In Genesis Chapter 2, a second and less familiar story of the creation of human beings is reported. According to this account, God took dust from the ground and formed a man. God then breathed life into the form and it became a living being. Later, God took a rib from the man’s side and formed a woman to be his helper.

In this creation myth, God also created all kinds of animals. He brought all the animals to the man and the man gave a name to every living creature.

God gave naming power to the man. The power of naming that is introduced in the story continues to exert itself in every generation. For the Israelites, even the heart of their religion was found in the name of their God. The name they gave God, Jehovah, became an essential part of their faith. The name of God and God were inseparable. In the life of a man and woman, no task is more exciting and important than the naming of their children. Names are crafted and chosen with great care. Once a name is given, the name sticks to a person like a tattoo. Names and things, names and people are joined together.

The power of naming can be used for good or can be used with perilous results. There are words of encouragement, and there are words of inhibition. Crafting words and assigning them to life is an essential part of playing the game of life.

The impetus for this column comes from my growing disgust of the use of labels that are being used in public discussions of politics and religion. I am speaking of words like liberal, conservative, moderate, progressive, leftist, right wing, evangelical and fundamentalist. These words are being used to strip from us our most thoughtful convictions and ideas.

I am especially irritated about being described as a liberal. I suspect that I acquired that label for two reasons. For the past 35 years I have been an advocate of full acceptance of gay people in the life of churches. I came to my convictions when I began to be aware of gay people and the parents of gay people in the church of which I was the pastor. I had gay friends and knew them quite well. Gay people were people of integrity and their behavior was not significantly different from the rest of us. I did my Bible study homework and was convinced that the Bible gave no specific instructions about excluding or condemning people who were homosexual. I found lots of Bible teaching about acceptance and inclusion in the kingdom of God. Why did my views earn me a new title? I was merely being a good, sensitive pastor who was trying to do good Bible study and interpretation.

My other conviction that earned me the liberal tag was my insistence that men and women be full partners in the life of the church. I am fully aware that Bible writings reflect and accept a patriarchal structure of society. I was willing to argue the patriarchal society was the context of the Bible messages and not a part of the truth of God. Once again, I did my homework and came to the conclusion that women should be full and equal partners in the life of the church. I have never understood why my convictions should earn me the liberal designation.

I was especially bewildered since during the years of developing convictions on these two subjects, I was an active member of the Republican party.

In my own experience, calling someone a liberal is a way of dismissing their ideas and disengaging from honest and meaningful discussion. A person can choose any label they like for themselves, but putting tags on others is not helpful.

Let me hasten to say that I have come to dislike words such as conservative, fundamentalist and right-wing with equal passion. In a healthy democratic society there should be widely differing opinions and vigorous debate. No one’s ideas and convictions should be dismissed by a label.

The latest entrant to the label game is progressive. People can embrace that tag for themselves if they like. People should feel free to call themselves progressive, but please do not place that tag on me. The people I know who want to describe themselves as progressives engage in long discussions without ever reaching a conclusion. Please do not call me a progressive, and I promise that I will not put that unfortunate label on you.

If labeling is an exercise that we insist on doing, is there a label that I could accept with some comfort? I have decided that I could accept the label “radical.”

I am an advocate of wholehearted living. Too many people die without ever living. I am an advocate of radical behavior. My love for wife, children, grandchildren, neighbors of all kinds should rightly be radical. I would be most happy to be known as a radical follower of Jesus from Nazareth. Radical. That’s a designation I can live with.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His e-mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.