May 6, 2009
Contemporary Christians When asked to imagine myself as a contemporary evangelical Protestant Christian in America I didn't have to stretch my imagination very far. I have grown up around this exact Christian element and as such I have a lot of first had experience with the people and their philosophies. To get right down to the prompt, what makes me different from a “liberal” Christian? To start, my everyday life would be much different. As a Protestant much of my time is spent with the church. At the very least I'm going every sunday and at the most I'm at the institution almost everyday; setting up for special events, perhaps coming in for choir or hand bell practice, maybe I'm on the praise team volunteering in that capacity. Contrastly, the “liberal” Christian has much more time. Many of these Christians don't go to church regularly and as such don't commit their time to any house of worship. Our political philosophies would differ greatly. As a Protestant evangelical, I'm completely against abortion whereas a more liberal Christian may support a woman's right to choose. I support Israel in the middle East but my liberal counterpart may have a different stance on the subject. He may see Israel as too aggressive or as something that should have not belonged there in the first place. The way we view science could also be quite different. As a Protestant Christian I'd be against the medical miracle that is stem cells. This is because some of these cells, embryonic stem cells, are harvested from aborted fetuses. This is just too much for my evangelical Protestant Christian brain to handle and because these cells have something to do with abortion, I'm against it. Contrasty, the liberal Christian might have more of an open mind to truly assess this issue. The liberal Christian may do some research and see that these cells are only harvested after an unrelated abortion takes place. The liberal Christian may see that this scientific field doesn't induce abortions, it simply studies the underdeveloped cells belonging to the fetus. Another way myself (the contemporary evangelical