The recent elections accentuate the need to change the adjectives that describe those who reflect biblical social/moral positions compared to those who call themselves Christians but succumb to media hype.
The recent elections accentuate the need to change the adjectives that describe those who reflect biblical social/moral positions compared to those who call themselves Christians but succumb to media hype.
Instead of calling biblically-oriented followers of Christ “conservative” Christians, it is time to call those who practice biblical values “convictional” Christians.
The word conservative has multiple uses. It is employed to discuss fiscal policy, a major moral position, one’s attire, or the rate of speed a person or organization reacts to a circumstance.
In the political realm, the word conservative is a relative term on a sliding scale of public opinion. Conservative is in opposition to liberal with a huge number of people in between.
In the world of public opinion, you have “ultra” conservative (fundamentalist) as demonstrated by the Westside Baptist clan from Topeka, Kansas, who make a living bashing people with their picket signs. On the other side of the spectrum, the “ultra” liberal forces use the rule of law to commit genocide on American soil. Every 25 seconds, abortuaries and some hospitals use chemical searing and/or mechanical shredding to destroy the body of a preborn child.
While these fringe groups capture the media’s digital distribution network, there are millions of people in this nation who wish some level of common sense and civility would come to the public stage.
While building strong church-going families and maintaining balanced budgets seems boring to a public craving the sensational, there are millions of people in a frantic search for some un-changeables, for some trustworthy person or for some organization to make sense of it all.
Pundits like to use the word “conservative” as a collective word that describes the millions of people in North America who tend to be positive toward overt patriotism, state’s rights, moral principles, free trade, low taxation and slow growth in the size of government.
However, the recent collapse of global and real estate markets has caused many “conservatives” to embrace strategies that look much more like nationalism than federalism and economic relativism instead of sound financial principles.
Politically, the word conservative has become so clouded that a person who two decades ago might be called a moderate is now a cardcarrying member of the conservative caucus.
One of the realities of the English language is its dynamic capacity to clarify itself via the changing of words. Educators and public relations professionals are notorious for using euphemisms to spin a word toward their agenda.
For example, does your state still use the word “prison” or does it now use the term “correctional facility?” Do you still have “trash trucks” or do you now have “refuse collection vehicles?” If you use a word long enough and loud enough, people will begin to believe it is so.
Terminology doesn’t always have to spin an agenda. Sometimes words are used to clarify. Baptists have a history of being pigeon-holed into certain political groups. Yet, they prefer not to wear any kind of label other than being followers of Jesus Christ.
However, the secular mind cannot mentally process someone who is a rational person with realistic public policy and who simultaneously claims to be a follower of Christ by faith. It just doesn’t compute in the secular mind.
When describing devoted followers of Christ, why not employ the word “convictional?” This word implies a principled person who holds tenaciously to a certain set of absolutes (Bible).
Convictional also engages the idea that a person’s principles are personal. A convictional person has wrestled through all the objections about a certain principle and says, “This is who I am.”
A convictional person is a person of biblical integrity in the church house, the polling booth, the workplace, the halls of government, educational institutions or wherever.
There was a time when Baptists had a church covenant hanging on a wall in their building or glued inside the front cover of their hymnals. The covenant expressed our collective convictions about certain behaviors.
We understood certain behaviors deepened our identity with Christ and other actions diminished our witness for Christ. At the risk of offending someone or to avoid wrestling through the hard issues of a church covenant, those covenants became passé. But as we abandoned holding one another accountable in love, something else began to happen. The baptism rates declined. Is there a relationship between the absence of convictional statements and the diminishing personal importance of reaching lost souls?
For over two decades, North American gambling syndicates observed the trends in churches. They noted the declining number of people with convictional behavior. As a result, they have capitalized in state and local initiatives to expand their operations at the expense of broken people and broken families. But they knew they could do so because the majority of people in many churches were more culturally conservative than they were convictional Christians.
In a world that calls irrelevant any organization that is less than what it purports to be, churches are faced with a clear distinctive destiny. Will they simply roll along with conservative responses to the cultural mosaic? Or will there be a revival of conviction?
Will there be a renewal of culturally engaged believers who know who they believe and what they believe? Will their lifestyle patterns coincide with their convictions? Have they examined history to know why our forefathers made certain choices about loving one another and about not participating in certain things for the sake of their witness?
Is it possible a spirit of revival could sweep the evangelical community? And as those fresh winds of the Spirit move in hearts and minds, is it possible a heightened level of convictional behavior would arise? Is it possible we could see our biblically-based convictions as a method for witness and as an influence for public policy?
So when someone attempts to label you as a conservative, perhaps you can engage them in a discussion about why you are a convictional person about issues regarding the sanctity of life, the foundation of biblical marriage, the authority of God’s word and self discipline regarding entertainment drugs and pornography.
Above all else, may your biblical convictions reveal your love for the Lord and your genuine love for people, even those people who differ with you about issues.