To be, or not to be... a Christian?

A response to a post from a friend.

I'm writing this post as a knee-jerk response to a beautifully written post by my friend Simon Hall, in which he debates the question many of us may be asking ourselves today: Following the election of Donald Trump, with the well reported support of many who call themselves 'Christians', can those of us who are inspired by Jesus but utterly reject the notion of America living out a manifest destiny supposedly given it by God still call ourselves 'Christian'?

Following a comprehensive introduction which I can do no better than suggest you read here, Simon sets out his argument for retaining the title 'Christian', and I respect his choice. Do I agree? We'll come to that in due course.

I begin my argument with the recognition that the title 'Christian' was given to followers of Jesus by others. We read in Acts 11 that "the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch". Today branding is everything, but Jesus never suggested a label he wanted his followers to adopt. The assumption in the early days was that his disciples would carry on worshipping in the Temple and their synagogues, which of course was exactly what happened. They were Jews, and had no need to define themselves differently.

Except that this wasn't quite correct. Whilst still turning up at places of Jewish worship, those who were seeking to model themselves on Jesus' distinctive teachings did call themselves 'followers of The Way' which I take to denote a new stream within God's chosen people. They were first named those of The Way in Acts 9, and again by Paul in Acts 22 and 24, which suggests to me that the term 'Christian' hadn't yet stuck. In Acts 24 Paul also refers twice to them as a Jewish sect which affirms my point above.

All this really means is that what we call ourselves doesn't really matter. Except that it does. Simon rightly mentions that Christian can be a way of referring to the existence of 'little Christs', and if this was the way the term was understood today I would not be writing this post. In a previous blog post I wrote:

If you are bold enough to allow someone to be a mentor and a guide it seems to me that a minimum requirement is to take what they say and do seriously. The very word 'Christian' implies someone is in the camp of 'Christ', and yet most of us take the majority of our theology from [misunderstanding] Paul.

Thinking again, maybe Christianity is named rightly since 'Christ' is not a name but a title. It means 'Messiah' or 'Saviour'. So maybe in calling ourselves Christians we are just being honest: yes to being Messiahed, but no to the call to follow Jesus.

Which brings me to my point of departure from the conclusion reached by my good friend who writes of his own ambition to one day be seen by others as a 'Little Christ'. From this day forward I refuse to use the label 'Christian', and maybe for the same reason Simon retains it.

People use labels for many reasons, one of which is to place people or things in groups. Early followers of Jesus gave a different name to themselves whilst they saw themselves as a subset of a larger group of people. I'm really not sure I can any longer say the same of myself.

If you are a follower of Jesus I don't care what you call me. But if you are not I don't want to give you a reason for not looking more closely at my life. Nearly everyone I am connected to has, at best, an ambivalent relationship with organised religion. It is my judgement that, to them at least, the label that no longer seems to define me represents all the things they no longer trust. So, in solidarity with those who have been damaged by people in positions of power who define themselves as Christians, I no longer wish to use it.

I am imperfect in so many ways, I am a hypocrite. I am weak and willing to admit it. But I am trying to live my life according to what I believe to be godly wisdom embodied by Jesus. The term 'Christian' has come to represent almost nothing I live for. It has become a cultural denotation which has nothing to do with Jesus.

Simon wishes to become a Little Christ. I want my life to look like Jesus. There is absolutely no difference between the two sentences, and because we are friends we are on a journey to achieving our goal together. And for that reason alone I am thankful today.

Free image credit: Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay