Interesting article I was linked to elsewhere....
http://unreasonablefaith.com/2009/07/20/are-we-all-christians-now/
Are We All Christians Now?
By vorjack on July 20, 2009 in Bible, Christianity, Jesus.
By VorJack
John Shelby Spong once joked that talking to moderate Christians is like watching someone play rummy: they know they have to discard something, but what? Ill get rid of the virgin birth, but I have to keep the resurrection. Ill give up on the divinity of Jesus, but I need some way to hold on to substitutionary atonement.
The joke, for Spong, was that hes willing to lay down everything. Hes willing to toss any card that he finds unacceptable, even if that leaves him empty handed. But this raises the question: is he still playing the same game? And if youre no longer playing the same game, why are you still at the table?
Reluctance
I am hesitant to bring up the matter of definition. Firstly, because this is the kind of stick that the fundamentalists have used to beat the liberal Christians for a century. The whole point of the original fundamentals was to lay out the set of beliefs required to be a real Christian. Thats not an act I want to follow.
Further, what right have I to try and define Christianity? But by the same token, what right does anyone have? I certainly dont own the copyright, but neither does anyone else. This is probably not a question thats ever going to be fully answered.
Definition
The only reason I bring this up at all is that atheist blogs are frequently beset by commenters who are eager to explain the real Christianity. The more even-handed just want to be clear that there are many different interpretations, and that fundamentalism isnt the only form of Christianity. The latter group is right, of course, but when pressed to provide a criteria for their interpretation, things get vague.
There seems to be nothing no biblical passage, no creedal statement, no traditional belief that all Christians agree on. I would think that substitutionary atonement Jesus died for your sins would be non-negotiable. After all, this is probably the most basic Christian belief, and possibly the original impulse that led to the formation of the first Jewish-Christian sects. And yet I frequently come across self-professed Christians who tell me they reject this basic idea.
To sever yourself from 2,000 years of Christian thought takes brass, and I respect that. But to do so and still say youre engaged with the tradition seems almost delusional.
Communication
I want to talk about religion. I want to talk about Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. I particularly want to talk about Christianity, since I live in a culture thats saturated in it. But this gets increasingly difficult as the word itself seems to grow increasingly nebulous.
Is the only thing that unites Christians the fact that they all call themselves Christians? Is anyone who finds the golden rule a good idea a Christian? Are we all Christians now? Are none of us?
http://unreasonablefaith.com/2009/07/20/are-we-all-christians-now/