Is there any remark in the entire lexicon of the English language that rolls off the tongue more easily? So why is it so hard to say that these days without adding the obligatory qualifying remark?
The thing is that these days confessing your belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour (because that is what the Christian faith is really all about) has all kinds of weird connotations. To the average person, this must mean that you hate gay people for example, and that you are most likely a card-carrying Republican.
Nothing, at least in my mind, could be further from the truth.
Perhaps I'm a bit naive, but I simply cannot understand how things got so convoluted. The last time I checked, Jesus Christ was the guy who championed things like feeding the poor and healing the sick. Sounds like a pretty damn good Democrat to me. So why is it that when I say that I consider myself a Christian, these days I feel so compelled to qualify this? Why is confessing your faith considered so politically incorrect?
Just the other night, I felt such a compulsion for this sort of qualification of my faith. I was out with some friends at a bar after work (and yes, we Christians have been known to enjoy a beer or two), when the subject of religion came up. I found myself, without even thinking, acting in a defensive sort of manner by qualifying my Christianity by saying that I was a "liberal Christian."
So what does that exactly mean?
All I know is this. As a young boy, I became concerned with whatever events were supposed to lead to the end of the world. Don't ask me why. I just did. So I turned to the Bible to try to sort it all out. What I found, reading through the prophetic books of Revelation and Daniel, was that there would be a time in our not too distant future where every man would be called to account for his life. And that the world would be controlled by a one-world government headed up by a really nasty character called the Antichrist.
Article comments
1 - daryl d
There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with being a Christian. It's the extremists that have given Christianity a bad name. I even cringe when somebody tells me they are Christian, but have to bring myself not to judge them, unless they give me a reason to.
Why don't regular Christians speak up more about how their religion is being tainted by a very vocal minority of people? I never see them stand up for themselves. I see a lot of catholics stand up and say, "I don't agree with the church."
2 - Glen Boyd
I wrote this article basically on the spur of the moment, and to be perfectly honest I'm not even sure I made the point I was trying to. Your right. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a Christian, and a majority of the people in this country still claim to be exactly that.
What bothers me is that this same small minority you describe has so completely co-opted the word "Christian" that many people have difficulty seperating the label from the reality. Voting for Republican candidates for example is not a pre-requisite for being Christian. It just bothers me that the label of "Christian" seems to be solely defined by that minority. Which means that I find myself explaining (and "qualifying") my faith a lot more often than I would like.
You'd honestly be surprised how often I get the "but how can you be Christian when you are so liberal" question.
To me theres no dichotomy there whatsoever. It's that whole feed the poor and heal the sick thing.
Appreciate the comment.
-Glen
3 - Bob
You say that "cynical politicians cleave to" the prediction of Apocalyptic End Times "to justify things like denying the least fortunate amongst us the right just to carve out something resembling a meaningful life."
Who is stopping you carving out something resembling a meaningful life, on the basis that you have Apocalyptic End Time beliefs?
Regarding your opinion that a time "when the world would be controlled by a one-world government headed up by a really nasty character called the Antichrist" is "imminent", it is interesting that you mention this in the context of trying to *dissuade* people from the view that you are a fundamentalist or right-wing kind of Christian.
Maybe it's just a cultural misreading (not being from the US as I suspect you are), but frankly I think that this kind of "out there" belief in the End Times is just as peculiar, and potentially damaging, as the illiberal Christian views you mention. The fact that you presumably defend this kind of End Time prophecy on the basis of a Biblical faith doesn't to my mind make it any the less "out there".
People have continuously used the Bible to predict that the End Times were "imminent" since the scriptures were first set out; all the way through the Middle Ages and right up to the present, the Anti-Christ has always been just around the corner. Monks in Dark Aged monasteries looked at the (continually) worsening political situation as constant evidence, seeing signs of the Anti-Christ in Roman Emperors, then Popes and other European figureheads that they didn't like... Even Jesus is quoted as saying that the Apocalypse would come within the lifetime of his disciples!
All I'm saying here is that, although I'm sure you don't hate gays and you do vote Democrat and you are a "liberal Christian" as you say, literal belief in End Time prophecies is still, from my perspective, a belief which exposes little sense of an historical perspective; it's also a belief which has such dire potential political consequences that it should receive the same kind of scorn that I might heap on someone who uses the Bible to justify being anti-gay.
4 - Jordan Peacock
A book I would highly recommend for any "Christian" disturbed with "Christianity" is Jacques Ellul's The Subversion of Christianity.
Make no mistake; Christ was counter-cultural, and subversive, and not in the tame sense that we typically see today. He was not an ideologist, attempting to replace monarchy with democracy, socialism with capitalism, or grant slaves freedom or women suffrage.
Christ took things a step further; treat the slave as free, treat the woman as a woman, a person of value. Love children. Be wise and wary of financial gain. Be wise and wary of all authority. Early Christians were persecuted because they severely threatened the status quo, and undermined Jewish and then Roman society.
The arguments I have been hearing since I came to the states (first all this God is Republican bull, followed by the God is Democrat bull) are caught in the trappings of a religiosity that is anything but the freedom that Christ gives. Throw off those shackles.
Let us continue this subversive revolution; treat the poor as though they are already rich; the rich as though they are poor. The powerful as though they are weak, the sick as though they are healed, the downtrodden as though they were lifted up, and love our enemies.
This behavior will shake all foundations, and will undermine not only this government, but the next and the next. It will bring down not only this religion, but all religions. It will subvert culture, and challenge society.
Let us live with faith, as though what is not, is. The revolution is here, and it is us.
5 - Glen Boyd
Some interesting responses here but I guess I should have expected that given the subject matter. Jordan, that does sound like a very interesting book which I'll have to check out.
Bob, the thing about believing in a literal, prophesied "end times,' one which is even perhaps imminent, is that I am well aware of the historical precedent for such belief, as well as those who ended up with egg on their face because of "date-setting" that proved wrong in the past (my own father is a Jehovahs Witness and I have neighbors who are 7th Day Adventists okay?).
The number one "sign" if you will that makes the present time unique is the rebirth of Isreal as a nation, one which is prophesied to be a "trembling cup among the nations." If you look at the news today, you tell me what is the number one spot on Earth as far as being a flashpoint for this type of trouble. What is the one place on earth that world leaders find themselves in a mad scramble to hammer out a solution to? The last time I checked it wasn't a "Central American Peace Process" that has the worlds attention.
That alone is reason enough in my "rational mind" to believe that there might just be something to this apocalypse stuff. Beyond that -- and maybe this is less of a rational way to reason this -- but there is just that general sort of "psychic" feeling in the air. The world just feels like this shift has taken place where everything feels more "imminent" in general. Things like Katrina and the Asian tsunami just have such a "biblical" sort of feel about them. Plus the way street violence, especially among kids, has become almost a cavalier sort of thing these days.
Anyway, that said, I also believe (strongly) that political leaders have to divorce themselves from such beliefs (even if they hold them) when going about their decision making processes. Which is why people like Bush in America, as well as the president of Iran (won't even try to spell the name) scare me when they mix religiously based rhetoric with official state policy.
I believe Jesus himself said something about we are not to know "the time or the hour..."
Thanks for the comments.
-Glen
6 - Mohjho
So Glen, in your opinion, does believing in the end time and apocalypse somehow necessary to being Christian? If you knew for certain that the end was very near due to gods wrath, how would you change your life? Would you pray harder? Act more kindly to the less fortunate? Would your impending death be somehow special in gods eye in comparison to all the good Christians that have died not in the end times?
I sometimes wonder if peoples obsession with the end of the world is really just their deep fear of the end of their world. Death is a powerful incentive and having the perception of control of our ultimate demise can be quite comforting.
7 - Bob
Thanks for responding, Glen, especially as I was fairly cavalier with your position.
Again, absolutely everything you say in support of your own "end time" beliefs has been said every single year since the Bible was put together. It's always a time of unrest somewhere in the Middle East (it's not a small area and it has a lot of national borders, it has a big differential in the resources available to different people, there is deep historical tension, religious divides, often tribal-familial culture, and even racial distinctions, so it's hardly surprising that the whole region is prone to military tension).
So no, I disagree that "this alone" in a rational mind should be enough to prophecy the End of Days! It has long been thus. And furthermore, to a considerable extent, it is a "self-fulfilling" idea: the Israel problem didn't need to be predicted by religious scripture, because to a considerable extent it is *caused* by religious scripture and religious theological speculation, Jewish, Christian and Islamic.
So in effect, I'm not only saying that these End Time beliefs are historically (and even scripturally) ill-founded, but that they *contribute* to the turmoil of the Middle-East. They're not just irrational beliefs, they're dangerous beliefs.
I realise you say you don't want to see leaders base their decisions on these beliefs, so maybe they're less dangerous beliefs in your hands than in someone else's hands. But then ask yourself, *why* do you think they shouldn't base their decisions on these beliefs??
8 - Mark Saleski
glen, you should check out "Where I Like It Best" from Rickie Lee Jones latest record. it sort of deals with these issues.
9 - Glen Boyd
I will do that Mark. I've always liked her a lot anyway, so that was definitely on my list.
Mohijo,
No I do not believe that end-time belief is a prerequistite for being Christian. There are differing schools of thought amongst Christians regarding Revelation and so-called "endtimes" (premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, pretribulation, posttribulation---it really gets quite confusing after awhile).
Which brings me to Bob's post. I just want to be clear here. The crux of what I wrote was not about the end times (though I did mention it), but rather about how one who considers himself Christian has to either qualify that or defend it outright these days. Kind of like I find myself doing here.
And again, my reference to the middle east is Isreal specific, a situation which has only existed in modern times (since 1948 to be specific). There has always been religious fueled strife in that region and we are definitely in agreement on that point. However, the re-entry of isreal into that mix makes this particular generation unique in my view.
And right now, the eyes of the entire world on that region.
To answer Bob's last question, at least when it comes to the west and the US specifically, political leaders should not color their decision making with religious belief (or at least should maintain neutrality), simply because the US is not a theocracy. Seems pretty simple to me.
-Glen
10 - Chris Patton
A totally new approach to the Apocalypse is taken by hi-tech inventor (He invented the floating magnetic head for the first 5 1/4" PC floppy disc.) Herbert Stollorz, who attempts to find the patterns in maleable time for the coming last days. He admits he may be wrong because he is human and is reporting his analysis, but the supportive content about God's plan for humanity and living a responsible life of faith that cares for the environment an promotes non-violence is remarkable.