Liberalism and Christianity

It has always seemed amazing to me that liberal, a word of such great roots (from Latin liber, "free man"), is generally used as a pejorative term, both in Europe and in the US. Educated people know that this word, though, has a totally different meaning on each side of the ocean. “Liberal” in the US means “progressive” in Europe. “Liberal” –and “neoliberal”- in Europe means “classical liberal” in the US. Classical liberals are the advocates of free-markets.

Leftists in Europe label as liberal any person –especially politicians-, law, institution or initiative that advocates for reform of the social welfare towards a more pro-market society. In recent years they almost exclusively use the form neoliberal, and usually precede it with “wild”: wild neo-liberalism, equaling free-market to the jungle, as if liberal democracy didn’t imply any laws. Of course, the defense of competition is not valued as something good and necessary by them.

On the other side, conservatives in the US use the word liberal as a pejorative epithet for leftists. I am convinced of the religious origin of this word usage. Conservative theologians started calling liberals to those who opened up to new interpretations of the Bible. Later this was applied to anybody who had “liberal” views about morality.

This can cause some big misunderstandings. I still remember the first time I realized of this. An American was calling me “a liberal” for giving some credit to Karl Marx theories –by the way, I don’t anymore, I was very young then. I was confused, since in my world, liberals where the opposite: pro-market thinkers as Adam Smith or David Ricardo.

After this digression, I find it very ironic that both parties, who deem themselves as being the true defenders of freedom -liberty- use the word liberal as an insult against their social or political opponents. But the amazing thing is that real liberalism is in neither of these ends.

A broader definition of liberalism would be, in my opinion, the opposite of intolerance. As Voltaire said: « Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu'à la mort pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire. » This means, roughly, “I don’t agree with what you are saying, but I will fight to death so you’ll have the right to say it.” This way, liberalism would be in par with tolerance. Christianity needs this desperately. Instead of imposing our ideas, our way of life, we should live in a way that others will want to be like us, followers of Jesus. This also means debating, refuting and instructing, but words will never be as effective as our example.