What is Christian?
Does Prince Caspian contain Christian values? Is Barak Obama a Christian? These are some questions I have seen debated recently that made clear how confused people are about what it means to be Christian. Certainly it must include more than just saying some nice words about Jesus? It needs to involve the radical world-changing message of the gospel. But what is that? When you get specific it gets confusing very fast. It needs to involve embracing the cross but does that imply embracing suffering in my own life or is it restricted to the suffering of Jesus? What about morality? Are there some moral principles you have to agree with to be called Christian? If so, what are they and who decides what they are? Can they change over time?
These are important issues here. Somebody comes into a church and is living with someone they are not married to. Do we say they can’t become a Christian unless they deal with that situation? That is they either leave that relationship or marry that person. If you do that their most likely response is to leave. If that is the right message then that is OK. Are we sure that is the right message? Based on what?
The truth is that unless you appeal to Christian tradition it is very hard to definitively state that someone like that cannot be Christian. In fact, based on the bible alone it is very hard to produce a list of criteria for Christianity. You can make a long list that excludes 90% of today’s Christians and almost all historical Christians. You can make a short list that includes even the most liberal Christians. Neither seems right. Plus they seem quite arbitrary.
You can’t really find a good answer unless your start to do some of the things the Catholic church has done. For example, you need to claim the authority to anathematize people who deny a certain doctrine. That is exactly what you are doing when you are saying those who disagree with doctrine X are not actually Christian. People hear someone say they are Christian and still think abortion is OK, or gay marriage is OK, or premarital sex is OK. Then they look for someone to stand up and say, “No you are not a Christian.” They don’t realize it but they are longing for a pope or a bishop. Someone who has the God-given authority to declare that that is not Christian.
Hi
I stumbled onto your blog half an hour ago and read your conversion story. Why: “Purify Your Bride?” Is that about the Church, or is it about your wife?
The reason I ask is, you seem like a very intelligent, perceptive, faith-guided person. I’m a married Catholic, and I’d like to ask you some questions about married life, about wives and husbands, but I don’t want to do it publicly in a post. But I don’t see an email link anywhere.
Would you be so kind as to indulge me by sending an email address; maybe you can help save a marriage, if not even a soul.
You can use the email address in the required mail line above.
Thanks very much. And thanks for a great blog. Robert
May 20th, 2008 at 7:38 amThe Purify Your Bride name is about the church. It comes from a song that I used to like as an evangelical. It asked God to make His church pure, holy, united, and faithful. As I journeyed into the Catholic faith and got deeper and deeper into issues of truth and also into the theology of the body that phrase kind of stuck with me.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:03 amI really don’t think it is up to us to decide who is “Christian” and who isn’t. Different people are at different stages of faith journey. I think formation of conscience is something that comes into play here. If someone is cohabitating before marriage, but doesn’t know that it is wrong, then that is different than someone who in doing it in spite. Are there moral truths? Of course, but how much each person is held accountable depends on one’s level of conscience and/or motives. Only God truly knows the heart of each person. It isn’t up to us to decide who is “really” Christian or not.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:44 pmIt is not about who is Christian. It is about what is Christian. When we know the standard then we can try and meet the standard or help others meet it. If someone is cohabitating before marriage and does not know it is wrong then we need to ask why don’t they know that? Is it an optional teaching? Can it cost you your eternal soul if you ignore it? These are important question for which there is no agreement in Christendom. There are moral truths but do we have any idea what they are? If we do why can’t we come to some sort of agreement on the important ones. Are we preaching the good news or simply asking someone to embrace uncertainty?
May 25th, 2008 at 2:06 pm