With the crazy week that it’s been, I’m going to forego the usual Friday fare (book reviews or jokes) and pass on an article I read this week that I found to be very important. It’s called “Why Pushing Right Is Harder Than Pushing Left.” In the article, the author, Andrew Wilson, describes his experience in advocating different ideas, some which sought to move people to a more liberal view, some which advocated a more conservative view. As the title suggests, Wilson says it’s much easier to move left than to move right.
He says that this is true for three main reasons:
- Younger people natural favor more liberal views. Wilson says “freshness is more fashionable than faithfulness, innovating inspires people more than imitating, technology trumps tradition, and novelty is confused with creativity.”
- Contemporary secular culture is to the left of the Bible on most things. Wilson notes that this means “when we move to the left, we are almost without exception moving closer to what the culture around us thinks, and that makes the process much more comfortable for us.”
- In Wilson’s words: “the victims of excessive rightishness are much easier to identify, and to feel sorry for, the victims of excessive leftishness.” It’s easier to point out the villainy of conservative ideas than it is the villainy of liberal ideas. Wilson doesn’t say this, but I tend to think that it’s because conservative ideas tend to have been around longer, so it’s easier to find examples.
The concept of the ease with which we move left rather than right is an important one. I feel like Christians everywhere need a sign on their wall that says, “Beware of drifting left.”
In churches, we need to realize that it’s much easier to become more liberal in our actions than it is to become more conservative. I remember in 1976 when the vote passed that made Abilene “wet.” (I didn’t live here then, but the president of ACU was speaking at our church the day after the election). There were numerous votes advocating the sale of alcohol. As far as I know, there’s never been a vote since to consider rescinding the previous vote. Once you allow something, it becomes very hard to prohibit it again.
I really think that Wilson is correct. Though I need to add one note of caution that Wilson wrote:
I’m not saying, of course, that moving to the left is thereby wrong, merely that it is easy – and therefore that, if I know my own heart, the temptation to distort the Bible to get there is likely to be more acute.
Moving left isn’t always wrong, but it is almost always easier. Because of that, we have to exercise great caution.
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In the United States, when talking about politics, the Right refers to conservative views. The Republican Party is considered the party of the Right.