Some of the first posts I did on the press came directly from my book, Stark Raving Obedience. I put it in there partly because I felt self-conscious about starting a weblog and wanted to appear authoritative. Also, I figured if I was going to say things like "God said such-and-such to me", I should probably have an explanation of my reasoning behind that before people started writing me off as a mentally ill slacker.
One of those early posts came from the introduction of the book and talked about how my relationship with God paralleled my membership in the Rachel Leigh Cook Fan Club. I read all the material, knew all the work, went to fan club chats, wrote her fan mail, but I didn't really know her. We didn't have a relationship, even though I did all the stuff and knew all about her.
Yesterday, MorsIndutus (whom I may or may not know in real life) left a comment which reminded me of another fan club analogy. I joined the RLC fan club at the age of 19 because I got a celebrity crush after watching Josie and the Pussycats. That same year, I joined the Kiss Army because I watched Detroit Rock City with a few friends one night. At first, I think I did it because I wanted to be outrageous and make people think I was interesting. But then, at some point, I thought it might be cool to legitimately get involved in the Army.
If you're not in the Kiss Army, you're probably not aware that they do indeed promote you through the ranks based on a point system. I won't go into detail of what activities earned you how many points, but I will say that I worked on it for while. They start you out as a Kiss Army Recruit. After a few days of mild activity, you can reach the level of Kiss Army Private. I got there easily enough, but no one likes to walk away as anybody's private, so I felt determined to become a Corporal. I wanted to be able to tell people I was in the Kiss Army without sounding like a weekend warrior, so to speak. It sounded more genuine to say I'd been promoted twice.
But after I got that Corporal status, I didn't do anything, and I mean anything, with the Kiss Army. I did just enough to feel like I'd really been a part of things and then I let it go.
Again, like I said yesterday, I don't want to veer toward legalism. But I have paused to think about this.
Is the idea of "membership" so focused on me and what I get out of Christianity that I'm actually a follower of America's Biggest Religion instead of a Christian?
Or is it better to look at Christianity like ownership? Am I serving, contributing, giving, and sacrificing because Jesus has changed me? Does accepting Jesus include a responsibility for demonstrating my faith in Him?
If were to call myself a Christian because I've attended something, is that like telling people I'm a Corporal in the Kiss Army? Would I be fooling myself to say I'm a part of something when I've been inactive for nearly a decade? Is saving faith simply the recitation of a few certain words?
What do you think?
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3 comments:
I tend to take it back to the early church, the first Christians didn't call themselves "Christians" they were called that by other people. It was like the Romans were saying, "We killed that Jesus guy, and now there are all these little Christs running around." ("Christian" literally translates to "Little Christ") It's kind of like when the British were calling the colonists "Yankees" as an insult and we took it and ran with it.
I don't go out of my way to tell people I'm a Christian, I go out of my way to be kind to people, especially the ones who society says are weak and unworthy of love. Sometimes I do a very poor job of that, and I have to get over myself some more in order to love others more.
I think a lot of self-proclaimed Christians tend to be fans. Fans of their particular church or pastor, fans of their own idea of Jesus, or fans of certain doctrines rather than truly following Jesus' actual teachings. It reminds me of the couple of years I tried to be a Lions fan so I would have something in common with my sports-loving dad. Being a fan gives you all the feeling of belonging (We won! We won!) without actually having to do anything yourself. It doesn't change you at all, except to make you antagonistic towards people of other teams. - Matthew (Glenn)
I can certainly understand that mindset. But I think I'm trying to hone down what it means to be called a Christian. Is it genuine part of who they are, or something they think they inherit? Your dad was a Lions fan, but you weren't born a Lions fan. And even if he made you watch every game every week, you might have been trained to like the Lions, but never really care about them.
So then what would it mean if someone asked if you liked football and you said, "Well, I was raised a Lions fan"? It would be misleading. That's what I'm trying to get at with these posts.
I don't mean to take on the question of whether or not it's a good idea to call ourselves Christians even if we do believe in Jesus. That's another topic. However, if you do believe in Jesus, I don't see any reason to avoid associating yourself with his name.
Let me see if you could accept this. If you didn't want to be associated with bad Christians, then continue to do good and still take on the name. That way, people have a harder time making blanket statements about Christians because they think, "Well, Matt's not like that".
I can accept that. I do believe in Jesus. At my worst, I wouldn't hesitate to tell people I was a follower of Christ, I just avoided the word "Christian". (Okay, for a few weeks I considered myself a Taoist, following the "Way of Yeshua", but I don't think I actually TOLD anyone that.) It was more to do with semantics than intent, though I think there is often a large gap between "Being a Christian" and "Following Christ."
Really though, I think for many Christians, Christianity isn't something to do, it's something to simply agree with. They neither get anything out of it (selfishly or otherwise), nor do they contribute in any way.
They go to church and agree with statements their pastors say instead of truly believing them, because agreeing with the right things gives them that warm squishy feeling inside. You can agree with everything someone says and still not let it change you.
For a lot of young Christians especially, Church isn't someplace they go to be transformed, it's someplace they go to socialize with like-minded individuals, hear a bunch of stuff they already know and agree with, and then go home. It has no bearing on their life outside of church. It might as well be the KISS army. Then, once they are old enough that their parents can't force them to go to church, they skip a few times, find out their lives are no different without it (aside from being able to sleep in on Sundays) and they stop going. A new Raised Christian is born.
If asked, they'd probably still agree with most of what their increasingly former church says, even still consider themselves Christians, but it won't have made a difference.
Getting back to your actual post, I'd have to say being a Christian for what you personally get out of it doesn't really work. If that's all there is to it you can get better service from a country-club.
It is far better to put Christ on display by serving others from a sense of love and genuine caring stemming from the understanding that God loves people and so should we. But genuine is REALLY, REALLY hard. There's the constant worry that you're not genuinely loving them, that you're faking it. I think it's because we've been conditioned to think that Love is a feeling, and if we're showing kindness to someone but we don't feel like we're loving them, it's somehow less real. Love is a choice to put someone else's needs and desires above our own, it's sometimes a very difficult choice to make but it's the truest form of Christianity. We show our love for God by loving the least of these.
Yes, I TOTALLY agree with that statement.
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