From the liberal Christian

I believe in God. And I'm a liberal.

It's two sentences that people rarely hear in the same breath, or even the same paragraph. I really don't find it that surprising. And you ask, how can this be?

Well, for one thing, I hate labels. I hate the fact that because I live in San Francisco, I have long hair, drive a Prius, go to drum circles and, well, do whatever it is with patchouli that people do with it. (What is patchouli anyways?)

The fact of the matter is I grew in a rural Minnesota. A very "red" part of Minnesota. My mother is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, but my father is a conservative independent. I was raised not to take one side or the other, but to come to my own decisions. Their offspring created me, my brother (a self-identified Democrat) and my sister (a self-identified Republican). Yes, we all survived just fine in the same house!

And often I come to clash with my fellow San Franciscans. I voted for Democrat Gavin Newsom, to which one friend of mine responded "You voted for that Nazi?" instead of voting for the Green candidate. And while I'm socially liberal, I'm fiscally conservative. I don't believe in just handing over money to a problem. At the same time, I do realize there's certain problems that the government is the best at solving. No one complains about socialized police enforcement. (See my previous posts for more examples.)

And, I believe in God. My parents raised me religiously. We were raised Lutheran, and we went to church most every Sunday. I was baptized and went to Catechism, and attended Sunday school up until high school.

And I still believe in God. I pray, and I believe God watches over me, and sometimes, I even ask for His help to get through the tough times. And He does.

So one asks, how can you be a liberal and a Christian?

Well, it's not terribly difficult. For example, I've become rather offended that some people are against science simply because it interferes with their beliefs. For example, people believe evolution goes directly against the teachings of the bible. It was an issue (like many things) I've had to confront in my own beliefs. I remember asking my Sunday school teacher about the discrepancies between the Bible's version of Creation and what science tells us. She put it very well. God didn't fax the bible from heaven. What we read in the bible (especially the Old Testament) was told in lore for thousands of years before it was committed to paper. Secondly, trying to explain the Big Bang to a people who don't even yet know the world is round might prove a little difficult. Thirdly, would you want to? Perhaps God's plan is to let us figure it out for ourselves, at a time when we're ready. Ultimately how I resolved it was, why can it be so awful to learn about the wonder of God's Universe? Honestly, it's really a beautiful thing.

And yes, I'm gay. This was one of the most difficult issues I had to face in my life. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion, I'm not a bad person. I do believe in God, and I believe it was just the way I was made. Who is to say this wasn't God's plan for me? And why throw out the baby with the bath water. We are all sinners, and just because we're gay doesn't mean Christianity isn't for us at all. We are also all God's children.

And you know? Jesus was the original hippie. Long hair, love one another, thou shalt not kill. And we know he loved a lovely glass of Chardonnay. Something light and summery, but with an explosive finish. :-)

Hey, maybe being a liberal and a Christian ain't so bad after all.