Christianity is not a label, its a lifestyle, and not of the rich and the famous but of the down and outers which god has chosen despite themselves. Unfortunately there is no seperating the name from the lifestyle. I have wanted to seperate myself from the 'label' as well, but i have come to realise that i have only made it one then. Its far more than a label, its my identity, its who i am.
And if you had been told all your life that you weren't really who your claimed to be, how would you feel? For years, I have been told by fundamentalist Christians that I am not a real Christian, but some kind of a fake, wannabe Christian.
You know the first time I ever heard someone tell me I wasn't a Christian? I was five years old. The little neighbor boy (he was six and I had a huge crush on him) came home from going to church for the first time with his parents. I was sitting out on our porch when he stopped by. "I just got home from church," he announced proudly. "I'm a Christian!" "Oh," I said, "so am I." "No you're not," he answered, "You're a Mormon." That was 55 years ago. See, I'm kind of a slow learner. For 55 years, I've been trying to convince people like him that Mormons
are Christians --
real Christians.
I've been trying to do that here on RF for four years, and you know what? I bet I haven't managed to convince one single solitary person. Oh, there are some who believe we are, but it wasn't because I kept shoving it down their throats. It was because they are open-minded enough to look beyond the label to see what we Mormons on the forum stand for. The ones who insist that we belong to some weird cult, the ones who believe we worship "a different Jesus," the ones that are convinced we are trying to indoctrinate poor, unknowing Christians with heretical doctrines -- they will believe those things no matter what I could say.
Yes, there are people who are completely 'out there' and call themselves christian. I have no control over that. I cant redefine myself everytime someone pushes me out or lures me in, or embarrasses me. I can sympathize with katzpurs feelings at the moment, but i would say that there is no seperating oneself from the word christian if you want to associate yourself with jesus. That is the point isnt it? The word christian associates us with jesus first and foremost and for that reason, i think that katzpur will come to think as i do on the matter, and be called a christian regardless of others. At least that is my hope.
I disagree with you on this point, Heneni. A few days ago, it suddenly dawned on me that I can very well associate myself with Jesus and yet disassociate myself with the label "Christian." In the early days after Christ's death, His Apostles were not known as "Christians." They were probably just known as followers of the man, Jesus, whom they claimed as their Lord and Master. I can do the same. I can be known as a Latter-day Saint (or Mormon) who follows the man Jesus, my Lord and Master. Why in Heaven's name would I want to be associated with the in-your-face crowd? Anybody who wants to take the time to find out what I believe ought to be able to figure out easily enough that there is nothing I want more than to be associated with Jesus Christ. It's seriously getting to the point where I think it would be easier for me to do that by calling myself a Mormon than by calling myself a Christian.
