What would you consider "liberal"?

[steve-in-kville]

I find it very interesting that 12% say having TV is liberal, but only 5% say having unfettered smart phone is liberal. This seems very inconsistent to me.

I would agree. My adult son told me he's had a Netflix account for near 5 years and he has no reason for TV and/or cable.

[barnhart]

If the question were changed to "What is corrosive to New Testament church life?", my votes would roughly be the opposite of those in the poll. I suppose this means 1. I am an outlier from the voting group or 2. Being liberal and being corrosive to NT church are divergent paths.

[MaxPC]

For those of us who lived on the road, a smart phone is almost a necessity for travel planning, checking flight schedules, etc. It is used as a tool rather than for entertainment; except for visits to MN

[Neto]

I haven't voted - this is all focused on conduct. To me, 'liberalism' is an attitude of the heart or mind, and specifically an attitude toward the Scripture, really, at it's core, an attitude toward God. Sure, behavior usually reveals the thoughts & emotions, so I can sort of see the perspective here.
But take the red car business for instance. I have never purchased a new car, so I've never had the opportunity to "design" what car I would want. I wouldn't purposefully go out looking for a red car, but if the best fit (size, age, mechanical condition) happened to be red, I would seriously consider it. But then maybe red cars tend to hold their value more, and possibly also tend to be driven harder, so that would eliminate such vehicles from the pool of choices automatically. (Some say that the police scrutinize the behavior of drivers of red vehicles more than those in vehicles of other colors, so there is that as well.)

[JimFoxvog]

I had a car that once was red. It was given to me and the paint was quite faded, so I don't think I was being too worldly, which is what I think is what many mean by "liberal" in this thread.

[ABC 123]

I have found myself in a place where I needed a vehicle and had to scrape together enough funds to paint it the prerequisite black to meet the church standard.

Later when I was no longer under those constraints, I came by a red vehicle that was affordable to me that I did not paint. I do not feel I displeased the Lord with my red vehicle, but I always felt a wasteful spending money on the paint on a car that didn't need a paint job.

[joshuabgood]

I just can't bring myself to vote for any of these options. I don't like the word liberal in this context and I don't see any of the things listed as "necessarily" liberal.

[Grace]

I have found myself in a place where I needed a vehicle and had to scrape together enough funds to paint it the prerequisite black to meet the church standard.

Later when I was no longer under those constraints, I came by a red vehicle that was affordable to me that I did not paint. I do not feel I displeased the Lord with my red vehicle, but I always felt a wasteful spending money on the paint on a car that didn't need a paint job.

I think it is all a matter of the heart. There is a difference between purchasing a car that meets your needs, to get from point A to point B, but happens to be red. Versus buying a car because IT IS red and you want everyone to notice your red car.

[ABC 123]

I have found myself in a place where I needed a vehicle and had to scrape together enough funds to paint it the prerequisite black to meet the church standard.

Later when I was no longer under those constraints, I came by a red vehicle that was affordable to me that I did not paint. I do not feel I displeased the Lord with my red vehicle, but I always felt a wasteful spending money on the paint on a car that didn't need a paint job.

I think it is all a matter of the heart. There is a difference between purchasing a car that meets your needs, to get from point A to point B, but happens to be red. Versus buying a car because IT IS red and you want everyone to notice your red car.

Jesus said not to judge...but we sometimes put a disclaimer on that when we try to decide other people's motivations, especially within a church setting where we are trying to preserve a certain atmosphere.

[Ken]

Honestly the car color thing seems like a 100 year old anachronism left over from the time of the Model T when you could get your car in any color you wanted as long as it was black. And then GM started to compete with Ford by making cars in flashier colors. These days monochrome car colors like black, silver, gray and white are the most popular car colors by far, and colored cars are mostly cheaper cars targeted at the younger market like the Kia Soul which comes in colors like orange and green. The most expensive cars like Mercedes S Class don't even come in colors. Just monochrome shades of black, grey and white.

A more truly conservative Christian standard for vehicles centered on modesty, nonconformance and plain living would be focused on price, horsepower, gas consumption, and size rather than color. Buy only as much car as you truly need and not a big expensive gas guzzler.

It seems kind of like the avoidance of mustaches because they have a military connotation except that they haven't been a military fashion in over 100 years either. If anything, the only military grooming style these days is short trimmed hair on men and tight buns on women.



Black cars are also the most dangerous cars to drive and white the safest. And, of course, white cars are superior in hot climates and more practical:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/white ... 2014-06-12

While white cars may not be the most visible in a blizzard, white cars may be safer than black ones. Black cars have a 12% higher crash risk relative to white cars in daylight, followed by gray (11% higher), silver (10%) and blue and red (7%), according to a 2007 study of two decades and more than 850,000 car accidents by Monash University Accident Research Centre in Victoria, Australia. At dawn and dusk, black vehicles were found to have a 47% higher crash risk than white (silver was 15% higher and gray was 27% higher).

There are also more practical considerations. Darker cars absorb more sunlight and get hotter in the summer, so white cars are more common in southern states like Florida and the Middle East, says Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor of Cars.com. And white cars may not be a nightmare to clean, he adds. “One would think a white car would get dirty easily, but dark ones might be even tougher,” he says. “A little rain can cover a black car with water spots, whereas white cars look the same unless you get really close.”