Conservative or Not?

Some devout Catholics refer to themselves as "conservatives", by which they mean they have some traditional opinions in regard to theology. The problem with this is that the term "conservative" technically refers to one's political views and not to his theological views. This has caused some misunderstandings, as well as it encourages people to blur the line between politics and theology. The term itself points to the fact that the person identifying himself in this way wants to "conserve" something. He does not want that thing to change, so he is a "conservative".

This can, loosely, be applied to theological things (but somewhat inaccurately). Thus a "theological conservative" would be someone who does not want theology to change. If you know anything about Catholicism you will recognize that this is something of a redundancy for the Catholic faith. The very point about Catholicism, which separates it from Orthodoxy and Protestantism, is that Catholic theology alone never changes. In fact, by that definition, every single Catholic (regardless of what they say) has to be a "conservative" because that is one of the basic tenets of the Catholic faith.

It should be obvious that the term "conservative" is not as clear as many claim. To add to the confusion, the most inflexible conservatives today do not necessarily hold to the same positions as those a generation ago. I even had a "conservative" try to explain to me that he was firm and devout, but he did not think it right to claim that all conservatives needed to resist abortion and hold to "archaic" views of marriage. Yeah, that is not the same definition of "conservative" as many people would hold today.

So then, are only good conservatives truly faithful? If you hold to that opinion, then you will greatly misunderstand what faithfulness is. Do you need to be a "conservative" in order to be a faithful Catholic (ignoring the fact that the Church does not take a position on most politics)? It should be obvious that the answer is "no"; at least by the modern fluid definition of "conservative". If you are strict, however, with the definition and recognize that Catholic = conservative because Catholic theology does not change with the times, then you absolutely have to be conservative. Our calling as the Church is to conserve the truth of Christ.