Liberal Christians get nervous when outing themselves as Christians. They choose their words carefully, since often it occurs at a dinner party with their spiritual-but-not-religious friends.
With this crowd, the conversation can accelerate from sushi to spirituality in 5 seconds. That’s fast for a Liberal Christian. If you ask her whether she practices Buddhism or Kabbalism, you’ll catch her off-guard, and she’ll answer, “Christianity.” But then, apologetically, she’ll add, “But…I’m not one of those Christians.”
By “those Christians,” she means that she’s not about to tell you, ‘If you died tonight, and you’ve ever broken one of The Ten, you’ll go to hell for eternity, unless you say some magic words.’
In order to make the situation less awkward and the Liberal Christian feel comfortable, you should say, “Yeah, Jesus was a liberal…”