The other day I had lunch with Brian McLaren, an author of many books, and a former neighboring pastor. Our lunch the other day was with 135 of his friends, via zoom, but it did bring back memories of our occasional lunches back in the days when our churches were close by. Brian was presenting his latest book Do I Stay Christian?, coming out next week, on the issues facing Christians who are aware of how much negative publicity and public opinion have come upon Christians lately. It was a fascinating conversation, and I will put that book in my Kindle as soon as it's available. Perhaps I'll do more blogging when I've had a chance read it and reflect upon it.
The main point is that for some followers of Jesus, the problem is the label "Christian" rather than the commitment to follow Jesus. This problem has occurred over time in other cultures, and in other times in history. We may just face more backlash now because of Social Media and piles of news and stories about fallen Christian leaders. For many very conscientious followers it is very difficult to find ourselves in so much pain. Christian has been a good label for a long time, now not so much.
If you haven't confronted anyone who says they don't know whether to be Christian or not, or they say they are not religious, but they are spiritual, that's a part of the conversation that I am talking about. I would have to agree, it's a very tough time to be a pastor trying to encourage people to be followers of Jesus, and not be "Christians" because of the negativity associated with this word.
To give you some ideas, the label gets put with some who attacked the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. For some the label goes with the news that Jerry Falwell has been ousted from his leadership of the largest Christian University because of sexual scandals and objectionable behavior for a Christian University leader. Or maybe it's in the face of several major mega church leaders who have fallen from grace because of sexual unfaithfulness or other accusations of inappropriate behavior as a church leader.
In other cases it's that there is now an association with"Christian" and racial hatred especially anti non-white people. Whether it be African Americans who have been here over 400 years or new immigrants who have fled the horrors of persecution to come to a better life in the US. Or even toward native American, who have been here for thousands of years, after coming across the land bridge between Russia and Alaska, and then wandering down the coast and across the nations. Many have decried and complained and hurt people who are not white in the name of religion. And yet, our faith is very, very clear we are to welcome the stranger, and to support immigrants as people of faith, because we are to remember, as Scripture reminds us often, that we too were immigrants in Egypt before Moses led the people to freedom.
In still other cases, the wanting to distance ourselves from the name of Christian, is because there is a lot of anti-science and anti acceptance of truth from scientific resources. Over 1 million citizens died because of Covid. The best prevention is vaccination and yet many church pastors have spoken out in their pulpits against vaccinations. Those outside the church, yet believers, don't want to be connected to that kind of attitude if it represents their faith. Global warming is another topic which some Christians are trying to deny exists, yet Scripture clearly demands that we are responsible and stewards of our mother earth. It becomes the difference between what our Scripture teaches us and what we say and do. The farther apart this is, the more likely people are going to want to get away from Christians.
Love One Another, is the summary of what Jesus taught. In the years before Christianity changed from being persecuted by the Romans, to making it the official faith of the Empire, was the discovery of how much Christians loved one another, and loved their neighbors, especially in difficult times. Christians nursed sick Romans back to health, when the healthy Romans fled the disease. When the sick recovered, they realized what a blessing being cared for by one who practiced loving one another really meant. It changed the world.
Now we are in a similar opportunity. With so much strife, hatred, confusion, grief and lack of hope, we need to love one another, more than ever. Maybe we just need to figure out a better way to put a label on our love. Follower of Jesus, may work for a while, and we choose not to mention Christian, so that we don't put a barrier up to being able to share the faith. St. Paul had a lot to say about doing what is needed in order to win some who doubt, over to the Jesus follower side. Try it, you'll like it!
Blessings
Pastor Jeff
