The labels “progressive” and “conservative” are used quite frequently in my particular political and cultural context in the United States, and a lot of individuals take pride in calling themselves one or the other. To those on the left wing of the political spectrum in the United States, “progressive” is almost synonymous with good while “conservative” is the equivalent of evil. For those on the right wing of the political spectrum, the opposite is true.

When I was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary in the first years of the 1990s, I had a friend who was studying to become a pastor and at the same time trying to build a business back in his home state of Florida. At least once every couple of weeks he would take a long road trip and drive from Dallas to Central Florida to deal with business issues. He would then drive back to Dallas in time for his next class. This was a 16 hour drive each way, and I’m not sure how either he or his car held up as long as they did.

On one of these return trips, he stopped at a gas station along westbound Interstate 10 in the middle of the night and the middle of nowhere. After filling his tank, he got on the entrance ramp to get back on the highway. Because he was tired and it was dark, he mistakenly got on the highway headed back east in the direction of Florida. He did not realize this for some time, and when he did, he had to keep driving several miles to the next exit in order to make a U-turn.

My friend’s goal was to reach Dallas. When he inadvertently began driving toward Florida after filling his tank with gas, was he moving forward? Yes. Was he making progress toward his goal? No. My point is this. Progress is defined by your goal or destination, not merely by forward motion. If you are heading in the wrong direction you are not making progress.

The labels “progressive” and “conservative” are used quite frequently in my particular political and cultural context in the United States, and a lot of individuals take pride in calling themselves one or the other. To those on the left wing of the political spectrum in the United States, “progressive” is almost synonymous with good while “conservative” is the equivalent of evil. For those on the right wing of the political spectrum, the opposite is true.

But, as my friend’s cross-country driving adventure illustrates, one is not making “progress” if he is heading in the wrong direction. If you have taken a wrong turn somewhere, the “progressive” thing to do is to turn around and head back to where the wrong turn was made. Similarly, to be “conservative” is a good thing only if what you are conserving is good. If you are driving in the wrong direction, “conserving” your current compass heading is not a good thing.

The labels “progressive” and “conservative” are merely two of many labels that exist in our culture, and people in our culture have become enamored of such labels as a means of self-identification and enemy identification. Few, however, stop to consider what those labels actually mean. As a result of this thoughtlessness, these labels usually accomplish little more than knee-jerk emotional responses on various social media sites. The labels become similar to wearing the colors of one’s favorite sports team, and as with support of one’s favorite team, it’s all or nothing. The self-identified “progressive” feels bad if he concedes that anything in the existing order is worth preserving, and the self-identified “conservative” feels bad if he concedes that anything in the existing order ought to change.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on keithmathison.org—however, the link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]