I AM NOT A LIBERAL!

Sometimes I just want to shout:
I AM NOT A LIBERAL!
I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT!
I AM NOT AN ACTIVIST!
I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN!
(At least as these terms are sliced and diced in common parlance.)

At Enterbeing we are struggling to put aside stereotypes and to tell our own stories letting the chits fall where they may. It is not easy to find language amidst the quick sands of political correctness and assumptions. It is too easy to say, “oh, I know what that means,” without hearing the other person out, to know where they are coming from and why.

People in my denomination would probably label me as such, but I”M NOT A LIBERAL-- for to be liberal today is to be marginalized, and therefore, not to be taken seriously. These words caricature liberals: out of touch, money-spending, bleeding hearts, unrealistic, fiscally irresponsible. I’M NOT. (Are too! Am not! Are too…hm…)

I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT—though I’m registered in that party by choice. More importantly, however, I’m a democrat with a small “d”. I’m for the participation of ordinary citizens in the democratic process. I honor the democratic traditions. I want to exercise people power with others to balance the influence of big money and big names. I want to think for myself, and to reflect critically with those around. I want to hear what others think even those with whom I disagree. I want to be part of a process which works toward some common good.

I AM NOT AN ACTIVIST—some pesky fly on the sleeve of those really running things. I am a leader with a base, a grounding, in a congregation and among institutions. I do not assert myself as an individual, but have heard the cries of the people and have known their pain. I do not seek activity, but change. Justice requires ordinary people to claim their power and to act, not activists, but citizens who are active, strategic, effective.

I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN—if by that you mean narrow-minded one-wayers or dogmatic fanatics. I have come to believe in a God of justice embodied in Jesus of Nazareth, who was put to death by the state because of he offered a radical alternative to the double-think and violence of an oppressive and life-denying culture. I believe that this alternative exists today. In the late nineties leaders from our broad based organization were testifying to the Oregon State Senate on a bill for worker training. We were warned ahead of time not to use the “J” word (“Justice”). I was puzzled. It was as if justice were a liberal term, relegated to church rhetoric and to a few outspoken radicals, but not to be uttered in the assembly of Oregon lawmakers! I’m still horrified. Justice is not left of center—it is the center! It is not liberal—it is basic, conservative in the best sense of preserving what is worthwhile. In a nation where the “J” word “Jesus” can be bantered about carelessly and cluelessly it is surprising that justice is censored.

I want to say I AM NOT in order to say I AM.


I AM NOT A LIBERAL. I grew up in a working class family. My mom taught first grade for 30 years during the time when some believed that public schools were a communist plot. My dad flew in a B-17 over Germany. After the war he joined a plywood co-op and worked 32 years in the mill. They weren’t much involved in politics. I AM GROUNDED IN THEIR HONORABLE STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER LIFE not just for our family, but for the world.

I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT, but one who is free to think and vote and act and converse and discern and strategize and conspire and plan and engage and organize. I will align and disengage as issues dictate. I will be pro-life and pro-choice, for fiscal responsibility and for common good, against war and against terrorism, with workers and with management because I am a DEMOCRATIZER. I stand for public schools and public health and public libraries and public parks and public social security because I am a re-PUBLIC-an.

I AM NOT AN ACTIVIST. I watched the Vietnam War unfold in front of me—and dodged the bullet with a student deferment. I saw Martin Luther King on TV. I felt women growing and asserting themselves around me. I learned to love Isaiah and Micah and the Jesus of the Gospels—the one who spoke not as a liberal, but as one who calls us back to the center where the ordinary folks live and go to work and pay rent and raise their children. I learned that justice springs up in the centers of community—it is not above or at the edges, but at the heart of any healthy society. I AM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. I long to see a just and sustainable society in the world.

I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN—I am one who seeks to follow Jesus and to honor the heart of the great religious traditions which also teach tolerance, kindness, love and justice.

Perhaps someday someone will listen to who I am without putting a label on me. Then I won’t have to tell you who I’m not.

P. Moe
2-28-05