Friday, November 12, 2004

A Not-So Distant Mirror

Real Live Preacher, Gordon Atkinson, recommended the blog of Rachel Barenblat, The Velveteen Rabbi. (She's not a rabbi, but she plays one in the blogosphere.) I went to her site and found this interesting post on liberals and conservatives in the Jewish tradition. Unable to post a comment on her site, I dropped this email response:

Rachel:
I really love your site. Your posts are thoughtful and thought-provoking. I also love the name for it...Maybe the best name for a blog that I've seen yet.

For some reason, when I attempted to post a comment on your most recent post, the cursor moved along with each keystroke, but there were no letters to be seen. Given my abilities as a typist, it's likely that had I stuck it out, you would have read me saying things like, "vzpglo siunttpr..." Well, you get the idea.

I'm one of those "er Lutherans" you referred to in your post on "Liberals and Conservatives."

By some in my neck of the Christian woods, I'm referred to as a conservative and I am conservative on some issues. By others, I'm seen as a liberal and I am liberal on some issues.

But I think it's generally true that conservatives are less inquisitive about the views of liberals than vice versa. Speaking in reckless general terms, I imagine that in part this can be explained by fear on both sides of the equation. Conservatives tend to be afraid of the new ideas advanced by liberals. Liberals are afraid of being seen as heterodox.

On the other hand, I have seen liberals be as intolerant of conservatives as conservatives can be of liberals.

And people in both camps seem equally capable of disdain.

Good writing!

Mark Daniels

Generally speaking, I try to shy away from labels like conservative and liberal. It's gotten to the point where they may not communicate much. But I think I broadly understand what Rachel is talking about and for those of us who aren't Jewish, her insights are informative and to some extent, provide some of us with a distant mirror on our own circumstances.

1 comment:

eLarson said...

That is a good point that Rachel brings up. (Ditto on the kudos on the name of her blog.) What are Conservatives conserving? Are liberals who call themselves 'Progressives' really 'Liberal' in the old sense of the word (the sense as implied in "liberal arts" or "western, liberal culture")? And either way, toward what do they see themselves progressing?

As best I can see it, today's political conservatives are trying to conserve an interpretation of the Constitution and other founding documents that would mesh with the intent of the Founders--insofar as that can be known, anyway. Liberals, in the new sense, take a more, well, liberal interpretation of those documents.

In the religious sphere, are the conservatives and liberals split over doctrine only? Or are there other issues besides?