The Case Against "True Christian"
Jul. 4th, 2018 07:40 pmThis isn't one of my Cases. In my "Evangelizing Advice From an Atheist", one of my early tips was on useful definitions*. The argument was for using definitions to expand communication options, rather than eliminate them. One of the most obvious examples I used was the matter of eliminating the moral embarassments from the category of "True Christians" or "Real Christians". I want to make the case, for both Christians and the rest of the world, to not allow that.
Ostensibly, I get it. For a common view of Jesus Christ, certain actions just don't follow from his teachings. So, for Christians, this seems an obvious reason why people who act against those teachings don't count. And, even for non-Christians, it seems like it might be a means of shaming self-identifying Christians into not being hateful pricks.
In that latter case, it never works. I'm sure it's also an attempt to be nice to your Christian friends who don't go in for that hateful prickery, but that's not worth it.
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Ostensibly, I get it. For a common view of Jesus Christ, certain actions just don't follow from his teachings. So, for Christians, this seems an obvious reason why people who act against those teachings don't count. And, even for non-Christians, it seems like it might be a means of shaming self-identifying Christians into not being hateful pricks.
In that latter case, it never works. I'm sure it's also an attempt to be nice to your Christian friends who don't go in for that hateful prickery, but that's not worth it.
( Read more... )