This week's post is something I wrote a couple of years ago but never got around to putting out there. It is also a bit of a palette cleanser before I move on to a longer series surrounding worship and worship music. In what follows I risk "preaching to the choir" a bit, still, I think it is worth saying.
A little while ago I overheard a
conversation between a student and a parent at the Christian school I
work at which articulated a reoccurring sentiment I have heard
expressed by many different people over that past few years, most of
them from various outlets of Christian media. I have heard it
from the mouth of Canadian radio talk show host Drew Marshall and from musicians Bruce Cockburn and even DerekWebb. Most recently this sentiment has gotten more widespread attention because of an interview Marcas Mumford of Mumford & Sons gave to Rollins Stone. You can sift through all their interviews over numerous years if you want to find what
I am talking about, but I think the sentiment has permeated our lives
to such an extent that you will probably have heard this line numerous times already. It goes something like this:
The word “Christian” has been so misused and abused I’m not
sure if we should just stop using it anymore. I’d consider myself
more of a follower of Jesus. I don’t have a problem with Jesus;
it’s those who claim to be Christians that I have a problem with.
Since all anyone ever thinks of when they hear that word is bigoted
hate-mongers, maybe we should just get rid of that word. So, let's not call ourselves "Christians" anymore...
