Comments on: Annoyed at Certain Christian Labels

By: Chrisian Beyer

Chrisian Beyer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:09:04 +0000

Very nicely put.

I am always amazed at how so many “Bible believers” have told me that my problem is that I lack discernment when obviously the converse is true.

I was once one of these parochial Christians, fortunately for only a few years. I cringe at memories of the cliche’s I hurled and the slogans I chanted. There was immense comfort and security in being included among the universe’s winners along with a perverse sense of satisfaction that so many of those ‘other’ sinners were going to get what was coming to them.

Too many Christians have so little trust in God, so much of their time is spent in seeking self-affirmation that it naturally leads to a condescending attitude towards those who are not so blessed. Really annoying and as an evangelical tool, so ineffectual.

By: Bob MacDonald

Bob MacDonald — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:45:19 +0000

As to being ‘right’, I have thought for a while that our desire to be right is born of fear and can be a chief ‘sin of the flesh’. We are on the horns of a dilemma! We must be right – but it is not our correct beliefs that give us life in our mortal bodies. This materializing of love comes from the Spirit (Romans 8). That is what really ‘makes sense’ and ‘matters’. (More than a ‘cerebral’ memorization of confession or creed).

By: Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:32:40 +0000

But what an excellent quibble! And you are right, of course. It is also worth considering with reference to my final question–whether the defining characteristic of being a Christian is how right we are about things.

By: Bob MacDonald

Bob MacDonald — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:31:28 +0000

Just to clarify – Christians must be born from above – but it is not a teaching that began with Jesus – perhaps we should find its roots so we can overcome some of the parochialism implied or even caused by our labeling

How curious it is that Adam was naming the animals – I wonder how many he got in his taxonomy and how limited was this first bit of abstract labeling. (I know, it is a story)

By: Bob MacDonald

Bob MacDonald — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:58:48 +0000

Nicely spun, Henry. You may already have noticed my reasons for hating adjectives – but it is really the labeling that is disturbing.

Only one immediate quibble. Jesus says to Nicodemus that he must be born from above – this has nothing to do with Christians – but in his case with him being a teacher in Israel. So the renewal that Jesus is speaking about is based in his perception of what we would call Old Testament anthropology (or theology).

Now how will we approach ‘in Israel’ in our translations…

By: Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:12:33 +0000

Well, yes, but I figured that if you write a question that badly you deserve whatever answer you get! My church believes the Bible the way I do, thus I can call it “Bible-believing” if I want!

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:39:19 +0000

I started that quiz yesterday, but I didn’t make it any farther than the demographic question that asked me to choose between ‘I regularly attend a Bible-believing church’ and ‘I do not attend church.’ No other options were available, and I suspect that my progressive GLBT-friendly, Marcus-Borg-reading, female-pastor-led church is not what the questioners meant by ‘Bible-believing.’