I used to think I was a conservative because that’s what I was told I should be. Then I met some real conservatives and some real liberals. It’s all relative.
Surely there is a case to be made against liberalism run amok, but that is not our greatest threat today — by far. The clear and present danger to America and democracy and the Christian faith today is conservatism run amok.
Mark Wingfield
This has happened, in part, because good Christian people have been taught that conservatism is the default position for good Christian people. Turns out, that’s a lie.
Here are seven reasons why:
Jesus was not a conservative. There’s a reason the more conservative you are as a pastor, the more you preach about Paul and the law and the less you preach about Jesus and the Gospels. The red letters of the New Testament are not conservative. In the context of his day, Jesus was a flaming liberal. This is why, as Russell Moore and others have reported, pastors can stand in the pulpit and read verbatim Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and be accused of preaching “woke” ideology.
Conservatism looks to the past, not to the future. Part of Jesus’ agenda was to declare the inbreaking of the kingdom of God on earth — a radical break with Jewish tradition. Today, we would call Jesus a disrupter. Conservatism by definition seeks to “conserve” the past. In modern American life, conservatism seeks to sanitize and glorify and worship the past. It values nostalgia and tradition over needed change. Jesus came to make all things new, which implies change.
“When you believe you alone have the true faith handed down from generation to generation, you’re less likely to abide any challengers or new information.”
Conservatism easily becomes arrogant. Yes, I know some arrogant liberals. But I know a whole lot more arrogant conservatives who are convinced not only that their views are absolutely correct but should be the views of everyone else too. Conservatism has given us Calvinism, which is the most arrogant form of Christianity I know. When you believe you alone have the true faith handed down from generation to generation, you’re less likely to abide any challengers or new information. And more likely to ban library books.
Conservatives always eat their own. In church life and political life, conservatism run amok has no end. Once you begin the quest to purify your group — whether a denomination or a nation — the circle will continue to get narrower until few are left standing. We’ve seen this in the Southern Baptist Convention where conservatives took over with an appeal to biblical inerrancy and now are divided over ever-narrowing definitions of allowed belief. The same is true in the Republican Party, where standard conservatives like Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney and George W. Bush came to be considered apostate within a generation.
The slippery slope runs both ways. Al Mohler exemplifies the ultimate error of conservatism run amok. He believes true conservatives must always be moving more to the right and never ever to the left. His fear of the slippery slope on the left has sent him careening down the slippery slope on the right. There must be reasonable limits to conservatism just as there must be reasonable limits to liberalism. But “conservatives” like Mohler act as though there is no danger by going too far to the right.
Conservatism inevitably retreats to racism. Show me a case where liberalism has promoted systemic racism. No, your perceived “white racism” isn’t real. That’s a political lie based on your fear of being outnumbered or not being allowed to discriminate anymore. You are not a victim of discrimination because you are not allowed to discriminate. In American history, whether the conservatives were called Democrats or Republicans, they are the ones who have justified slavery, opposed immigration, sought to ban inclusion efforts and worked to keep white men in power over everyone else.
“Our problem is conservatism gone to seed and producing rotten fruit.”
Unchecked conservatism leads to fascism. Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition of this charged word: “A populist political philosophy, movement or regime … that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.”
Sound familiar? Say what you will about Marxism — the “ism” MAGA fears from the left — but that is not our problem today. Our problem is conservatism gone to seed and producing rotten fruit that truly threatens democracy.
How did we get here? A few points:
- Historically, conservatives sought to preserve a narrow reading of the U.S. Constitution. “Strict constructionist” is what they called it. Now, so-called “conservatives” have taken a different tack. They want to do away with the parts they don’t like — such as ignoring the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, doing away with no political test for public office and granting their president absolute immunity for unlawful acts.
- Historically, conservatives harkened back to the early decades of the federal government and advocated for small government that left people alone. Now, they want to regulate what people do in the privacy of their own homes, what women do with their bodies, how religion can be introduced into public school classrooms, who can go to the bathroom where and what cities and states and individual high schools can do.
- Historically, conservatives advocated for a balanced budget and limited, if any, government borrowing. Since Trump, so-called “conservatives” advocate for policies and practices that would increase the federal debt far beyond what the other side proposes and now are willy-nilly slashing the federal workforce in ways no Fortune 500 board of directors would tolerate.
- Historically, conservatives advocated for sound business practices. But today’s conservatives believe a failed businessman who acts like a mob boss represents good business.
You may have a case to make against liberalism but history will show liberals typically seek to expand the table as Jesus taught and embrace modernity as common sense requires. We are not looking to go backward to some idealized “good old days.”
Conservativism can be a healthy check on that when dealing in the world of reality. Today’s conservatives, however, have checked their brains at the door and have lost the right to be taken seriously. A harsh judgment, I realize, but necessary. We cannot “reason” with those under the spell of an evil power, which is what Trumpism is.
If you voted for or still support Trump because you thought he was the “conservative” candidate, please reconsider. There’s a difference in being a corrective and compromising force to liberalism and burning down the house. Conservatism run amok is a house on fire.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality.
Related articles:
Are we a democracy or a republic? Why words matter | Analysis by Rick Pidcock
As others lament, Republicans are feeling great about America
Social Principles are basis of UMC opposition to Trump policies | Analysis by Cynthia Astle
Trump resort in Gaza: ‘Blatant, unapologetic idol worship’