I’ve wrestled with this post for a long time, for years, even. But it's been about 30 years in the making, and this camel’s back has finally been broken, so it’s time for me to say it:
I no longer want to be called a “Christian.”
That name has been sullied by white evangelical Americans who promote a false teaching of prosperity, domination, and socio-political control. They have blasphemed the name of Christ by treating “the least of these” with disregard, disrespect, and mental, emotional, spiritual, and sometimes even physical, abuse.
If I am to be an effective witness to the gospel of Jesus the Christ in this world, I cannot have the people to whom I am trying to share the Good News associate me with the mean-spirited population that comes to their minds. The population that denies science, demeans women and girls, speaks and acts violently towards LGBTQ people, rejects the immigrant, looks down on the black and brown children of God, and puts their wealth and power above the very words of Jesus the Christ, whom they claim to worship but whom they consistently blaspheme with their words and actions.
From now on, I wish to be called a Follower of the Way of Christ. I will look to the words and actions of Jesus the Christ as we know them in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All other scripture has its value within its historical, cultural, and linguistic context, but too much divisive doctrine and dogma have arisen from people’s opinions on those scriptures. Even Jesus’ words are subject to interpretation, but His message is clear: God loves you and desires your love in return, and God desires you to love others as you love yourself. Anything else is a distraction.
The Bible says that God has written God’s Word in our hearts. We need but search within to know the truth. Too many white evangelical Americans are allowing the lies and manipulations of a very un-Christlike group of people—and one individual, in particular—to overpower the voice of the Holy Spirit that is in their hearts. That makes me both sad and angry, for how many souls who need to know the true Good News of Jesus the Christ will never receive it because they think to be a Christian is to be hateful, mean, judgmental, and concerned mainly with individual power, control, and wealth.
I will continue to do my best to love God with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I will continue to do my best to love my neighbor as myself. That’s all the doctrine I need. It’s not easy to do, especially when I feel that God is not near, that God does not care, or that God may even be a lie. It is not easy to do when my neighbor is hateful, violent, selfish, greedy, and harmful.
But I am constantly reminded that God is Love, and wherever love is, God is. Love is patient and kind. It does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude. Those who love are born of God and know God, whether they acknowledge what is in their heart is God or not. If their hearts are full of love, then God knows them.
The one whose heart is full of love bears the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
White evangelical Americans have traded all these truths of God for the lies of white men who seek only their own good and the good of those who like and support them.
But I take heart in the words of Jesus, when he preached the sermon on the mount: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Not the rich and powerful. Not the proud and boastful. The meek, who find their power in persisting in peace and humility. In the end, they will thrive while the powers and dominions turn to dust.
As a Follower of the Way of Christ, my emphasis is on living rightfully as a child of God in the community of all creation. I reject doctrine and dogma. Jesus had neither. He only showed love, mercy, and compassion to the least of these. I will strive to have a childlike faith because Jesus said we have to become like a little child to experience the realm of heaven. Children are uncorrupted by religion and politics. They, too, have no doctrine or dogma.
The ones Jesus criticized most were the religious leaders, who had allied with empire to assert their own authority and control over people. He prayed to God, he worshipped God, and my hope in God is in Christ. I seek to do as Jesus did, and to speak words of mercy and love to those who need them most, as He did. May God help me to make it so.
Some reading this will respond with “amens” and “hallelujahs.” To you I say go in peace and power. Find your loving, Christ-following community and be comforted and grow strong in the Spirit. Some will roll their eyes and scroll on. To you I say, I hope you someday discover the light of God that you already carry in your heart, for you are created in God’s image. God has saved you, and that is Good News.
But some will respond with judgment, telling me I am backslidden, a heretic, an apostate, and lost in spiritual darkness. I know who you are, because I used to be you. To you I say, get the plank out of your own eye before you pick at the speck in mine. Shut your mouths and disconnect from your devices long enough to hear what God—and not the deceiver—has to say to you in your hearts. If your heart is full of love, you will hear God’s voice. If your heart is full of anger, fear, and greed, the voice you hear will not be of God. And the words you speak will reveal your true thoughts and intentions to the world, for out of the mouth [or the fingertips] proceed the contents of the heart.
Do good deeds. Speak good words. Care for the poor and the oppressed. Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God. In community, build societal systems that will empower you to do this good in the world, for that is what God expects of us.
Go and live in the Light of God’s Love, for the light of love is more powerful than the darkest of darknesses.
