Depending upon who you ask...

I am a liberal or I am a conservative. I once had a preacher tell me that depending on who was sitting at the table with me I could be either one. Romans 14.3 tells us not to have the ungodly attitude of dismissing our conservative brother as stupid or the ungodly attitude of condemning our liberal brother to hell. With this in mind most people will be offended or worse if those to the left of them on the liberal/conservative scale dismiss them as stupid while those on the right condemn them to hell. Neither attitude is godly. I find it interesting that those who are highly offended as their brother to the right of them condemns them to hell, will at the same time dismiss their condemning brother as stupid. Conversely those offended by being dismissed and even mocked by their brother to the left of them will at the same time condemn their dismissive brother to hell. How can I stand up for what I believe and proclaim the freedom of Christ without adopting one or both of these ungodly attitudes? Since to one degree or another we will always be misunderstood, misquoted or even lied about, which end of the spectrum will I choose? Will I be mischaracterized as a fundamentalist bound by legalism or will I be mischaracterized as someone who says that anything goes and our behaviors and choices won't condemn us no matter what we do? When I look at the example of Paul and his choice of message I do not find Paul ever accused of legalism, but many times accused of the "anything goes" form of religion. Paul addresses this in a very straight forward manner in Romans 3.8. So if I must choose between the mischaracterizations of being too merciful, lenient or lax on sin and being too legalistic, judgemental or condemning on sin, I think it makes the most sense biblically to fall behind the example of Paul and Jesus as being mischaracterized as too merciful rather than being thought of as too judgemental. Will someone mistake my position as condoning sin? People made that same mistake with Jesus and Paul. Anytime I can place my life example in the company of those two, not only does it benefit all those I come into contact with, but of course I will be in line to benefit the most.