Word Changers

It's that time of year again. The flowers start to bloom, schools close for a week, thunderstorms roll through and the church changes words.

Remember when we were Christians, then we became protestants, then we become evangelicals. We then fought the Catholics for sole control of the term Christian. We even used the phrase "personal relationship with Jesus Christ," to as a self affixed attribute. We were Christians but I had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A new movement is growing which is substituting Christian for Christ follower, to be honest they have replaced both Christian and personal relationship with the Christ follower. The movement is driven by some well made and often funny videos like the one here:



No matter how funny the videos are and how well the stereotype of the Christian fits I cringe every time I hear someone proudly exclaim they are a Christ follower. There are a few reasons this phrase and movement bother me.

1) According to Dinesh D'Souza (author of What's So Great About Christianity) non-Christians often point to the sins of Christianity (the crusades, the Inquisition, etc) as a way to discredit Christianity. In a very simple the change from Christian to Christ follower is ceding the point to non-Christians. Part of the name change is an attempt to disconnect from the past shortcomings associated with church history. By separating from the past the Christ followers give up the ability to connect with the hero's of the faith Like Bonhoeffer and St. Teresa. Many Christ followers attempt to stay connected to the positive aspects of history and dismiss the negative aspects, this simple doesn't work and creates imbalance and hypocrisy. More importantly a name change doesn't change anything about the past and creates a cover-up where forgiveness should be sought.

2) Christ followers are another attempt to capture social relevance and like most predecessors are doing so at the expense of It creates social relevance and the expense of Biblical significance. They are saying that they know better than 2000 years of thought and devotion and are attempting to persuade a society with relevance instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to work.

3) The insinuation in the video series is insulting and marginalizing to the stereotyped Christians. The video is easily taken as an insult to those who refer to themselves as Christians since it portrays those who refer to themselves as Christian as insincere, uncaring and hostile. The sum of the connotations calls makes you think that the Christ followers doubts the sincerity of the Christians salvation. That being said it is only a matter of time until the Christ followers begin to question the salvation of the Christians.

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I'm undecided but I think the moniker Christ follower does deeper damage to theology:

4) It is another step away from Trinitarian Theology. In it's essence the moniker is a creed stating a persons dedication to second person of the trinity, while the creed is simple it leaves out the other two persons of the trinity. I don't think this omission is intentional and I do think it is done for the sake of brevity, it is the symptom of a more widespread departure from Trinitarianism.

5) The moniker marginalizes the deity of Christ. I think this is a problem of language and interpretation but the phrase "I'm a Christ follower," brings images of a sports fan to my mind, "I'm an Ohio State Football Follower." When this image comes to mind it drags down the deity of Christ and brings him completely to the human realm. Like the departure from Trinitarian theology this is symptom of a growing belief.

Dinesh D'Souza

I had the chance to see Dinesh D'Souza author of What's So Great about Christianity. He was an intelligent engaging speaker but his content missed his intended mark; to defend Christianity against neo-atheists. D'Souza proposed a few main arguments neo-atheists make to discredit Christianity; as science advances it discredits Christianity and History is full of Christian violence and that Christianity is an invention used for comfort. D'Souze's proposed arguments are well in line with the main arguments used by neo-atheists to discredit Christianity, however, D'Souze misses the ideas behind the arguments which create neo-atheist thought.

The background argument to neo-ahteist thought is not that Christians have been violent, or that as Christian morals are bankrupt, it is an objection of power. The objection of power gives birth to the the other objections. Whether they admit it or not, neo-atheists hold onto the idea that Christianity is ultimately corrupt because of its power, their goal being to remove the power from the Christians and hand it to a secular authority, namely themselves.

The main arguments proposed by D'Souza steam from the objection of power. When atheists point out the violent acts perpetrated in the name of Christianity, they are real attempting to point out the lengths Christians will go to stay in power. When the bring up evolution a story is created in which they Christians are battling for the power of education. To be fair Christians fuel this argument when they make statements attributing the basis of moral society to Christian morals and when they push for laws promoting intelligent design. The arguments the neo-atheists are using to discredit Christianity are the visible ways in which Christians are attempting to gain the upper hand. This struggle is the same struggle that was fought during the crusades, the reformation, the witch trials, and is being fought today between Israel and Palestine. Each side is seeking a point of safety which includes land, money and people, as with any power struggle supporters will go to great lengths to gain the upper hand.

The Church's need for power is perhaps best seen in the persecution of Galileo. The church wanted to place the earth at the center of the universe and the church at the center of the earth. Not only making the earth the focus of power but the church the very focus, this line runs all the way up to the Pope as the inevitable center of the universe. They imprisoned Galileo in order to keep the church as the center of power. This argument was all about the perception of power on the earth, if people believed the earth was the center and the church the center of it they would acknowledge the church's power.

Since the Christian struggle for power uses the same tools and tactics as a secular struggle for power atheists conclude that Christianity is morally bankrupt and false. This means that the church needs to focus it's apologetic power on the external and internal struggle for power. The church needs to reconsider how it wants to achieve that power.

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D'Souzza made note that Hitler's reign of terror was a atheist event, while this is true it is an event in which the atheist establishment used the name of Christianity to gain power. Hitler attempted to gain power by first gaining the church and Christians. This leads to the frequent argument that Hitler's murders were perpetrated in the name of Christianity. While he did use the name he took over the church in a hostile manner usurping the name, credibility and power for his own use.

3.14159265358979323846...

For the first time in years I didn't celebrate PI Day (March 14; get
it 3.14). I didn't sing PI Day songs; I didn't make a pie much less a
square pie (A (area) = PI*R (the radius) ^2 (squared), PI r squared).
I did nothing. I remember when I used to sing songs play games and
celebrate the life of PI with food and costumes, now the pinnacle of
Math holidays means nothing to me. PI day has become as meaningless
as Mole Day, the annual Chemistry celebration of Avogadro's Number
(6.02*10^23).

I use more math now than I ever have in my past but I don't celebrate
the holiest of days. In my modern busy life I don't have the time to
stop and remember an infinite number. I feel bad, like I betrayed my
heritage, but no one around was celebrating so it would have been
uncomfortable going to work whistling my favorite PI day songs. I
guess deep down PI day must not be that important to me. There is
always next year's PI Day I can even make up for it by celebrating
Square root day on 3/3/2009 (since 3 is the square root of nine).

Maybe others will start seeing the meaning of these holidays and I'll
ahve someone to celebrate with.

P.S. I didn't celebrate Palm Sunday either.