I was listening to a sermon by Rob Bell recently, as I often do, and he was talking about a common theme of his which is that, as the Wheaton College philosopher Art Holmes was known to say, "all truth is God's truth". Specifically he was responding to critics who might listen to his preaching and say one week, "You sound like a liberal" and then might come back the next week and say "You sound like a conservative". Rob replies that he's not at all interested in which side or which party claims a certain idea, he's only interested in what is true and what the bible says. For instance, he says, "The Democrats don't own environmentalism. We care about the environment not because the Democrats tell us to, but because the Bible tells us to, right there in Genesis 1." Likewise with pro-life responses to abortion he says "Caring about all of human life (both before and after birth) and seeing that what we often think of as a mistake is really a chance for God's grace and redemption to break into someone's life is not a Republican issue. It's something we believe because we believe in a God of grace and redemption."

Regardless of whether you agree with Rob on either of those two issues, I think his main point is right on. There are so many of us these days who couldn't care less about the labels and about partisan politics, and who are also finding that our pursuit of the way of Christ and our growing understandings of what the Kingdom of God is all about are leading us to be passionate about all kinds of things that don't fit easily into the old categories. And why should they. Again, it's not about being "liberal" or "conservative", it's about pursuing the values of God's kingdom.

That's why those who have accused me of "hating America" or of buying into a "liberal" agenda are really missing the point of what I write here. I am striving to live how the Bible directs me to live and to pursue truth wherever it leads, and if that leads me to view that some would consider "liberal" or "unpatriotic" so be it. But I never set out with those destinations in mind, nor does it really matter to me if that's where I've ended up. I'm just doing my best to follow Jesus wherever I see him leading me. No one owns Jesus and no one owns the truth. He's not liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, evangelical or emergent. All truth is God's and I expect to find it everywhere, even in the unexpected places.

Labels: emerging church, politics, theology