Christian or conservative?

I’m teaching now a World Journalism Institute class made up largely of college students. One asked yesterday, “Is WORLD primarily a conservative magazine or a Christian magazine?” I replied, “Christian, definitely,” and pointed her to our mission statement: “To report, interpret, and illustrate the news in a timely, accurate, enjoyable, and arresting fashion from a perspective that is committed to the Bible as the inerrant Work of God.”

So is WORLD conservative? Partly. In contemporary America “conservative” and “Christian” have a big overlap, particularly because liberalism is so aggressive. Liberal culture emphasizes government (rather than family, church, or business) as problem-solver. Liberal culture stresses subjectivity (as in the freedom to choose abortion) rather than objective truth. Liberal culture has become the established religion, one that Christians should oppose.

Some of the classical virtues embraced by conservatives, such as honor and duty, are also important to Christianity. Centurions who melded belief in God with the Roman code are good guys in the New Testament: See chapter eight of Matthew, along with a centurion’s awestruck comment following the crucifixion, “Truly this was the Son of God.” But Christianity goes beyond Greece and Rome by stressing faith, hope, and charity—and that difference works itself out in policy issues.

Continue reading at online.worldmag.com

« Previous Article

Posting Policy

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse. Read more.

Robert De Leon

To speak about Christian liberals and Christian conservatives is the biggest mistake in the world.
It might exist "liberal" and "conservative" people but never Christians in those two extremes. Christians must follow Jesus Christ doctrine in order to be real Christians.
Robert.
- http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland
  
  Regardless, what the Pope teaches, correct?
  - Robert De Leon
    
    In order to be Christians, I must repeat.
    - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
      
      Mark 1:15 DeLeon
      - Bob
        
        This quote from the article is intended to manipulate like so many religions do – I prefer what Jesus has to say.
        
        "Liberal culture emphasizes government (rather than family, church, or business) as problem-solver. Liberal culture stresses subjectivity (as in the freedom to choose abortion) rather than objective truth. Liberal culture has become the established religion, one that Christians should oppose."
- Winston
  
  First, you must define just what a "Christian" really is and means. Most professed "Christians" are nothing more than people who are religious. Many have been "born into a church" and remained there because it was a part of their own familial culture. I posed a this to a seat mate on a flight from Dallas, TX to Atlanta, GA once who happened to be returning home from a Christian conference. I asked him if you thought my personal assessment was that about 85 to 90 percent of professed Christians were CINO (Christian in name only) and not sincere Biblical believers. He was thoughtful about it for a moment or so and replied, "I'd guess that that percent is even higher, and that there are few sincere Biblical Christians".
  - Robert De Leon
    
    You don't know what a Christian is? A Christian is the person that love our Dear Lord Jesus, follows His example and listen to His Doctrine (the Gospels) and the practice. That's a real Christian. Otherwise it is not everything but a Christian.
    Robert
    - Robert De Leon
      
      I meant "Otherwise is everything but a Christian".
      R.
    - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
      
      And what is that "doctrine" DeLeon?
  - wesley
    
    Winston, i think you are underestimating the number of true Christians. the number is probably more around 50 to 60 percent of those who claim to be Christian are not true Christians. Ted, the pope is not the beast of Revelation or will ever be for the beast in Revelation was the Roman Emperor until Constantine the Great when the Roman Empire was handed over to the Church of Jesus Christ. if anyone truly believes what he confesses when he confesses either the Apostle's or Nicene creed he is my brother in Christ or for females my sister in Christ no matter if Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. as it says in the Nicene creed there is one Holy catholic and Apostolic Church. as for Christian and conservative they tend to overlap mostly as Ronald Reagan put in while campaigning for Barry Goldwater it is about neither right or left but down into tyranny or in Christian terms into sin or up to liberty and redemption for Christian. Christians do not agree on everything for that is the reason why the church has had the Councils throughout history to find some agreement on the disagreements on matters of faith. sometimes they had to just agree to disagree on the nonessentials like between the Eastern Orthodox and western Roman Catholic Churches did and later the Protestants from the Catholic and other Protestant Churches. the Gospel is so multidimensional that not one denomination or local church or theologian or individual could comprehend it all.
    - msjallen
      
      I thought the way of salvation was from the Bible: Eternal salvation from sin, death and hell is the free gift of God's grace, and is based solely upon man's personal faith and belief in Jesus Christ. He voluntarily died as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins and arose bodily from the dead, thus guaranteeing our own resurrection to eternal life. This salvation is not received by, nor based on, any sacrament, merit, or good work on our part. This one who receives Christ's salvation is eternally secure. (John 1:11-13, 3:16, 5:24, 10:28-30, 14:6; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:23-26, 5:8, 6:23, 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 7:24-25; I Peter 1:18-19, I John 5:11-13)
      - wesley
        
        just take a look at the creeds for all those doctrines are found in them. most people could not read the Bible until within the last 500 years. if you could read in order to have one you would have to write your own copy of it. chances are you could not even do that for the ability to write back then was like the ability to practice medicine. after the printing press you would have to scrap and save to be able to afford one even then in order to read it before the middle of the 16th century you would have to know Latin. the average family had to save for years in order to buy one even after they became available in you own language. a family would have just own copy of the Bible. it was not like today where after you get paid can go and buy the latest one you like. it takes a long time to memorize scripture even today, so Christians for centuries used the creeds to learn the basics of God's Word scripture was still read out loud by the Priest in the church, but there were not chapter and verse division to use to memorize scripture. the creed where short easy to memorized skeleton of the Bible. both the Nicene and Apostles creed are as easy to memorize as the Psalms 23. i have seen little kids memorize the Apostles creed by just reciting it every Sunday in children's church. that even help me memorize it and reciting it just able every day in my basic theology class at college. my theology prof's teenagers even have the Nicene creed commented to memory as well as the Apostles. the only creed that i do not know of anyone reciting or memorizing in the Athanasius creed which is the best learn the differences in the trinity with is repetition of the Father is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Son nor the Father at the end of each and every stanza. it is the longest of all the creeds. just look it up and read it for you will soon start to feel like you are reading Psalms 119.
      - Robert De Leon
        
        msjallen
        Well it looks that there is a counterpoint regarding "deformer" believers. We can read in the Bible (taken from King James version) in next passages related to justification, sacaraments, good deeds et al:
        St, Matthew, 5:20; 7:16:27; 25:31-46
        St. Luke, 13:13-14
        St. Paul, 1 Corinthians, 1-13; 3St. Paul, PHillipians, 2:12-13
        St. James, 2:14-26
        St. John, 6:47-66
        St. Matthew, 26:26-29
        St. Luke, 22:19-20
        St. Paul, 1 Corinthians, 11:23-30
        St. Matthew, 16:16-19 and 18:18
        St. John, 20:22-23
        There are a lot more!
        Do you believe that Jesus Christ can contradict Himself? Of coures not. He is God!
        Robert.:
        .
      - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
        
        Abuse, Isogesis, Abuse, Isogesis, Abuse, Isogesis…
        DeMelon let me give you three simple rules of Scripture interpretation and you violate them all:
        
        #1 Context
        #2 Context
        #3 Context
      - wesley
        
        they are
        1. who is the primary audience?
        2. what is the historical context?
        3. what is the theme?
        now you can properly interpret scripture.
      - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
        
        yes that and way more but I was being and in some way not being facetious…
- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
  
  Well, you do not Bob. You follow imaginations of men.
http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland

Regardless, what the Pope teaches, correct?, I must repeat.

A "yes" or "no" answer will suffice.
- Hurricane
  
  Sorry Ted, but since the Holy Spirit only guides the church where Jesus is truly present, it is impossible for the Pope to teach something contradictory.
  
  Matthew 18:17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
  
  One, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Amen!
  - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
    
    "…it is impossible for the Pope to teach something contradictory. "
    
    :) Obviously you have not studied any church history beyond what is "imprimatur".
    Too bad, for if you would you would know who profoundly wrong you are.
    - Robert De Leon
      
      Desperville:
      As we read in the Old Testament Israel people feared to God so badly that they even didn’t dare to raise their face and look at Him.
      Our dear Lord Jesus Christ came to show us the real God’s Face, a face full of love and Mercy. Against what Jesus Chris taught us, some “deformer” Protestants – mainly Calvinist – live as if they where still in the Old Testament era. That’s not so surprisingly due to the fact that John Calvin, the founder of this “deformed” Protestant church was quite severe fanatic person, a perfect heretic, an intolerant ruler, a real dictator. Calvin is the clearest example of what Christians shouldn’t be. As we read in the Gospel, Jesus Christ said (John, Chapter 13):
      34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
      35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
      Calvin never followed this Commandment.
      Robert.
      - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
        
        DeLeon you believe in caricatures of Christ and Jesuit propaganda about Calvin who exposed the true Gospel again leaving your goat stables of Rome weakened. Jesus Christ is not just mercy, He is also holiness, justice and judgment and so much more. You have conjured and idol for yourself and your religion and you have no first educated clue about Reformation, Luther, Calvin and others. Your propaganda made you blind and lobotomized you severely.
      - wesley
        
        Martin Luther did not want to leave the Catholic church all he wanted to do was reform the church from the inside. he was excommunicated at the Diet of Worms, and could not reconcile with the church thanks to his co-worker Rothmann who would later join the anabaptists in Munster Germany who turned that city into Sodom and Gomorrah.
    - wesley
      
      there may have been false popes just like false prophets and false Christs in history, but the pope is not the beast in revelation or the antichrist you Calvinists dispensationalists seem to think. antichrist in John's letter meant anyone who denied that Christ came in the flesh mostly because of gnosticism, but it can be expanded to anyone who denies anything that it says in the creeds of the Christian faith; the Apostles' creed, Nicene creed, and Athanasius creed which happens to be the best creed to help understand the trinity for it repeats over and over again the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Son or the Father.
      - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
        
        " you Calvinists dispensationalists"
        
        You know that this assertion is largely an oxymoron and completely in a historical sense. Right?
      - wesley
        
        yes i know that in a historical sense. i also know that dispensationalism premillenalism has been around only 150 years. i also know that not calvinist hold to it today. every weekday i listen to a podcast of a calvinist who holds to revelation was fulfilled by 70AD and he also does not demonize Catholics either. he confirms that they hold to Christian Orthodoxy too for they hold to the essentials of orthodoxy.
      - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
        
        That guy is not Calvinist but probably Amyraldian masquerading as Calvinist and he is wrong. Rome cursed the Gospel and went full head dive into Apostasy at least at Trent and all of that is on their books, their teaching and their practice.
        
        Who is that if you will and give link to his podcast. You want solid exposition of Reformed Faith and great apologetics then start listening here: http://bit.ly/GYgpJ
      - wesley
        
        you are correct about him being an amyraldians. my mistake. he never mentioned being a calvinist. i was just going off the things i heard him say. i never knew that to the five-point calvinists that those who held to just four-points were amyraldians.
  - Robert De Leon
    
    Amen to that. God Bless you.
    Robert
  - Robert De Leon
    
    Hurricane.
    God Bless you.
    That's the Beauty, Richness and Splendor of our Catholic Faith. I wish (and I pray) for "deformers" can understand that but they are blinds in spirit.
    Robert.
    - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
      
      Yea. let us look at this Babylonian, pharaohic, neo pagan "splendor" of false satanic religion of Rome:
      
      http://bit.ly/Lk1ue8
Evermyrtle

Nothing will put an end to Christianity. There is absolutely, not the vaguest possibility that anything will end Christianity.
PTTA

I know many conservitives who are not Christains. More than likely you also do. I am a independent voter. There are many Democrats who are descent people, raise family's, go to work and work hard. The problem is their party has been taken over by the Progressive Democrat, and men like George Sorros. These people, the Christains among them, need to stand up and be counted. It would come as quite a shock to the Democrat party if they did. And the big union leaders. I wonder if they ever will stand up. When I became a Independent voter, I had been a Democrat for years. But I could no longer condone the bills these people pushed, the political awarness they promoted, even againist the Lord. Enough was enough. To go along with the Progressive Democrat, who was perverting the Lords words, trying to justify themselves by twisting the Lords words, Taking Christain Principles out of our society, denying the principles of Chritainanity, well that was just to much. I wil not now, or ever deny Jesus and his words. Therefore I could no longer go alone with the Progressive Democrat and the Democrat Party.
msjallen

What the Bible teaches should always come first in the way we think and the way Christ thinks will be in the forefront of the way we live.
1 Corinthians 2:16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. (The Word of God, the Bible)
Wayne

Liberals: How can you claim to be a Christian when you support a Party that supports abortion at every trimester, supports so-called separation of church and state, government as merciful caregiver (rather than the individual), race-based laws, removal of all visual remembrances of Christianity in public places, removal of 10 commandments from schools, no prayer in Jesus name by Military chaplains, special LGBT laws, destruction of DOMA, support of gay marriage laws, on and on and on it goes. I cannot see any way that a Democrat can call himself a Christian when their party supports so much of what is evil in our society. It is their choice to support the Democrat party, so they apparently choose against God.
- wesley
  
  not all Democrats are liberals. it just happens to be that the liberals control the power in the Democratic party for the time being. within the next fifty years Democratic Party will be more conservative than the Republicans for the liberals will soon be irrelevant as they start dying off. for they are like China who is in a race to get rich before they get old. for both are on a collision course with a demographic timebomb. for liberals it is now or never, do or die for their ideology.
  - fliteking
    
    Nort all democrats are liberals?
    
    When they vote deocrat that are in fact supporting the Liberals and their agenda, No?
    - wesley
      
      there are places were democrats make moderate republicans look very liberal. so do not say all democrats are liberal for they really aren't. in 2004 i voted democrat in the primaries. i am not that much different today as i was then except that my out look at the future looks so much bright now then it ever has.
- Daniel Heisner
  
  I see nothing in the new testament that tells us to set up a theocratic government. We are citizens of heaven yet we are subject to earthly rulers. Most churches agree that we should support our countries by voting and serving in public office. We are to serve our Lord, and be a positive influence on unbelievers. We are not supposed to force our beliefs down the throats of non-Christians. If the society accepts abortion and gay marriage and separation of church and state we have a situation similar to the church in the Roman world. We are still supposed to support the powers that be and be a positive influence by living a life of love. Race based laws were forced on our government because even Christians from the south thought slavery was in God's will. There is nothing unscriptural about Christians supporting using a small part of our taxes to help the less fortunate. I don't think we need a government religion, either. Freedom of religion serves everyone best. I don't think God will be upset with someone because they vote democratic.
fliteking

I was a subscriber to World magazine, and though it was a good publications.

As with other publications and sites I donate to in my life, I liked to spend time on their website. I stopped my subscription because their website was over-run with Liberals and bitter posting by the same.
- wesley
  
  that is the downside of the internet. it is open to anyone and liberal groups will send all their friends to skew postings and polls on articles and polls that they have the biggest problems with. i have seen very odd polls on one news now website at times.
  - keyboardshark
    
    Yes, online polls open to anyone are practically useless, because there is little if any way to prevent electronic vote spamming to skew results. A poll that has a sound scientific method for randomly screening and selecting a sample that is representative of the whole is the only reliable way to get accurate results. There is actually much more involved in getting accurate poll results:
    
    20 Questions A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results
    
    1) Who did the poll?
    2) Who paid for the poll and why was it done?
    3) How many people were interviewed for the survey?
    4) How were those people chosen?
    5) What area (nation, state, or region) or what group (teachers,lawyers, Democratic voters, etc.) were these people chosen from?
    
    TO SEE THE REST:
    http://www.ncpp.org/?q=node/4
Tommy

As a independent Christian. I believe conservative Christian people are too much Republican. They all want money for them selves and they want make the American people, more poorer. Now Libs, are just too stupid people and most of them are anti-christ people. More less, the Libs are chaos people. I will never trust bisexual Obama. Truly, Obama is evil and apart of the anti-christ libs. I'll never trust catholics as well. I seen the false doctine, they preach. I think of them as the false christ people. What the Bible fore-told?