(OK.  I'll have a couple of posts on Steve Jobs today.  Please forgive this Apple fanboy.)

This quote below caught my eye. And, frankly, it's not because it's a critique of Fox News.  It's because it gives an alternative to the Liberal/Conservative framework that shapes so much of our dialogue.

This is a conversation Steve Jobs had with Rupert Murdoch.  It's found at Poynter:

“You’re blowing it with Fox News,” Jobs told him over dinner. “The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive-destructive, and you’ve cast your lot with the destructive people. Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society. You can be better, and this is going to be your legacy if you’re not careful.” Jobs said he thought Murdoch did not really like how far Fox had gone. “Rupert’s a builder, not a tearer-downer,” he said. “I’ve had some meetings with James, and I think he agrees with me. I can just tell.”

Murdoch later said he was used to people like Jobs complaining about Fox. “He’s got sort of a left-wing view on this,” he said.

I love that quote, "The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive-destructive."

I don't view this as a left-wing perspective.

I don't take Jobs to mean that liberal=constructive and conservative=destructive.  I could be wrong, but my assumption is that those who find them politically (or religiously?) liberal could either build up or tear down, using their words or positions to collaborate or rip each other apart.  And, I assume, the same goes for those who consider themselves conservative.

That's a great way of looking at the world and I can hear Paul preaching to us from 1 Corinthians 8:1:

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

So, can we reach across political divides of liberal and conservative as long as we're trying to build up each other, our community, our country?

I have been accused of being both liberal and conservative and consider that kind of a badge of honor.  But more than those designations, I pray that I am perceived as one who supports and nurtures and cares and heals and forges relationships between folks.  I hope I'm among the "constructive."