Liberal or Conservative?

As a child of the 60’s and 70’s, I was raised on news from the world around me (my parents, TV, radio, school) from marches and stands for civil-rights, against the Vietnam war, to news about Watergate and the Nixon era. My formative high school years were lived during the Regan presidency, and college in the late 80’s had me spray painting “Jesse Jackson ’88!” with Kool-Aid in the snow outside the apartment building in Duluth. I live in MN, which by most accounts is a liberal state with conservative Lutheran roots. I’ve ashamedly mostly voted Republican since leaving college, and consider myself a down-right independent. I was very undecided about the last presidential vote, up until the week before election day. I did my homework, I checked out the issues, and I voted my conscience.

I’m being drawn into the internet lately, by things that interest me, intrigue me, evoke emotion from me, and heal me. I am trying to discover who I am and why I think the way I do. I guess, I am being surprised by the crazy notion that I’m toggling between what in the past I’ve considered are polar opposites in thinking.

So, I guess I’m liberal because I grow my own veggies, live in community, care about the poor, homelessness, feeding the hungry, the environment, saving the whales, social justice, loving people, gay-rights, civil-rights, tolerance, acceptance, etc. See Takepart.com, social action. I visit with my neighbors, I spend time with elderly friends, I write a blog…need I say more? Ha.

I guess I’m conservative because I have political and religious beliefs about less spending, less taxing, less government, more bottom line truth. I’m pro-life, anti-embryonic stem-cell research, pro-military. I think it’s okay to own your own gun – although neither my husband (an army sharp-shooter) or myself do at this point in our lives. I would say that sex is only sanctified within a marriage between one man and one woman. I also have difficulty with prejudices against different races or sexual orientation. I also have strong opinions about sin in its simplest and ugliest forms. I believe in loving others, as Jesus loves us. But, how are we to know what He would do, say, act in our world today.

My life is lived as simply as I can. I’m a working mom. I have a full-time job in a church. I have 2 wonderful young children. I have a husband who also works full time, who loves me, and I’m madly in love with him. We live in the suburbs of Minneapolis, and just purchased our first home 6 months ago. I can honestly say, we have it made. We are blessed beyond anything I could have ever imagined. It’s in all of this abundance of blessings and love, that I can truly say that I am becoming more keenly aware of serving, loving, and being in community with others. Scary new territory, but somehow it feels really good. Even if no-one reads my stuff – I know I’m writing this blog for me, and maybe for my kids.