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Faith and Culture: Beware the libel of labels

“Considering its history as a worldwide power structure, it would be quite an understatement today to say that Christianity has seen better days.

“Considering its history as a worldwide power structure, it would be quite an understatement today to say that Christianity has seen better days. The fact that it is literally divided in thousands of denominations — each exhaustively convinced that all the other ones are wrong about something — is much too striking to be left ignored. Nonetheless, when their faith gets compared with others’ in terms of numbers, Christians are ever-willing to take refuge under the same comforting and quite unsubstantial umbrella of Christianity. Its symbolic membership of a billion plus scattered around the globe, and divided on questions fundamental enough to justify separate denominations, is certainly a symptom of how clueless people really are about what to make of Jesus and the New Testament. We are talking about close to 38,000 denominations. At this rate, one may want to create his own.”

- Michel Mercier

I’m picking up again this week on some interaction with Michel Mercier, a Montreal-based blogger, a self-described atheist. We’re challenging the notion that you can’t talk about religion in polite company because the topic is so divisive. We agree it need not be this way.

As Michel aptly notes above, part of what makes so many people skeptical of religion in general and Christianity in particular is the rancorous division evident therein. In fact, it is not inaccurate to suggest that contrary to the example that Jesus modelled during his brief tenure on Earth, too many of his followers have become far more dogma-oriented than relationship-oriented. One of the unfortunate side effects of such a reality is that we libel people by labelling them and often prejudge them on the basis of their philosophical orientation rather than seeing them as fellow humans made in the image of God.

I don’t like it when people marginalize me when they discover I’m a pastor or one of “those guys.” The sad fact is, however, that often we in the church are the fastest at discarding and avoiding people on the basis of slapping them with a label.

I want to be among those who acknowledge that it is far past time that Christ-followers returned to respectfully listening and interacting with the perspectives of others without prejudging and dismissing them according to some label.

Tim Callaway is pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church, Airdrie, and can be reached at 403-948-6727.


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