Changing My Mind: Confessions of a Flip-Flopper

A couple weeks ago, a friend and I were having a conversation, and she said, "I think you and I agree on much less than we used to... but I think we still agree on the really important things... except, you seem to be a dang statist now." And then she laughed.

She and I went to the same university, where we both studied economics. More accurately, we studied Austrian Economics -- von Mises, Hayek, et al -- and she's right to notice that I'm less libertarian than I was when we first met. I wouldn't call myself a statist, but I now acknowledge the usefulness of government funding for some things other than police, things like roads and schools, and (most-unbelievable to my twenty-five-old-self) healthcare. 

In the intervening twenty years since I went to college, I came out to myself and to others as a gay man, got married to a liberal Catholic, went to a Quaker seminary (twice), learned about creative non-violence from SoulForce, moved to New Mexico to a town within a hundred miles of the border, opened a small business, joined the UCC and got ordained, met lots of people and listened to their stories, and became a hospice chaplain and listened to more stories. All of these experiences changed me, in dramatic and in subtle ways. All of these experiences taught me new ways of looking at the world, and new ways of thinking about theology and philosophy -- and economics.

I'm not the same person I was twenty years ago, or ten years ago, or eight years ago, or even five years ago. So why would I expect others to remain static? Why would I assume that the John McCain I voted for in 2000 (yes, I did) would be the same man I voted against in 2008? Why would I call Hillary Clinton a flip-flopper for supporting her husband's horrible record on gays in the late-1990s, and supporting marriage equality in 2015 (particularly when I made the same journey)? Why would I not embrace the journey of an evangelical like Tony Campolo, rather than bash him for coming around too late? 

SoulForce taught me to say (and believe) "my opponent is a victim of misinformation as I once was." As I once was. We are all victims of misinformation. I'm not the same person I was twenty years ago, and I'm not the same person I will be in twenty years. I am always taking in new information, and that new information changes my thinking. Knowing that, can I trust the people around me -- even politicians and preachers -- to do the same? I can, and I do.