I would like to reflect on the question, What is a Christian? Obviously, Christianity is not a monolithic religion. So there will be many different understandings of what it means to be a Christian. What would your answer be?
Is a Christian a person who has certain beliefs? Does a Christian have to have a particular understanding of who Jesus was? Is it a person who goes to church? Is it someone who has had some degree of internal transformation? Are there different levels of being Christian, just like there are different levels of playing a musical instrument? Are some people less mature in their understanding of being a Christian, while others are more mature?
Is a Christian someone who acts a certain way? Do they love God and their neighbour as themselves? Is their neighbour a person like themselves, or is their neighbour an outsider? Does a Christian give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, hospitality to the stranger, clothe the naked, take care of the sick, and visit the prisoner, as Jesus said to do in a parable?
Is a Christian someone who mirrors the indiscriminate love of God, the way Jesus described it? Jesus said God’s love is like the sun that shines on everyone and everything, and like the rain that falls on everyone and everything. God’s love does not discriminate. Is a Christian a person who loves like this?
I ask the question because self-identifying Christians are tightly involved in the administration of the U.S. government. They are trying the steer the country in directions that are questionable to other people, Christian and non-Christian alike.
The White House has created a task force to root out anti-Christian bias in the U.S. government. Federal workers are invited to submit instances of “anti-Christian” discrimination. Submissions should include names, dates, and locations of offenders.
Meanwhile, the administration ended USAID, one of the largest relief agencies in the world, which gave medicine to the sick and food to the hungry. The administration is making life harder for minorities and marginalized people. And now the administration has passed a budget that transfers wealth from the poor to the rich. Shouldn’t someone report the administration to itself for anti-Christian activity?
When I listen to Bernie Sanders — who, if pressed, might describe himself as a secular Jew — I hear a vision rooted in values that echo the teachings of Jesus. Care for the poor, the sick, the planet; concern for income equality and the fair sharing of power. Bernie Sanders doesn’t identify as a Christian, but his values and way of living seem to be more reflective of Jesus.
To say it again, people who identify as Christian do not think in a single, uniform way. What is a Christian? One response is what Brian McLaren writes in his book Do I Stay Christian? – “In the end, the answer that really matters is not the one we give with our words, but the one we give with our lives.” Jesus said something similar in Matthew 7: “You will know them by their fruits.”
