Ostensibly Christian

Ostensibly Christian
Kathleen Norris, Cloister, p. 73

[In a California radio interview on Pacifica radio] “‘Do you consider yourself a Christian?’ my host asked. I sighed and said, ‘My problem with that is that so many people who publicly identify themselves as Christians are such jerks about it.’”

I cringe when I see these jerks with simplistically “Christian” messages on their t-shirts and bumper stickers or when I see them praying over their food in restaurants. I don’t label as jerks everyone who follows these practices; many are not. Many are sincere and unthinking Christians. I have yet to see a t-shirt sporting the Jesus’ words according to Matthew 6:1, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

One reason ostensible Christian testimony bothers me is that often I know these people. I know that much of their daily practice--speech, attitude, action--is contrary to clear biblical guidelines. If I were not a Christian, if I were not already “born again”, neither they nor their message would attract the least of my interest. Like everyone else I would find myself paying more to the person than to what they were advertising.

The same holds for so many of the cute “Christian” messages that show up on the marquis in front of churches. They make some of the insiders feel good, but to the outside passerby they may look either innocuous or offensive. Nearly always they see them as childish.

[According to Of Fiction and Faith] somewhere Doris Betts says, “Christian spoils into a rancid adjective.”