Post by naz on Jan 17, 2010 16:22:18 GMT
I have decided to stop calling myself a Christian. It is not that my beliefs have changed but I am simply sick and tired of fighting with Christians over my use of the name. I am tired of being told I cannot be a Christian unless I believe certain things that others believe. I am tired of being labeled things like "false prophet" and "servant of Satan" because I don't. So I am opting out of "the club". Let Christians fight it out against each other. They can't seem to agree on what the proper definition of Christian should be and have been arguing about it for almost two thousand years.
This isn't the first time I've dropped the name. I originally did so about 25 years ago. Because I noticed that people who identified strongly as "Christians" were the most un-Christ-like people I had ever met. But about five years ago I decided to try and take the name back from them. To make a statement to the world that being a Christian could mean something other than being a complete jerk. That it could mean actually trying to follow the teachings of Jesus instead of being a puffed up, sanctimonious, self-righteous, judgmental hypocrite. That a Christian could embrace logic and reason and not be anti-science. I also tried very hard to make peace with my more conservative brethren. I tried to extend the right hand fellowship to them and they just bit it like rabid dogs. So forget them.
Another thing is that my beliefs are radically outside the mainstream and continue to evolve further and further away from any concept of orthodoxy. So it becomes confusing to non-Christians when I try to engage them in discourse while identifying as a Christian. I find myself agreeing more and more with non-Christians especially atheists although I still think many atheists hold myopic views of religion and the supernatural. I am not anti-religion but I am throwing my support behind any efforts to oppose and hopefully defeat what I see as toxic forms of religion. I define toxic religion as any set of beliefs which is harmful to either the believers themselves and/or others.
From now on just consider me "naz-label-free". I don't need a label to be who and what I am.
This isn't the first time I've dropped the name. I originally did so about 25 years ago. Because I noticed that people who identified strongly as "Christians" were the most un-Christ-like people I had ever met. But about five years ago I decided to try and take the name back from them. To make a statement to the world that being a Christian could mean something other than being a complete jerk. That it could mean actually trying to follow the teachings of Jesus instead of being a puffed up, sanctimonious, self-righteous, judgmental hypocrite. That a Christian could embrace logic and reason and not be anti-science. I also tried very hard to make peace with my more conservative brethren. I tried to extend the right hand fellowship to them and they just bit it like rabid dogs. So forget them.
Another thing is that my beliefs are radically outside the mainstream and continue to evolve further and further away from any concept of orthodoxy. So it becomes confusing to non-Christians when I try to engage them in discourse while identifying as a Christian. I find myself agreeing more and more with non-Christians especially atheists although I still think many atheists hold myopic views of religion and the supernatural. I am not anti-religion but I am throwing my support behind any efforts to oppose and hopefully defeat what I see as toxic forms of religion. I define toxic religion as any set of beliefs which is harmful to either the believers themselves and/or others.
From now on just consider me "naz-label-free". I don't need a label to be who and what I am.
