) are not necessarily the end-all, be-all that we think we are.

I’m beginning to see it more often (purplethink.com), but then I get whacked with stupid articles like this tired, hard-to-believe Charlie Sheen interview. Its not that I’m not confident about what I believe, I just get worn out by having to think that the “other side” is ALWAYS WRONG.

Enough feel-good preaching.

Was walking into church this past Sunday (lifechurch.tv), and the music playing was something that amazed me. Not for the lyrics or the music itself, but rather that it wasn’t a canned-music Christian song. No, it was “Why Georgia” by John Mayer. Reminded me of the music before the message last year during the Easter experience – all U2 songs! Amazing.

This is a group of “Christ-followers” who understand that playing church just won’t do it anymore. It’s all about living what Jesus taught, not a social club that is the Christian’s replacement for the local pub or fraternal order of whatever animal you want to name.

When I was pursuing my college degree at the university of the human trinity (fellow alumni, you know what I’m talking about), I was blessed to spend four years living with the Christian college equivalent to a fraternity – Am Herratz. (Am Herratz is a bad Hebrew translation of what we thought meant “scum of the earth;” we reveled in being called “Ratzers.” )

Ratzers are a bunch of guys who shared a dorm wing and followed Jesus. We knew how to kick butt on the playing fields, and the dating arena, but we absolutely weren’t afraid of being known as Christians. We knew, and understood to our core, that being a follower of Christ meant living as Jesus lived, not simply parroting with our mouths what we had learned through years of being in church.

And that’s what I’m trying to do. Live as Jesus lived. Act out the love of God. I screw up, frequently. I’ve failed many times. But that doesn’t mean my faith is weak, or that I am destined “to live in a smaller mansion in heaven.” It just means that I’m human.

Red state radical. That’s what I am; a frustrated conservative who isn’t afraid to agree with liberals when it makes sense. Finding the middle ground isn’t compromising my beliefs. Its actually reinforcing them.


dcTalk
Red states
Christian
am herratz

The start of the Red State Radical

“I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing…”

Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787

There are many days that I sit at work, home, wherever, and think, “Does anyone ever listen to what they’re saying?”

With all the punditry, blogging and overall editorializing by anyone with a camera, keyboard or microphone, I find it hard to believe that everyone stops to listen to what comes out of their mouths.

We have conservative radio hosts, blogs, websites, and even television news channels, all attempting to reverse what is seen as years of “objective” reporting on the major networks. This has been countered by liberals with their own radio network, a Liberal Blog network and the increased polarization of members of the national media.

What is all this? And is this just for the few (percentage-wise) who care about politics?

Whatever happened to the America that had a middle ground? Did it ever exist? As a child of the Reagan Revolution, I have never known such a time. For years it was conservatives fighting back at liberals in the media, then came the liberals turn to fight back against conservatives who proved adept at working the radio airwaves and new technology. Now we have a bit of chaos, with both sides screaming that the other side is wrong. Stuck in the middle are the “regular” people who are trying to make a living and raise their families.

My guess is that we’ve never really had middle ground, but we did have the capacity to LISTEN to the other side and consider if maybe our side was wrong.

Then came the baby boomers who were so big in numbers that they insisted like the self-centered lot that they are that they be paid attention…and they didn’t like the war in Vietnam, or their parent’s views on sex, or anything that stood in their way of “being themselves.” And with 79 million of them, who could ignore this group?

Ah, yes, the baby boomers. Those of us not “fortunate” enough to have been born from 1946-64 certainly know all about them. It is the excesses of the baby boomers that have brought us the sexual revolution of the 70’s (and the 80’s onslaught of AIDS), the disappearance of the national savings rate, and (how could I forget) the now-dominant Clintonian definition of “sex.” If it’s not intercourse, then its not really sex, right? Hmmm.

I don’t wish to blame everything on the baby boomers, but it is so easy.

Of course, there are many things this generation has overseen that have made life better. A good example of the baby boomers improving life is application of technology. Many of the things we take for granted (the Internet, cable television, etc.) weren’t fully developed until enterprising boomers pushed them to their current state.

That’s enough about baby boomers. The point of it all is that we used to be able to talk and discuss, I think, and now I wonder if we will ever have that again. When someone, on either side of the issue, makes a statement, they are quickly met with rebuttal rhetoric about how wrong the statement is. Why? Can’t we truly respect what others have to say, and agree to disagree without proving that our antagonizer is a fool?

That’s why I’m writing today. As a “red state” resident, I am not some stereotype. Just as all people from Berkeley aren’t granola-eating-absolutely-pacifist liberals, not all people who live in the so-called red states are gravy-loving-homophobic-gun-owning conservatives.

I stand for something that’s not easily defined. I have values, and I know why I believe what I believe. I’m tired of having to defend what I believe to the television reporter, or radio show host, or newspaper columnist. I get tired and numb from both sides of this culture war (hate that term). I’m not always right, and neither is anyone else. Quit telling me that you are.

Did you know that it really is possible to be a “compassionate conservative”?

Did you know that it really is possible to be a “hawkish liberal”?

It’s what used to be called a moderate.