Wednesday, September 06, 2017

‘Christian’ in 2017

What does it mean to be “Christian” in a day of access to a near-infinite plethora of diverse perspectives and opinions?

We might choose to ask Mihee Kim-Kort, who calls herself a “Presbyterian minister, agitator, speaker, writer, and slinger of hopeful stories about faith and church.” For Mihee, being Christian means being Feminist, Democrat, pro-abortion, pro-immigration, a community activist and an advocate for and supporter of all women of color — not necessarily in that order.

This is all in the course of a single blog post, by the way, one that makes no reference whatsoever to the word of God.

A New Word

Hey, if that’s what “Christianity” means to a not-insignificant segment of the American population, then maybe we need a new word to describe what we’re all about at this blog.

For the record, women of color are just fine with me, and I’m sorta-kinda okay with community activism so long as it isn’t just a euphemism for Alinsky-style rabble-rousing. I’m even fine with well-managed, fully-integrated immigration. But at the moment, I can’t easily reconcile Mihee’s other three self-descriptives with my Christian worldview no matter how flexible and unjudgmental I try to be about definitions.

Let’s Get Inclusive

Numerous liberal Christians in our post-modern age insist that being “Christian” includes being gay- and transgender-supportive.

Others insist being “Christian” can include enthusing about polyamory. [link language warning]

There is even a website that caters to Christians who are “minor attracted” and can’t seem to stop talking about it. [Hint: Don’t you think it might be a really good idea to STOP TALKING ABOUT IT?]

This being the case, is there anything that cannot be fitted under the “Christian” banner these days? If there is, I can’t think what it might be.

Go and Sin No More

The answer to that question, I remain confident, is Jesus Christ. Not the Social Justice Jesus of the Left or the Free Speech Jesus of the Right, but the real, historical, currently-risen Jesus; the one about whom four full Gospels have been written, all of which remain available at any time for our reading pleasure.

He’s not a cipher. He cannot be conveniently shoehorned into any and all worldviews, not if you read everything he did and said. Sure, he pardoned the woman taken in adultery, but he followed his gracious refusal to condemn her with the words, “Go, and from now on sin no more.” Even those who view these few verses as apocryphal cannot object to that last line. It just sounds like him to me, probably because he’d used it before.

The whole “impulses out of control” thing wouldn’t fly with that Jesus, would it? The fact that you have a particular set of predispositions and a bad family history would cut no ice with him. He would probably love you anyway. He might even have dinner with you. But he would not uncritically validate your so-called “identity”. He would NOT, even passively, encourage a sinner to continue down any path that leads inexorably to judgment.

If you think so, we’re not worshiping the same Jesus, no matter what you may call yourself.

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