Are you a liberal or a conservative? What is God?
Please notice that the first question isn’t “Are you a Democrat or a Republican.” This post isn’t intended to be a political, partisan discussion but more a basically philosophical postulate hoping to stir some thought that might stimulate further consideration of the issues we face in our struggle to sort things out as individuals, nations, and world citizens.
We all know pretty well how the current culture breaks down and which party in America is considered to be what in conservative vs. liberal terms. (The truth is that neither is really either, but we’ll leave that thought for another day.) But have you ever considered the most fundamental difference between the two poles? Or how God would fit in either extreme? As you see it, is God a liberal or a conservative? Let’s define each a bit.
Basically liberals are egalitarians and conservatives are libertarians. Interestingly, they both ultimately want the same thing, the summum bonum or “best life.” Both desire to promote an ideal life of general welfare, or at least the best possible life for all, but propose accomplishing the ideal quite differently.
The egalitarians basically believe in and strive for equality of outcome. That’s why you hear them call for the redistribution of wealth, higher tax rates on higher incomes, no grades in school, etc.. They hope to bring up the bottom by taking from the top and giving it to them. Egalitarians believe that “all” is owned by “all” and that the state exists to distribute goods and property equally. The best known expression of the egalitarian philosophy is communism, unfortunately not pure communism but atheistic, Marxist communism as practiced in Russia and China. (50-70,000,000 killed trying to impose summum bonum)
Libertarians also want to bring up the bottom but are more concerned with equality of opportunity. In an ideal world libertarians would expect the “haves” to share with the “have-nots” voluntarily. They believe that the state has a much more limited role and exists to serve the people rather than vice-versa. Libertarians are in favor of a free market system that is a meritocracy that is open to all but that rewards individuals based on accomplishment rather than existence. America has probably been the closest to a libertarian expression the world has seen thus far.
Egalitarians love unions and working for the government. Libertarians love piece-work and commission sales.
The world has never really seen a pure expression of either extreme. And each has inherent problems and dangers, not so much in theory but because either has been practiced by fallen people in a fallen world.
So, what are you? Do you prefer equal opportunity or equal outcome? How do you think about life? If you were working next to another person doing the same job, would you be OK if you worked twice as hard or produced twice as much as the other worker, but received the same pay? Probably not so much, very few really are.
A bigger question is what is God? s He an equal opportunity or an equal outcome God? Not surprisingly he is both.
In terms of salvation God’s will is egalitarian, “Come to me all who… It’s not the will of the Father that any should be lost… et. al.” The offer is free and equal to all.
However, in terms of rewards He is more equal opportunity.
In the parable of the minas in Luke 19 each servant was given one mina to work with – very egalitarian. But the worker who produced a ten-fold reward received twice the reward as the servant who produced a five-fold return – very libertarian. No, God is not limited by our human standards or definitions, but He is very aware of our problem and, perhaps, even the cause of our struggle to find summum bonum.
God’s answer to the dilemma of human relationship in all social, familial, political, or governmental areas is summed up in His call to love Him with everything we have and to love others as we love ourselves. The whole of His way in life is captured here. Paul said “love is the fulfillment of the law.” How can we form a political party or system of government based on love for God and each other? We can’t. We can only reconcile our need for summum bonum in a person – Jesus Christ. The heart of our problem is a problem of our heart, and only in Jesus and the experience of His forgiveness and love do hearts truly change. The closer we come to God in Christ the closer we come to each other. In him we are neither liberal or conservative, we are just one. I believe that the most polarized, bitter, and politically opposite of us can come together at the foot of the cross. There we are truly equally needy, there we can, and ultimately will embrace.
That will be a Day.
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Buck Jacobs, Chairman and Founder of The C12 Group, LLC - Christian CEO and mentor. Buck has an extensive background in successful organizational development based on the principles found in scripture. The motto of the C12 group is "Building great companies for a greater purpose." 
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