A big topic amongst a lot of my friends for a good while now has been about which one of our friends are gay and know it. I have a very liberal group of friends which is awesome because I'm proud to say I'm liberal. But is it possible to be too liberal? Too open-minded that it ends up being it's own kind of oppressive? I started questioning this during a dinner convo last night. I was eating with two friends and we were discussing a friend of ours that we are pretty sure is gay. And that's great. We're here for him and will support him. But, for a while, people have told him, "You're gay. You're gay. You're gay." It's usually along with "I'm here if you need to talk about it." kind of thing. But this person has been incredibly emotional lately. And very obviously confused. I think the open-mindedness of his friends has maybe fueled that confusion. I think he knows he is gay and is still trying to figure it out but having people in his face makes it much harder. And people say "We all know! He should just come out! He'll be ok!" But he needs to do it on his own time, in his own way. And maybe he's not even gay and it's driving him crazy, and confusing him more, that people keep saying he is. I feel like a lot of our friends are so open-minded that we throw everything out on the table, cause what does it matter, we're all people. But I think the fact that we do that might be making things harder for this person. Which all comes back to my question. Is it possible to be too open minded that it becomes it's own kind of oppressive? I think in this case it just may. There's a difference between being open minded and accepting, and then being so open minded that you're pressuring people. I do love to talk about those gays but sometimes I wish it wasn't always the topic of conversation.
While I was writing all that mumbo-jumbo I was thinking about how now I want a bumper sticker that says "Christian Liberal" and then I began to question if I consider myself a Christian Liberal or a Liberal Christian. Which comes first for me? Does the order even matter? Blah, I don't know.
Everything was quiet except for the birds. And all God's creation said, "Poo-tee-weet."
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2 comments:
That's some really insightful stuff there. The weird cousin of liberalism's other great flaw--"We're open minded to everyone (excpet those who don't think like we do.)" At least I know my liberalism tends to that direction at uglier times.
I wonder too if maybe the issue isn't (as cliched as it sounds) identifying ourselves with the labels of liberal or conservative at all but simply "Christian." What if our lives of disciplship and committment to that identity made any other label unneccessary?
I think a goal of being a Christian, at least a true one in my mind, does get rid of all labels except for "human" or "god's child" but even Christian is a label. And I think realistically, labels will always exist, so maybe being a Christian doesn't get rid of them, but just ignores them. Making them unnecessary like you said.
And the Christian label is so complex. Because there are a lot of Christians that I don't agree with the ways they practice their faith.
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