Friday, August 6, 2010

Christ vs. Christianity

So...is it possible to remain faithful to Christ while turning your back on "Christianity"?

A quote from a certain well-known author has been popping up in the media this week.

"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else." -Facebook announcement, Anne Rice

My thoughts/-

In general, I see two sides to the issue. The first is that perhaps it is good to flee Pharisaic movements within Christianity. Sometimes it is helpful to distance ourselves from what we consider to be false teaching/falling short of Christ's message.

Another side to the issue is that we sometimes don't have enough grace and mercy to persevere in our Christian relationships. We are all flawed, and loving each other in spite of these flaws helps us to grow. There is no perfect church congregation.

7 comments:

  1. My FIRST thought is that it is a publicity-related move....even subconsciously, perhaps. It served her well to become open about her faith, now perhaps it will serve her to be more of a maverick.

    But, my second reaction was that it is a pretty pompous point of view! Beginning at the beginning, God's people were - well, as she described them! And she thinks she's an "outsider" - "better"? - without original sin, perhaps? I just thought that sort of funny, actually.

    Then hearing her interviewed on the radio it was disappointing beccause it is nothing more than the usual complaint - desire for gay marriage, and other trendy kinds of sinfulness - nothing unique or different or surprising. Just the usual stuff that causes the typical "contemporary" person to bail.

    ReplyDelete
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  3. Yeah, but the part about "I remain committed to Christ"? What's that for? Just in case God is listening?

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  4. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. (1Jn.2:19)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Стих верный, хотя и грустный.

    ReplyDelete
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