tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post3244671791890919440..comments2022-11-23T04:12:27.815+00:00Comments on Jeremy's Journey: Those labels - Evangelical, Catholic, Liberal, ...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-24687788960076108262007-12-17T15:42:00.000+00:002007-12-17T15:42:00.000+00:00It's a lovely idea, that labels could be separated...It's a lovely idea, that labels could be separated from the tribalism that they support and actually are intrinsic to, but there's no possibility at all that it could ever happen.<BR/><BR/>If you could remove all the labels that you could now identify as being grounds for tribal conflict, if you could whisk them out of existence so completely that nobody would know they had ever existed, then others would be found to fight about before the day was out. For that matter, there are places where "red haired" is a sole basis for hatred, in this country and in recent memory.<BR/><BR/>People <I>want</I> to discriminate, they <I>will</I> generalise based on things they shouldn't, and they can't stop.<BR/><BR/>No, it's not right, seen from the inside of an intellectual, liberal framework. But who's to say that the ugly majority isn't actually responsible for the future of the species, in the same way it was responsible for all its past?<BR/><BR/>At a tangent, complaining that common currency misunderstands evangelism is itself a misunderstanding. Common currency is, however you may mislike it, right and if you'd rather it wasn't, you can either flog everyone who understands the word to mean something different to what you think it should mean, or you can find another word that says what you want and hope that that works better. A ministry based at the top of an ivory tower rooted in allegedly superior language skills is not, I think, what it's all about. Dictionaries and encyclopaedias (and any other reference work you can name) are out of date before they've finished rolling off the press. Live with it; think or thwim.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-72279945574243757912007-09-19T11:02:00.000+01:002007-09-19T11:02:00.000+01:00I'm less concerned with the concept of convenient ...I'm less concerned with the concept of convenient tags and generalising, than with a few specific issues.<BR/><BR/>Most significantly: <BR/><BR/>1. The common use <I>outside</I> church circles (which is a misuse, of course) of the term 'evangelical'<BR/><BR/>2. The tendency <I>within</I> the church to use the terms 'liberal,' 'catholic' and 'evangelical' to set up dividing walls of hostility<BR/><BR/>I don't have any answers, sadly.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-16621994829984995362007-09-19T02:27:00.000+01:002007-09-19T02:27:00.000+01:00Labels should not be flags for battle, I agree - t...Labels should not be flags for battle, I agree - though, it is true that the unbelieving in the Church are "for battle" when we are "for peace". They are, however, necessary - and other such means of making generalisations - for the sake of discourse on particular topics. Otherwise, discourse becomes impaired by the variety of particulars. The informed and gracious spirit will recognise in the use of generalisations that exceptions always exist and will give credit to those exceptions, should they enter into discussion. There is no need to keep bringing up "but what about this particular or that" - the exceptions - at every possible point. Again, nothing would get done. <BR/>Labels as labels, generalisations as generalisations, categories as categories, if they are properly and well made, are not evils in themselves. What is an evil is to squeeze people into our generalisations when they do not fit. But the refusal to use labels at all is no solution to this problem; we are sinful enough to always find some way to be unfair to people we don't like.The Rev. David Beckmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05407194430293474524noreply@blogger.com