A Conversation About Being Independent

What is your opinion?

Hi, my friendly subscribers, both paid and free! If you are new, welcome! And, I would love to get your feedback!

I want to try something new for me. I want a healthy, fun conversation about being independent. It's a big part of who I am, as evident in the name of my column, "The Independent Evangelical.” I like to think for myself, and besides being flexible about living a balanced life, being independent in my thinking is at the core of my personality, that besides being a Christian. What I write here today will be short because I want you, the reader, to respond with your thoughts so we can have an ongoing conversation about this topic. Everyone can respond whether you are a paid subscriber or free one!

As you may know, I also write about politics a lot, so this conversation might venture into the political arena, but let's not get too bogged down in controversies. I want this to be friendly. Politically, I usually vote with the Democrats simply because I have to choose a party with almost all elections. My opinions match the Democrats lately more than with Republicans, so most of my vote goes to Democrats. However, I don't agree with Democrats on every subject and sometimes I'm frustrated with them. How about you? Do you have a preferred party you get frustrated with?

One big reason I don't want to take on a political label of any kind is because labels have a very real influence of their own, indirectly affecting opinions, once we accept the label. A label says something. It carries connotations, which subconsciously affect our decision making.

A huge way that party identity affects our opinions is through party loyalty. Identifying as a member of a particular party, quickly stirs up feelings of loyalty and, in fact, the parties demand loyalty quite frequently. Identifying with a party, brings an emotional effect of subconsciously encouraging a person to want to think like what is expected from that party. It's part of our biological heritage. That's what helped ancient communities to survive. "We are this tribe! We stick together! We fight together!" It's the "all for one and one for all" appeal that helps a group become powerful and cohesive. So that biological effect is important and valuable, but there are negative effects that I don't want for myself. I want to think for myself! Agreeing to a label seems to lessen my tendency to think for myself.

Let me give you an example of the power of party identity. Let's look at the issue of unions. I think some industries needed unions from the beginning. Many industries were using the people at the bottom to work hard and make a product with few benefits and lots of money for the owners. However, unions are set up in a way of encouraging workers to keep seeking more and more benefits for less and less work. As a personal example, both my husband and a good friend have seen some ridiculous union rules, limiting behaviors of workers within the union that have totally turned them off to some unions. However, we know that farm workers in California need unions desperately because the workers, especially women, are treated badly and paid little. So, many times unions are good and necessary, but not always. However, Democrats have practically made it into a religion. They have a buzz phrase, "stand in solidarity" which means "always vote with the union," along with the implication that if you are a real Democrat, you will always do so. I don't like those attempts to manipulate my opinion.

Actually, I will admit there is one label I give myself, that of Christian, but even then, I am constantly checking my definition of Christian and reviewing what I believe. I read the Bible. I listen to sermons, I read books and magazines about Christianity. I have many ideas of what it means to be a Christian from my heritage. So I accept the label, but I want to think about my faith with independence.

What is your take on all of this, especially the first part? Do you have a problem with labels, or do you think I'm over thinking this whole thing? I'll be reading all comments!