The end goal. . .

Over the years my patience has worn thin on the typical argument between conservative and liberal (or progressive).  The reality is that while conservative was once a fairly defined position, it is less so today.  Whether politics or religion, culture or society, conservatives seem incapable of partnership or cooperation.  It is the perfect and not the good they will accept.  Such an all or nothing approach has led to the practical impotence of their noble argument because they are more interested in tearing down others than they are working for a particular cause or outcome.  We all know this though it is seldom admitted in public.  Conservatives are not simply wedded to gaining on their positions but to the positions themselves and the end result is that we argue as much about the failings of those who ought to be our allies as we do the real enemies on the battlefield of truth, morality, and liberty.  Worse, conservatives are the ones who are generally seen as intolerant and dogmatic. 

As we have seen more and more, it is not the conservative who is narrow minded and intolerant.  Those who lean to the left have become more and more insistent upon the limitation of the freedoms of those who have the nerve to disagree with them.  They have used and quite successfully, I might add, the resources of media, government, and even religion to advance their causes.  Because they have their mind on improvement without being encumbered with the full weight of the perfect, they form allies and partnerships with unlikely people to see advancement in one issue -- even with those with whom they disagree on everything else.  Consider, for example, the odd alliance of the liberals with Hamas who, it has been revealed, was exceptionally brutal against women.

While conservatism may have a point of view that varies on what is conserved, liberalism is not quite a point of view at all.  Instead, it is far more dangerous.  Liberalism, or progressivism, is less a well articulated position with a goal than it is a tactic or a strategy.  It is as radical as they come.  It is also as fierce as they come.  Fundamentalists are pink with envy at the way liberalism (or progressivism) has marshaled its resources to promote everything that is against what was once universally believed and held.  This is true about the sacredness of life, marriage and family, the value of work, and individual responsibility but also about a great deal more.  It seems less an idea or an ideal than it is a rebellion without considering the consequences.  For example, the feminist movement now finds itself boxed in by the trans movement and its inability to even say for sure what a woman is.

All of this is true of religion as well.  The only good religion is one that does not hold to an objective truth but whose values and positions correspond to the mood of culture and the accepted opinion of society as a whole.  Words no longer have any meaning except the ones the hearer assigns to them.  Truth is no longer something factual or objective but is as fragile as opinion and as extensive as one mind.  Morality is not simply in the eye of the beholder but as narrow and individual as anything else.  All of this is jealously guarded against historic and catholic dogma and certainly against Scripture.  The truth of this is revealed in the fact that Jesus would be put on trial today for saying the most innocuous things about marriage!  Religion no longer accepts Scripture as anything but one opinion and not even the weight of God Himself counts for any more than the most unreasonable opinion of someone who has researched nothing.  Liberalism does not have a goal nor does progressivism have a truth except the next thing it decides must be the standard to which everyone and every thing is now to be held.