I've referred to myself as a liberal my entire adult life. I thought being a liberal was a good thing, an honorable thing. I came by my ideology honestly, my father was a liberal. He was the greatest guy I'd ever met, (he passed in 1996) my hero.

In my father's life, he never hurt anyone or lied to anyone or stole from anyone. He never denied anyone there rights nor did he try to inflict his rights upon others. He also never passed judgment on others. Can you imagine growing up in an environment where you never hear anyone expounding hate? I had such an environment.

After reading a recent post, I fear I may have gotten it all wrong. Dad and I may have been naive. Were my Dad and I being fooled by evil doers?

In my quest for truth, I looked up the definition of liberalism.

"Liberalism holds that the only legitimate form of government is one that respects the liberty of its citizens, with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism

In my liberal upbringing, I was taught to never inflict my beliefs onto anyone else or to force others to live by my code. I was taught to care about my neighbor. I was taught to not throw stones at others.

I was taught tolerance and to give more than I receive. I was taught to earn my keep, do my fair share, carry my own load. I was taught to be a liberal in the definition above.

Now it seems, I may be wrong.

Dad's definition of being a liberal did not set us at odds with anyone, nor did it pit us against anyone. We never felt threatened by anyone or felt the need to defend our liberal nature.

As liberals, we agreed that people should be allowed to live their lives as they saw fit, to believe in God or not to believe in God.

As liberals we fought for civil rights. As liberals we fought for equality for women. We believed we were doing good things. We supported unions, higher wages and safer working conditions.

As liberals we endorsed raising the minimum wage. We didn't hate people who earned more, we just wanted to see poor people paid a decent wage. How could we have been so wrong for so long?

As liberals we hated war and hated sending our children to war. As liberals we would defend our country with our lives if necessary. As liberals we were against torture. As liberals we believe in the rights of all people. Not just Americans.

Liberalism is not a political party. Being a liberal does not make you a Democrat.

Being a liberal is a way of thinking. We have an "open arms" approach, "I cannot enjoy the sandwich I eat, if you go hungry" is our philosophy.

In my opinion, Jesus was a liberal. Jesus fed the masses. He didn't ask them first what political party they belonged to. He didn't ask if they earned their keep for the day.

Jesus was my kind of guy.

He did not pass judgment on others or promote war. He believed in forgiveness and asking for forgiveness. He didn't threaten people to worship him with a sword in one hand and a rifle in the other. His style was teaching by example.

I don't think Jesus would have agreed to water-boarding, not the Jesus I read about.

Jesus would not have approved of abortion, but he also would not have killed an abortion doctor. He would also forgive a woman who had an abortion.

In my eyes, Jesus was a liberal, just like me and my dad.

Zee Zee Writer