Thoughts On Various Profound and Unprofound Topics
Jesus never publicly declared who he was, and never gave any direct formulaic argument on his relation to God, or other apologetic discourse. Instead he said that his actions told who he was and all his teachings had to do with how we treat other people. Therefore, if we try to convince people with apologetics, or try to make a case for Christ, etc are we committing a sin? We aren't following the example of Jesus who we're supposed to be imitating nor following his teaching of letting our good works be seen by men that they might glorify our father in heaven. I find it interesting that we use the teaching of salt and light, being a city on a hill and those other images to teach that we should be "witnesses." In reality, those teachings are purely ethical; they were meant to encourage us to righteousness (deeds) not formulaic arguments on who Christ is or the four spiritual laws as a way to eternal life.
I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with the label of Christian for myself. There's just too much baggage with it (both personally and within society). So I offer the new non-threatening label: Puppy Pals of Jesus... of course, if your allergic to dogs that might have it's own baggage.
Seriously, as far as labels go here's my new one for me: Existential Christ Following Humanist.
The first season of 24 has too many plot holes, are they covered in the next season or just dropped? If they just leave them, I don't know if I really like the show, too sloppily written...also too many camera men were seen on camera, aren't they supposed to be behind the camera?
Do people make gay jokes because they're uncomfortable with their own sexuality? Is it really that scary that you have to demean the people by making them a by-word for something bad? That's so hetero!
Brice, you should just give up on MSN and start over on blogspot. Come to the new evil empire: Google! I use their search engine, blog, calendar and e-mail. I no longer have a soul, but I'm very organized (not to mention addicted to Google Earth).
Labels:
Church,
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10 comments:
I also like Heaven's Bunny Ambassadors. Bunnies are very non-threatening.
Welcome to the dark side! BwaHaHaHa!
Good choice on the name, the blog not the username. My masculinity is threatened by that name. But the fall down go boom part--classic.
"Existential Christ Following Humanist."
can I use that when I go back to school?
I made a commitment last year that if asked if I were a christian my answer would be 'no'...but I have had no clue how to 'label' myself since.
the only thing that sucks is that now all the fundigelicals are trying to convert me...I tell myself it is Karma from when I used to do the same thing to other people and I just need to take my medicine like a woman and be done with it...but I still want to hit them. (it's one of the few times my pasifisum is taxed)
A comment from a friend of mine who also works in a christian bookstore: "I realize that evangelicalisum is not about evangelisum when I work in a christian bookstore and never see a new face in the crowd"
It's all yours!
Because of the whole Christ following thing I tend to answer that I am a Christian. And even in the first draft of the label it was an Existential Christian Humanist, but that word has baggage, not just for others, but me as well.
By accepting the label Christian, I'm putting myself into a tradition of murder, wars, riots bigotry and just plain idiocy all done in the name of Christ. I believe all of these to be antithetical to the teachings of Jesus, so the question is do I want to adopt that tradition that so bastardizes his teachings? Not really. But I still want to be connected to Jesus and his teachings, my goal is still to follow his example, so I kept Christ following.
In my opinion, you should allow other people to change your language, because it is the loving thing to do. Is it more loving and mature to make it harder for people to relate to you (and then to Christ) because you are insensitive to what your words mean and the effects they have on other people? Or is it more loving and mature to consider where people are at and choose your language accordingly? I choose the latter.
p.s. I'm not saying that people should not label themselves Christian if that's what resonates with them, if that's how they want to identify themselves. I am saying that, personally, I have problems with it, many of my friends have problems with it, so maybe I should find some other way to say who I am.
I would love to lose labels all together! People are certainly complex and by nature defy labelling. That being said, I am finding that if I say, "At this point in time, I am X," it offers me a bit of stability, and helps people around me too. Too most of my friends I'm very enigmatic. Not quite Jewish, because I haven't converted, but can argue Torah with the best of them. I'm not quite Christian because I love Judaism, the Rabbis, and tend to be quite liberal in some of my theologies. So I get the, "What the heck are you???" question a lot. I guess I could answer, "I'm me" but that tends to be less helpful...:)
I am Christian, Christian, Christian!!!! I'm not giving up the label. Instead I'm going to make it my life's work to make sure hateful freaks who call themselves Christians are re-labeled as . . . well, I'm still working on the name. But it definitely won't have bunnies or puppies in it. Probably more like Haters of All Things Good and Loving Who Like To Label Others As Evil But Too Bad For Them Because I'm Rubber and You're Glue And Everything You Say Bounces Off Of Me And Sticks To You.
Do you think that's too long?
Am I labeling other people while I complain about being labeled? Ugh, that's so hetero!
I gave it some more thought, and 'christ follower' doesn't fully ressonate. So I'm going with 'Existential Trinitarian Humanist'
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