Liberal and Conservative
Many of my friends are Baptists. Historically, Baptists are liberal. They believe in freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, soul liberty (the ability of each individual to freely relate to God without the need for priest or sacrament), and the autonomy of the local congregation of believers. These are liberal points of view. It was Northern Baptists who led the way to establish schools for blacks in the south, and to provide them opporunities to be doctors, missionaries, lawyers, business people -- because they believed God has mandated justice and liberty for all. "For freedom Christ has set us free. Submit not again to a yoke of slavery," was their cry (from Galatians 5:1 in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.
Many of my friends are Baptists, and are VERY conservative. The do not bleive in other people's freedom of conscience, they want the US Government to "be Christian and uphold Christian rights", they believe they can dictate to people how to relate to God and (at least the Southern Baptists) believe that the denomination can control the local congregation, and that certain "powerful" congregations can tell other congregations how to believe and how to behave.
A current example is the group of American Baptists (formerly Northern Baptists) that are so upset because some congregations ordain gay people to ministry that they will probably, in July, split the denomination into two or more competing groups in the name of good conservative theology. [Note: historically the local association of American Baptist churches examines a candidate for ordinations and makes recommendations, but the local church and only the local church actually ordains the clergyperson.]
Of course, just because the First Baptist Church of Somewhere ordains Joe or Jill Smith to ministry does not impose the requirement on any other church to call that person to be pastor of that other church. Freedom really does work out for all parties.
Baptist tenets are liberal, but Baptists too often become greedy for power, seeking to dominate others. Missionary zeal might be an example. From colonial times in the United States Baptists insisted that they had the duty to try to win others to faith in Jesus Christ. But they knew there was a line they would never cross. They would persuade, but never coerce! Soul liberty, freedom even to reject God as they presented God, must be preserved.
Rather than conserve these important social and Scriptural tenets, many Baptists today officially take the "conservative" position that eveyone MUST be a Christian in their understanding of what it takes to become a Christian and we must all be clones of one another.
A conservative position that exalts the facism of the Roman Catholic Church style had become vogue in many circles that should be shouting "liberty!" from their historical roots.
Strange, isn't it, how some Episcopal church people are more liberal, even coming from an oppressive history, than Baptists who were once jailed and hanged for their freedom oriented points of view.
We have all been raised to believe we must take a position or succumb to general apathy and "drop out" of our social, cultural milieu.
No problem -- but the "positions" we seem to choose between are seldom valid. What if we don't have to choose between conservative or liberal, capitalist or communist, Christian or Muslim, etc. What if there are other choices that require us to THINK, REFLECT, and build a position that is uniquely our own?