I was sitting at lunch yesterday enjoying the best Chicago-style pizza in town with this guy. We were talking about labels. The usual stuff - conservative, liberal, Baptist, Methodist, whatever. He said that he didn't like the labels either and said, "I like to just tell people 'I'm a Christian'." I sat back in the booth and put my feet up. Thinking... I continued, "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that one either." He gave me one of those looks that seem to say, "That's a little much, man, but I'm not going to let you know I'm thinking that it's a little much." The look is a betraying look. The tension in the mouth gives it away. And you can't hide the surprise in the eyes. I was onto him. Then came the question: "Why?"
"Because there's so much baggage that comes with the term," I said.
What is a Christian? I guess it depends on who you ask.
To someone who has grown up in Sunday school: A Christian is a person who knows Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
To an atheist: A Christian is someone who uses faith as a crutch.
To a homosexual: A Christian is someone who hates me.
To a non-believing woman: A Christian is someone who oppresses me.
Yeah, I know, I just used a bunch of labels and stereotypes, but you get the point. Different people, based on their own context, define Christians differently. Some people think being a Christian is about rules. Some people think being a Christian is about going to a worship service on Sunday mornings, or reading a Bible, or praying before meals. Some people think being a Christian is about repeating a "sinner's prayer." Some people think being a Christian is about what you are against. Some people think being a Christian is about being an American. Some people think being a Christian is about converting the world to Christianity. Some people think being a Christian is a private thing. Some people think being a Christian is about giving money to a church. Some people think being a Christian is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And some people think being a Christian is something I can't even begin to presume.
"I am a Christian." It could be interpreted so many ways. "I am a Christian." Many of those interpretations would not describe me at all. Why would I want to lead others to believe something nonsensical about me?
Last week I asked a gal in our church if she resonated with mysticism. She had a great answer: "I don't know; what is a mystic?"
Months ago I was talking with a spiritual guide in a metaphysical bookstore (whatever that is) about some classes. She told me about a Mother Mary Christ Consciousness class. She said the only requirement was that I had to believe I could create my own reality. Then she asked me how I felt about that. My answer: "I don't know how I feel about it; I don't know anything about it, and I'd hate to make an uneducated judgment."
My mom once asked me if I had become a liberal in college. "I don't know, Mom. I guess it depends on your definition of liberal."
Is the gal in our church a mystic? Don't know. I guess it depends on your definition of mystic.
Am I a Christian? I don't know. I guess it depends on your definition of Christian.
9 comments:
Well, Shantell...
Congratulations, and welcome to the wonderful world of blogging!
And I must say: Great thoughts. You raise some valid points. After all, products are often defined by labels. Or maybe the label is defined by the product. Either way, there is a real connection between a label and its stated value. Some people choose Krispy Kreme doughnuts; some choose Dunkin Donuts. For the person who is a Krispy Kreme fan, that glowing Hot Sign says, "Come and eat me. I am better than those cold doughy Dunkin Donuts!" True there is value in labeling a product. Unless of course that product is a genuine piece of crap with a fake label on it: Foakleys in Mexico or Folexes in New York! But as a whole, I think you make a good point concerning products and consumerism. The problem, for me, is when we take these labels, often correctly applied to products, and apply them to people - individually or collectively. Could labels applied to human beings be a reduction of that human to a mere product...to be marketed? As in, "You can associate with these "academics" because they are like you." Forget the fact that the people are all at different educational levels and studying different fields. 'Academic" means nothing in those circumstances. Community requires knowing people rather than categorizing them by meaningless labels. But what about your rapist? Instead of knowing that the convict is a "rapist," I think I would want to know who he is and what he did. Was he an eighteen-year-old statutory rapist who slept with a seventeen-year-old. Is he a serial rapist who seeks out elderly women alone in their homes? Is he a pedophile? Some are more dangerous than others. The label "rapist" just doesn't quite touch the details.
You said "labels are good and bad." I agree, sort of. Labels are sometimes necessary and often helpful when consuming products; labels are neither necessay nor helpful when dealing with people.
Okay...someone very brilliant (my wife) just helped me see a flaw in my argument. She said, "Jonathan, 'pedophile' is a label." Hmm...good point. Maybe that last statement was totally incorrect. Sometimes they are helpful; sometimes they are necessary. I don't want my daughter hanging around a pedophile. Definitely.
But there is something inherently problematic about labels when they begin to dehumanize a person.
I think, for me, the frustration comes when the label becomes "larger than life." It seems that when that happens, the label becomes meaningless. Labels, in that context, become so broad that they need further clarification. The label is further clarified in one's mind when one uses it; and it is similarly further clarified in the mind of the one hearing the label used. The problem is that the label is further clarified in two different ways by two different people. That discrepency, however, is rarely communicated along with the label itself.
To flesh it out, let's stick with the "Christian" label. When one person uses the label to describe oneself, the label-er might mean, "I walked down an aisle when I was eight years old, knelt at an altar, and prayed a prayer to ask Jesus to come into my heart." The other person in the conversation hears the label "Christian" and assume the other person is talking about living a certain code of morality (i.e. not drinking, cursing, or sleeping around). And maybe the two are in a restaurant eating some burritos when a gay server hears the label "Christian" and takes the Christian to be full of hate.
See what I mean? The label becomes useless.
Just a thought here: Paul Tillich talked about how symbols pointed beyond themselves to some greater truth. The truth was not the symbol. The truth was greater than the symbol, but the symbol helped communicate the truth. Tillich said that each symbol sees a day when it becomes useless. It no longer communicates correctly; it no longer communicates truth. At that point he argues that a new symbol must be adopted to recommunicate the truth effectively. I'm just wondering if mabe some of our labels have become so broad that they no longer communicate truth. If that;s the case, maybe we need some new labels.
Thoughts?
"A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon"- Thich nhat Hahn
Are you stealing ancient buddhist sayings from my blogger?
or is Paul Tillich?
lol
I love labels.... they let you know how full of assumptions people are. (communicativly speaking.) hehe
And so you have hit the rub. Your husband is right. We should be able to forgive the man in your neighborhood. We should be able to allow him to move on. And it's partly the label that stands in the way of our willingness to forgive...to move on. It's the label that cuts off community with this man. Are you going to go knock on his door, shake his hand, and invite him over for dinner? I know I would be thinking about the safety issue instead. i would let the label determine how close I get to this guy. How do we balance entering into community with this guy and keep our families safe? I'm not sure we can. Community requires love; love requres risk.
Hmm...I'm not sure what to do with that. At the end of the day, my child's safety from a pedophile ranks pretty high up there.
I'm also trying to figure out how we got here from "Are you a Christian?"
Labels are great. They warn us that coffee is hot, and that plastic can be a choking hazard. Labels let us know not to drink while taking medication, and they tell us whos medication this is.
Labels teach us how to insert A into Slot B and how to assemble my GI Joe missle launcher for my tank.
Just look at all the labels at a gas pump.
Labels help bring better understanding to products and things.
Labels are perfect for things.
I lived in a home in Gainesville that was previously owned by someone who for some reason either did not know english or was of special needs.
Everything in the home was labeled with a label maker
Table
Chair
Cabinets
Window
Door
these labels were there to help.
The problem is not labels...
The problem is treating people like Things.
Treating people like products.
I am not a thing.
I am.
As for the question "Am I a christian"
It depends on how you view "christian"
Is “christian” a thing?
Is it a product of something?
Is "Christian" mass produced and sold to the masses?
Are you treating "christian" as a product or as a thing?
"I am a christian" as long as we can discuss it as not being a thing.... but instead discuss it as being "me"
You nailed it. Precisely. The problem is the dehumanization of reducing people to things...products.
i think that every pedophile should have their nuts chopped off.
In Fort Myers, they want to take all the sex offenders and place them in a seperate safty shelter during a hurricane.
Im do not like this idea, of seperating people based on something like this. Is this not discrimination?
Why should 18 yr old (Opps i pissed of my 16yr old dad, so I got arrested) be forced to evacuate to someplace different then his family? and why should he have to go to a place with known rapists?
I think this is awful..Whats next, a separate shelter for people with unpaid parking fines?
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