I am a misfit.
More to the point, I'm a misfit Christian. I often feel like Diogenes, only instead of seeking an honest man, I am seeking a vibrant, living faith.
While I am prone to judge, time has taught me that we are all imperfect in our beliefs and theologies, and I am loathe to cast undue judgement on someone else's beliefs without extensive Biblical support.
I am adamantly prolife. To me, that means, anti-war, anti-death penalty, anti-abortion, anti-poverty. That being said, I realize that 1) sometimes there are hard situations that must be dealt with, and 2 of the 4 are virtually unavoidable as the "lesser of two evils", and 2) poverty is more a condition of the heart than of the pocketbook, and responsibility must be preached to the poor as much as to the rich.
I am a fervent libertarian. I believe the government exists to create and orderly society and protect her borders, and beyond that, should, frankly butt out. The idea of making individuals slaves to the state is not consistent with the founding fathers, nor the concept of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". I do not indulge in many of the things I would prefer to see legalized or decriminalized, but I question the validity and effectiveness of a totalitarian society.
I am a born again conservative Christian and a liberation theologian. Those two positions are often considered incompatible, but the position of liberation theology ("we are not free until the least of us are free") is consistent with the teachings of Christ ("whatever you have done to the least of these, this you have done unto me...whatever you have not done to the least of these, this you have not done unto me").
As a longtime misfit, I have slowly come to grips with the role. Following the death of a close friend, I had been reading the biography of Rich Mullins (another misfit Christian), and, subsequently, Brennan Manning's "The Ragamuffin Gospel". While the latter contains theological errors, it does present a very valid Christian position to a hurting world.
My contentment with being a misfit, however, dd not come about until the last year or so. I was reading a book on nailless constructions for cabins, and read a piece where it instructs you how to make square pegs for the construction. In nailless construction, it seems...they don't use round pegs. Round pegs will come out and the integrity of the entire structure is compromised. Instead, they use square pegs, because square pegs will not slip.
So, a square peg in a round hole, is, essentially a misfit with a vital purpose: that of holding a structure together.
Knowing that, I am pleased to be a misfit.
signing off,
Gideon MacLeish