Is my dad really that conservative?

[BobRyan]

I grew up thinking my family were conservative Christians. My parents voted Republican.

That said, my parents didn't go to church much, especially as I got older. Their Bible studies and viewpoints were largely their own, not bound to any particular tradition or teachers. I remember they especially got into End Times speculations.

My mom passed away in 2018, so only my dad is still alive. He still votes Republican and is a Trump guy, but other than that, I wonder how conservative he really is. He never speaks on moral issues like abortion, homosexuality, Hollywood, etc. When I've asked him about this, he says, "it's just not in me." He's a very light-hearted guy who likes to only look at the optimistic, fun, creative, and spontaneous, expressive, enthusiastic sides of life, and he's only gotten increasingly this way as he's gotten older (he's 68).

He sounds like a lot of average people. He is politically conservative-ish but he is not a committed Christian (by their fruits you shall know them Matt 7). I am in his age group and can tell you that I have gotten increasingly more focused on Christ and the gospel over the years.

Please pray for your dad.

One of his life mottoes is, ignorance is bliss, and I'm a pretty happy guy.

The good news is that he is not drawn to the anger/rage/outrage side of politics (on the right or the left) - but the Bible says Jesus is "the way the truth and the life" John 14 - we know from 2 Thess 2 that having "a LOVE of the truth" (not merely a few ounces from decades ago) a life or death issue (spiritually speaking).

But everyone has free will - pray that God will work with him and if there is a way for you to help him embrace the New Birth - God will tell you what it is.

He doesn't go around trying to argue people into his viewpoints. He doesn't post about evolution, critical race theory, women's roles, any of that stuff conservative men usually get into.

understood. I do post on some of those issues - and affirm the Bible in those cases rather than popular opinion. As you may suspect the Bible is seldom popular because as 2 Cor 4:4 Satan is the "god of this world". So we can expect that.

Essentially, he just believes people should be loving, not judging, and that we should dream big dreams and have lots of fun while being generous and giving in the process. He believes Jesus is his Savior, and that Jesus is the Only Way, and that He likely is coming back soon (maybe 2028?), but that's about the depth of his conviction.

In Matt 7 Jesus said "many will say to Me in that day 'Lord Lord' - and I will say to them depart from me" ... that is the "by their fruits you shall know them" chapter again.

He thinks people can be saved after they die, so he doesn't really evangelize

doctrinal beliefs have consequences, as you see in that case. It matters if know and believe what the Bible teaches or not, and your example of how it affected him in that case demonstrates it.

I just ask this because, having seen how other conservative men believe and act, he seems so different. It doesn't surprise me anymore why he's never been big into church. Conservative men are usually much more serious, organized, cautious, and less happily emotional than my dad is. It seems that, despite loving Trump and voting Republican, my dad isn't that conservative

ok - but I have to tell you I am also a very happy conservative. Jesus said "in this world you have trouble , be of good courage I have overcome the world". We can keep our eyes on Jesus and we an see the loving hand of God moving all around us. Jesus said we should trust and follow Him "so that your joy may be full".

, and it's often made it hard for me to engage in church,

You started with " my parents didn't go to church much, especially as I got older. Their Bible studies and viewpoints were largely their own" - and you have shown in your parents pattern did not provide good results. Choose a different one.

Study the Bible to see what it really teaches about the gospel, the second coming, the time in which we live, what happens when you die, how salvation works, what God has done to warn us from being taken in by what Paul calls "the god of this world".

 

[BobRyan]

Yes, one of the biggest shocks when I got out of the shell of my family and started socializing more with other very conservative Christians, were these homeschool Reformed groups that were into guys like Doug Phillips, Doug Wilson, Bill Gothard, and RJ Rushdoony. Theonomy, ultraconservatism, patriarchal type stuff. It doesn't get much more hyperconservative than those sorts. I ran into these kinds of people online a little over a decade ago, and it was definitely different from anything I was ever taught.

We homeschooled our children through high school. They got scholarships to enter the university and graduated with degrees in Computer Science. But we did not get into the type of things listed above. We stay with the whole Bible, the Gospel, sola-scriptura testing all of doctrine and practice.

 

[OldAbramBrown]

He thinks people can be saved after they die, so he doesn't really evangelize

Not everybody is an evangeliser (I'm not either), but their general prayers support that effort. His church or churches (like most other churches) probably never taught distinctly about the gifts or anything.

 

[simplewoodencross]

I grew up thinking my family were conservative Christians. My parents voted Republican.

That said, my parents didn't go to church much, especially as I got older. Their Bible studies and viewpoints were largely their own, not bound to any particular tradition or teachers. I remember they especially got into End Times speculations.

My mom passed away in 2018, so only my dad is still alive. He still votes Republican and is a Trump guy, but other than that, I wonder how conservative he really is. He never speaks on moral issues like abortion, homosexuality, Hollywood, etc. When I've asked him about this, he says, "it's just not in me." He's a very light-hearted guy who likes to only look at the optimistic, fun, creative, and spontaneous, expressive, enthusiastic sides of life, and he's only gotten increasingly this way as he's gotten older (he's 68).

Theologically, his only really conservative view is that Jesus is the only Way. He's also big on giving to people in need. He cites the passage in Matthew frequently where Jesus talks about giving to the least of these.

But as far as morals, politics, and even most theological views, he doesn't go deep into them. One of his life mottoes is, ignorance is bliss, and I'm a pretty happy guy. He doesn't go around trying to argue people into his viewpoints. He doesn't post about evolution, critical race theory, women's roles, any of that stuff conservative men usually get into.

Essentially, he just believes people should be loving, not judging, and that we should dream big dreams and have lots of fun while being generous and giving in the process. He believes Jesus is his Savior, and that Jesus is the Only Way, and that He likely is coming back soon (maybe 2028?), but that's about the depth of his conviction. He thinks people can be saved after they die, so he doesn't really evangelize, and thought it was totally fine for me to marry an unbeliever.

I just ask this because, having seen how other conservative men believe and act, he seems so different. It doesn't surprise me anymore why he's never been big into church. Conservative men are usually much more serious, organized, cautious, and less happily emotional than my dad is. It seems that, despite loving Trump and voting Republican, my dad isn't that conservative, and it's often made it hard for me to engage in church, because they have a hard time understanding why he is the way he is.

Your Dad sounds like a wonderful guy. I could use some of that mindset and optimism.

 

[Simon_Templar]

These days, you'd have to first define what "conservative" means.

G.K. Chesterton once defined conservative and liberal this way...

The whole modern world has divided itself up into camps called conservative and liberal. The job of the liberals is to go on making mistakes, and the job of the conservatives is to make sure the mistakes never get fixed.

This has proven to be a very accurate view in the historical sense. "Conservative" has, in practice, generally meant people who want to enshrine their own conception of how the world was in "the good old days". This means that conservative in practice doesn't mean any real clear principle or really coherent set of values, so much as it is a kind of nostalgia.

There was a time when I believed that conservatism was (or ought to be) defined by an intellectual tradition of the west, as outlined in books like "The Conservative Mind" by Russel Kirk, or "Ideas Have Consequences" by Richard Weaver.

I have come to the opinion that this really ought to be called something other than "conservative" because that term more accurately describes simply people who want to avoid change that upsets the comfort of their life.

Often times the things "conservatives" value in practice are things that were viewed with suspicion, or actively opposed by the conservatives of the past.