Conservative Faith vs. Liberal Faith

I consider myself to be rather die-hard conservative, whether it comes to my walk with Christ or in national politics, but what in the world does that mean? Especially today. I mean, we have this term called "evangelical Christian" but all that means is it's a person that believes the Gospel of Christ is true. Evangelical doesn't really mean conservative or liberal. It seems to me, the definition of what exactly is conservative or liberal seems to change greatly from person to person depending on what they personally feel is good or bad. That which is good is conservative. That which is bad is libeal.

Okay. . .let me stop. . .this is being written from the perspective on conservatives from a conservative. Those who view them self as a liberal might find this to not be true where people consider themselves liberal.

I've been encountering people, for some time now, who seem to throw around the word liberal as sort of a curse word. If a church, pastor, or individual doesn't have a theology or methods that match up with their own personal feelings on the subject then that individual (or movement) is liberal.

I see this more true in the area of Christian-on-Christian attacks. We Christians frequently cut each other to the bone. We're quick to go for each other's jugular. You don't believe me? See how much Rick Warren (Saddleback Church), Rob Bell (Mars Hill Church), Bill Hybels (Willow Creek Church), Andy Stanley (North Point Church), Erwin McManus (Mosiac Church), etc. are constantly under attack and constantly being called liberal in either their methodology or theology. I'm not saying these guys or others are perfect. I'm not even saying we shouldn't speak up when we see things that are false and detrimental to Christians, by all means we should, but what if we're attacking the wrong things or attacking for the wrong reasons. Are they really as liberal as you believe?

Where in the WORLD is the discernment in all of this? When Christ came do you think how He talked, treated others, delivered His messages (sermons), and trained people looked anything like the rabbis and religious leaders of His time? No! Christ was the "cutting-edge" of His time. No one had seen it done like Him and He was attacked for it. Now those who claim to have love for Christ are attacking those who are trying to be just as cutting-edge, but because they're not Christ they slip and fall and test the limits of HOW CAN WE REACH THIS GENERATION FOR CHRIST. Instead of helping them, encouraging them, applauding their effort, and even learning from them so many choose to cling to traditions that are (at most) 200 years old (most are only 50 years old) pretending that these traditions are sanctioned and give by Christ Himself and anyone who doesn't follow them are not "conservative", they're "liberal".

I wonder if many of our church leaders who established many of these traditions were also viewed as liberal, or whatever curse word was give at the time (maybe heathen), and were under attack by other Christian establishments and outspoken individuals.