Thursday, August 09, 2007

Moderates

I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth! (Revelation 3:15-16)

You can be both a moderate and a Christian. A moderate is someone who believes that taking extreme positions can be dangerous. Moderates value traditions when they help a person make sense of life, but are willing to discard traditions that have lost their usefulness. Moderates are interested in fresh ideas, but they are reluctant to change things just for the sake of change; they know that novelty never lasts for very long.

Political moderates want to retain the best of our country’s heritage while at the same time redressing the mistakes of the past. Religious moderates see God’s word as the only source of stability in an increasingly chaotic world, yet they are also interested in finding new ways to express that word in a modern context.

Moderates are cautious about change; they try to find a middle ground between hasty carelessness and rigid inflexibility. Moderates find our modern world to be a place of both challenges and opportunities, filled with times when the truth must be rigorously defended as well as times when lost souls must be gently invited to the Savior’s waiting arms.

Moderates can often be in the right. Scripture tells us to bear with one another in love; moderates try to honor this command by seeking common ground between conservatives and liberals. Moderates respect the faith of all Christians as a gift from the Savior.

And yet, moderates can also be wrong. Some people are moderates because they are afraid of taking a position; they worry that whatever decision they make might be the wrong one, so they put off making any decision at all. Other people are moderates because they just don’t care; there is no passion in their hearts to move them to take a stand. But our Lord does not want us to be timid or apathetic; He compares such people to lukewarm water. Cold beverages are good, hot beverages are good. But lukewarm beverages are completely unappealing. And so Jesus threatens to spit out, to reject those who don’t have the courage or passion to take a stand in His name. We who are moderate in today’s world must be careful to not let our fear of taking a position result in our faith life losing its passion or commitment.

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