Hello, my name is...

Ok, so i know it's been a while since i have blogged, but life just gets in the way of writing. However, i do make it a habit of checking up on other people's blogs, so i hope that someone somewhere will come back to mine:)

My campus minister (whose blog you can find linked to in my links section Twist of Faith) found this wonderful test on the web and i decided to take it. I think it is a wonderful quiz, although i am sure that it is scientifically flawed. However, it does kinda nail me pretty well. Here are my results (take it yourself off his blog link and post your resutls).

Emergent/Postmodern
96%
Classical Liberal
68%
Modern Liberal
68%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
43%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
43%
Roman Catholic
39%
Neo orthodox
39%
Reformed Evangelical
21%
Fundamentalist
0%

This got me thinking though. This got me thinking about the labels we place on people. In Div. School it was joked that I was the resident liberal. Although I wore the title with pride, i know that the label itself automatically turned people away from me. My opinion was very rarely asked for because most would assume that i would give a liberal answer. Yes it is true that i like to give an (as my friend leanne refers to me in her latest blog (golden child link) ) ATYPICAL answer. Why is that i wonder? IDK? a question to consider for another blog session! But really? Does that automatically make me a liberal?

Back to labels! why do we have labels. Especially in our Christian culture you HAVE to have a label. Another Christian will meet you and want to know are you a Fundamentalist, Conservitive, Moderate, Liberal, Calvinist, Arminian, Baptist, Catholic, Luthern, Seventh-day....
well, i think you see my flow here. Why are labels sooooooo important to people. Its interesting because when someone asks you to identify yourself, it is a test to see what kind of steriotype template can be laid upon you. It is also to see if you are part of the "CLUB" or not. If i answer with the label that that asker is seeking, then i am "in" and the person automatically thinks good things of me. However, if i do not guess the correct answer to the appropriate question, then onnly negitive assumtions are made.

What a terrible way to interact with people. As you could see from the test above, I am a little of each (with the exception of fundamentalist, but i am sure there is a margin of error). I DO NOT fit nice and neat into one catagory. If someone asks me if i am fundamentalist, moderate, or liberal, according to the test liberal would be the correct answer, but what does that really say about me? Am i classical liberal or modern liberal? I seem to be equally both. Does this make me 136% liberal? Actually, the proper label would be (again according to the test) emergent/postmodern... but that wasn't one of my options.

Why can't I just be me? Why must we wear labels? Why do we feel the need to label others? We've always done it throughout history. Jew vs. Gentile, Christian vs. Non-, Black vs. White, Male vs. Female...conservitive vs. liberal. Instead of asking me to label myself, why not let me buy you a cup of coffiee, we sit down like civililzed people, and REALLY get to know each other? Maybe we would see that no one truly can fit under one label!