We tend to think of extremism as "conservative". Can there be such a thing as liberal religious extremism?

Question

I sometimes think there can be. I am a liberal myself but some scholars, ministers, and theologians reduce Christianity to merely a collection of morally good ideas. That's when it gets a bit extreme for me.

your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

Give an example, please.

Answer 2

yes absolutely.. I agree with you

Answer 3

I'm not even liberal, but it's painfully obvious that Christianity is purely mythological in nature. I mean, read the d**n Bible. How the h**l does questioning the legitimacy of clearly false claims become classified as EXTREME LIBERALISM?

Answer 4

Your "views" are such because they honor and appeal to the perspective of man rather than God.

Isaiah 2:2

Answer 5

I've noticed some athiests on here substitution one dogma for another. They haven't suceeded in stepping outside of what they objected to, to begin with -- dogma.

Absolutely there can be liberal extremism politically too.  I've seen some irrational, nonsense come out of people who then hated me for "not being aware of the situation already", even though I very openmindedly asked them to explain then said I'd obviously have to learn more since I didn't know about.  They gave me a cold shoulder & nastiness from then on.  It was too nonsense hateful for words.  (And has happened more than once.  I'm generally pretty liberal, so I run into this stuff.)

On Israel the liberal extremism supports the rightwing hatemongers amoung the Arabs.  It's a bizzarre alliance based on prejudice by these extremists against "whiter" people (supposedly Jews against Arabs) -- while claiming they are against prejudice.  Did I mention dogma.  These folks can be so fixed in it --- that there isn't a conversational give & take of learning to be had.

Answer 6

I think that Christians can be both conservative or liberal. I'm a Christian and I'm mostly liberal- I believe that people should choose as they please, that we should care about the environment, and that war never solved anything. I wish people didn't stereotype religions into one group or another.  

Answer 7

Well of course. Look at the Unitarians for example, who use their religious philosophy as an excuse for not only harboring illegal aliens in the US, but actually encouraging more aliens to cross the border illegally, and assisiting them in getting on to as many types of taxpayer-funded public assistance programs [i.e., free money] as they can.

Answer 8

I think extremist requires an additional belief of enforcing your beliefs on others.

..."extremely liberal" perhaps, but if they aren't campaigning to change your church from outside it, or trying to enforce their views in the secular world, they aren't extremist.

Answer 9

I suppose it is possible, but I have a hard time imagining what a fundamentalist Unitarian would look like.

Answer 10

Great point. There is a tendency to take God's Word, and then remove God from it in a kind of hidden form of idolatry. That is very insightful.

Answer 11

Wow, great question.  You are very deep.  

There is predisposition to conservatism only being considered "extreme" because having morals is viewed as restrictive in nature.   Even the word morals is something applied to conservatives.  While everyone has morals, we consider conservatives to have morals, and liberals to not have morals, or perhaps be immoral.

While extremism can be applied to Liberalism, Liberals generally don't have a "dog in any fight" because "anything goes".  An exception might be the abortion rights activists.  Many of these liberals have been militant in crusading for the right to not permit a child to develop until birth.

Unfortunately Christianity for some is a bunch of rules and values.  This is commonly called "Religion".  Christianity is supposed to be about "Relationship with God".  The love story of how God built a bridge to man using two pieces of wood and three nails.  The Cross.  The call of the Christian is to experience God's love and mercy and share it with others!

Hope that helps, and don't be hurting yourself thinking too deeply.  Life is far too short and too good ; )

Answer 12

Oh yes, take a close look at the environmental scare going on. I won't say it is not valid, but the levels of total hysteria do not match the actual figures. Not by a long shot.

You can find extremes anywhere if you just look.

Answer 13

I also agree. I have many relatives who are Hindu and will sometimes liberalize Hinduism to the point where it's just abstract when really, it's a very spiritual religion and many Hindus are very devout in their belief in God.

I sometimes think that extreme liberalism reduces Christianity as well-- going so far as to state that a lot of the things He said we should not take literally, and he was just saying them to teach. I think Jesus meant both literal and figurative.

Answer 14

The problem is people confuse the religious right with being a conservative. It's stunning how many people do not know the difference. There's a huge difference.

Answer 15

my sister does that. She's huge in her church, babysitting and doing sunday kids 'classes' but she doesn't believe God is all powerfull (suffering children) and she doesn't believe the Bible is the literal true word of God. She's a liberal. I'm also a liberal but I'm an atheist. My brother is a believer but he skips church so he can surf for p**n and play Diablo. My father was a redneck hippy and there's a 'mastersandslavesforjesus' yahoo group. There's a Muslim g*y pride organization. Crazy world we live in.

Answer 16

They have to, because there is no governor on a metaphorical approach to interpreting scripture.

Once you start viewing parts of the bible as metaphor verses literal, there is nothing determining what parts are specifically literal.  So salvation, creation, everlasting life etc can all be metaphor.