On words we use to label each others' values

A recent post on blog by a local parish minister (http://roydonkin.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-have-faith.html) suggests that true Christians must have faith that a better future is possible, and so they would be more likely to be liberals than conservatives. Unsurprisingly, the Republican readers of the blog were unhappy with this observation.

Labels like "liberal" and "conservative" are dangerous because they are often misleading. We have diminished the information content of the words we use when talking about important issues to the point where they often seem useless.
Take a word like "liberal". In this country, it has come to be associated with whatever the policies of the Democratic party are at the moment. Or as a milder word for "socialist". But it used to mean "someone who is in favor of increased freedom" of any kind. In Europe, it currently is used about center-right parties, which are in favor of free trade and an easier regulatory environment for businesses. For that reason, I try to avoid it whenever possible, preferring to say "progressive" which is generally agreed to denote mildly socialist leanings. I would like to see liberal regain the original meaning, which would mean that is would be best applied to Libertarians.
In the same way, the word "conservative" has come to mean "against socialism", where it used to mean "someone who wants to preserve the old ways", which would include conservationists. In my eyes, the "TEA Party" is not "conserving old values", it is a radical right-wing movement.
Finally, I have seen so many different value systems described as "Christian values", that I do not know what that means. Certainly, the early Christians lived in a socialist commune (see Acts 2:41-47, Acts 4:32-35, Acts 5:1-10).