The L Word

By Ben Molyneux

Liberal.

Is there a more offensive word in the Christian lexicon? You can throw around all the four letter words you like, but the claws are never truly out until the L word gets thrown about.

It’s an odd thing, the L word. It has a proper meaning within theological circles. A liberal, theologically, is someone who denies the resurrection or divinity of Jesus or, more widely, someone who rejects the Nicene creed. But how often do you hear it get used in this manner, as a simple, non-judgemental descriptor of someone’s theological beliefs? I've heard people get called liberals for supporting gay marriage, for suggesting sex before marriage might be acceptable, even for arguing against the death penalty.

It’s an odd thing, the L word. Its first definition in the dictionary is “favourable to progress or reform”. The first definition for conservative, so often the word claimed by those using the L word disparagingly, in the dictionary is “disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change”. Liberalism is about changing things up and conservatism is about keeping things the same.

So the death and resurrection of Christ is just about the most liberal act it’s possible to imagine.

Christianity is a fundamentally liberal religion, an incredibly liberal extension of the Jewish faith which disregards much of what a Jewish person would consider essential. It’s about always moving forward, bringing creation, inch by inch, more in line with how it’s meant to be. Moving forward in light of the most liberal act of all time, the overcoming of death and darkness and all the institutions that rule this world by a man named Jesus.

It’s an odd thing, the L word. Because it has all these meaning, both technical and more nuanced, but we rarely use it to mean that. Instead, the dominant definition for the L word for Christians, particularly evangelicals, today is simply “someone whom I disagree with”. We use it to dismiss people instead of engaging with them.

I'm not a liberal by that first definition (although there are a few contributors round here that are). I believe in the divinity, death and resurrection of Christ. I affirm the Nicene creed. I am, under all historical criteria, an orthodox Christian. Yet, I like to question things, to prod and probe them to see if they make sense in the cold light of day. I don’t think the dominant interpretation of scripture within evangelicalism has got everything right. And I don’t ever think things are meant to stay the same as they are. 

I think God is always calling us to bigger, better things.

So am I a liberal Christian? I don’t think the question even makes sense any more. The L word has been used and abused to the point where it’s almost devoid of actual meaning. But, even if I am under someone’s definition, what does that matter? It’s far too easy for us to dismiss someone’s opinion as “liberal” or “fundamentalist” without engaging with it.

N.T. Wright has talked about reading Rudolf Bultmann’s Christmas sermons to undergraduate students without telling them who they were by. Bultmann, arguably the father of theological liberalism, still had something to teach them, even if they disagreed with much of what he thought. It’s fascinating, isn't it? Maybe it’s time we started looking beyond the labels to discern where God’s wisdom can be found. Whether it’s called liberal, progressive, evangelical, fundamentalist, emergent or any number of other words, we can find truth, wisdom and beauty in it. We just need to be prepared to find those things in places where others have already stuck a label and walked off.

If we’re lucky, we might even find them in a blog that has the L word in its name.