In which I start to rant

I have been wrestling with an idea. This will be the first elucidation of this idea, in which I define what I mean when I say that I'm a Christian. In the interim, I've been doing a bit of reading. I've read Unchristian, and GK Chesterton's Orthodoxy, both of which I highly recommend. Unchristian makes an interesting point. The book was put together by the Barna Group, who do market research for christian organizations, allowing them to taylor their approach to the population they're reaching. I've read other things as well, and when I next make it tot he library, I will be picking up Jeff Sharlet's book on "The Family", a purportedly christian organization, which believes that the ultimate expression of God is political power, not Love.

I am not comfortable with much of what has been done by "christians" or in the name of Jesus, who is Christ. Many of my generation have chosen to manage this by calling themselves, "Christ-Followers". This is a perfectly understandable choice, but not one the one that I make. If you are a Christ-Follower, I wish you all the best. However, I will continue to call myself a Christian, hoping to redeem, through a life well lived, that very old title.

Christian, is a fairly old term. Not as old as Israelite, which dates to God renaming Jacob Israel. Christian dates to the early Christian church. Acts 11:26c "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." Christian has been around since the early church set up shop in the city of Antioch. That places Christian at 1900 (+/- 50) years old. This is a very old name, one that I'm rather proud of. However, Christian is also a name which has been used to justify terrible things. Christianity has been used as the justification for the crusades, for the inquisition, for the cleansing of Jews from Europe during the middle ages, and all manner of other injustices. Here in the United States, Christianity was the reason for forcing the Native Americans to convert, and from time to time, raising their children in a Christian atmosphere was the justification for stealing children from their parents. Today, Christianity is the justification for saying terrible things to homosexuals.

I do not see that these things are in line with scripture. I find nowhere in the New Testament in which God encourages his people to take up arms against another nation. In fact, Paul writes that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spirit. Jesus says to Pilot that his kingdom is not of this world. Throughout history, it seems that christianity has been co-opted by men intent not on things of the spirit, but on gains of the flesh. Men interested in increasing their own wealth, stature, or political power, have used the name of the church, the image of Jesus, and the word Christianity as a rallying cry, and a cover. I do not find this behavior to be in line with Jesus teachings. I do not find this to be in line with scripture.

There are two verses which I have found to be good guides to my walk with God, and I now share them with you.

From the Old Testament: Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

From the New Testament: James 1:22 "Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Now, I have no illusion that on any given day, I manage to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. I call days when I get one of those right, "good" and days when I get two right, "GREAT". I haven't yet managed to get all three right on the same day, so I will have to continue to rely on God's grace. In later posts, I'll go further into what it means to keep from being polluted by the world. As I look at the activities of the "christians" who seem to take up so much time on television, I keep going back to these two verses, asking, "In what way is this person interested in Justice, Mercy, Humility, and God?" or, "How is this person caring for the least and the downtrodden among us?" Though I don't get these things right on a regular basis, I am working to live them out, which is as much as I can do for the present time. I believe that this is the basis of being a Christian. This is what I want associated with the name Christian. That's what I'm working toward.