Jesus, A Slave Master?

A friend and I have an ongoing joke about being liberal or conservative, I being the conservative. Today as we chatted online was no different, it always seems that one of us (mostly me) will some how manage to bring it around to being a liberal or a conservative.

It’s all in fun.. or is it????

For the most part yes it is, but on some level we both hold true to our convictions, I as a conservative look at the world differently that my liberal friend. I see things more black and white, true or false right or wrong, were as my liberal friend, well she see things in more shades of gray. The truth can shift and move for her, for me it can not. Right and wrong can have many levels, for me, well, not so much… You get the idea…

Now lets bring in politics and religion….  As we were always told, never talk politics or religion, unless you want a fight or you want to lose a friend. Well my friend and I talk both all the time, I the conservative her the liberal…. And yes, sometimes it can get heated. And yes sometimes I think we both question why we are friends… But we remain friends because we both respect each others views.

Let me repeat that… I respect her views, that is not to be confused with agreeing or even thinking she is close to being right, I just respect her views, knowing that she is wrong.

In that last statement, knowing that she is wrong, I am not joking, as a conservative, and as someone who believes I should stand for what I believe in I do not take lightly my convictions. I will defend them, I will argue them and I will stand by them. Please know that I do not stand strongly for something I have not researched… I can not stand for something I do not know anything about. I look at both sides of an issue, as a Catholic I read both conservative Catholic point of view and liberal point of views. And as for my political point of view the same is true. I am also a strong believer in you can not be liberal in politics and conservative in religion or any other combination of live events. You may lean less on one issue to the right or left than an other issue, but you are still a liberal or conservative come the end of the day.

For example, I do not believe I can agree with the political types who call themselves Catholic, yet vote for laws legalizing abortion, or healthcare that pays for abortions. You can not be Catholic, yet approve of killing babies.

The same argument can work with many issues, I cant be Conservative and agree with same sex marriage, I cant be liberal and not support woman’s liberation. I can’t be one thing, yet claim another. My simple logic class in collage taught me that. We can not be true to two masters, as Jesus tells us.

Now conservatism and liberalism should not be our masters, there are many in each camp who take the basic concepts to the limits, they are extremist, and to them it is there master. That is un-healthy and not very smart. But I do believe in the basic principle of serving only one master. I am a conservative, proud to be one and will proclaim it from the roof tops, but I do not serve conservatism, it serves me.

I am not a slave to my values, as some would think say I am, I follow my values (to the best of my ability) not because they own me, but rather because I own them. A good conservative is a conservative not because it “limits” us, but because it “frees’ us, it allows us to live freely, to choose our own destiny and too chart our own path.

Now many liberals would argue that point, they would state that all our rules and laws do just the opposite, they would state that we should be confined, oppressed and fell like a slave to our conservative views. Silly Silly liberals, how lost they truly are.

If that were that case, than Jesus would be the biggest slave master ever, Jesus was and is always calling us to follow Him, to be true to the Father (God) and it is God who gave us the commandments (the rules the laws) to follow. So logic would state that if I follow the laws God gave us, that I am a slave to God and God is my oppressor…

Hmmm… Not a God I would want to follow, yet it was Jesus who said “”The truth will set you free” “I am the truth and the light”, so if Jesus is the Truth, and the the Truth will set us free, than we must follow Jesus.

Now a liberal would now state that Jesus is the new law, so the old law no longer matters…

Hmmmm

Didn’t Jesus state that he was here not to abolish the law but to fulfill it? How can one fulfill something and at the same time make it no longer valid? Once again simple logic would state that if I fulfill it, that I am giving it greater value, but hey, why add logic to the conversation….

Just something to think about….

Paul