What is a Christian Anyway?
itʼs not what we were told
American Christianity has become so distorted by aligning itself with the menace in the White House, that it now preaches that empathy is a sin. I have been laughed at for years now for invoking the message of Jesus to call Trump-supporting Christians to account. Faithful Christ followers like Rev. Mariann Budde regularly get lambasted by hardliners for claiming Christian faith while also challenging the Trump administration or parallel doctrines. All the while atheists and agnostics are often quite Christlike.
So what is the better definition of “Christian”: someone who believes in conservative doctrine, or someone who emulates Jesus?
“Who’s the Christ follower? The peacemaker Hindu or the war monger Christian?”—Brad Jersak
Deconstructing my evangelical faith was the movement from seeing Jesus in black & white to seeing him in full color. It enabled me to finally get out of my head & join Christ in the work of ushering in the kingdom, instead of “defending” him from the sidelines.
It’s so ironic to me that many Christians will insist the deconstructed are not Christians when deconstruction is often the process of becoming a truer Christian.
Those who lawyer up for Jesus, or throw stones as they quote Jesus who instructed the opposite, strike me as the ones who most desperately “need Jesus.” To those who say “You can be gay, you just can’t do gay,” I say “You can be Christian, but we’d all prefer you do Christian.”
I don’t care what people think ABOUT Jesus—and I doubt Jesus cares either. I care if people go the way OF Jesus.
1 John 4:18 is one of those verses than confused me as an evangelical. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, & whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” I noticed that this did not jive with our beliefs—we had a lot of fear, and punishment was a main currency.
Have I been perfected in love? Hardly. But letting go of fear has been a big step in the right direction. Also getting flack from the empire seems to be an indicator. And definitely a long, treacherous, costly journey to Golgotha—what is deconstruction & decolonization if not that?
All I know is that unlearning ideologies makes people more Christian not less, regardless of beliefs. “Be the hands & feet.” Faith should be about the walk, not the talk.
So am I a Christian? That’s a lofty aim, and nothing as simple as a quick prayer. But I aspire to be one.