A Few Words on What Constitutes a Christian

I love the church.  And I love where I get to build the church.  I lived in the Pacific Northwest (Portland) for college, and the region was like a playground for me.  After completing seminary, I was more than happy to return, be located close to my grandfather, and enjoy the hiking, beaches, and sheer green that my neck of the woods has to offer its ridiculously lucky inhabitants.

And Portland friends, forgive me...but I even like Seattle.  It has a nice theater scene, the freakin' Boeing museum, and all the coffee you could want (actually, we have that, too).

But it also has some stuff that, if I'm completely honest with you, I'm a little bitter exists and thrives here.

So, in the interest of full disclosure: I don't care much for Mark Driscoll's ministry at his famous Mars Hill megachurch.

I have good friends and colleagues who do.  But I don't.

By the account of former Mars Hill elders, he comes across as terribly arrogant.

By the account of former Mars Hill members, he comes across as quite unforgiving.

And by his own words, he comes across as painfully sexist (in fairness, he later apologized for this one, but with a "I'm sorry if anyone was hurt"-esque non-apology).

But he managed to put the cherry on top of this totally terrible-tasting trifecta of a sundae by yesterday tweeting the following, which has now been retweeted at least a few thousand times:

"Praying for our president, who today will place his hands on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know."

And I'm not proud of this, but it's true: that statement alone--and everything that it implies--was enough to send me oozing into a fury on what was otherwise a day of celebration and historic significance.

Because no matter how I look at Driscoll's tweet, I can only interpret it one of two ways: either he's parroting the "Obama-is-a-Muslim" fantasy of the lunatic fringe right (in which case we can add "racist" to the above list of arrogant, unforgiving, and sexist), or he's saying that mainline Christians aren't real Christians.

I'll dispense with the former by simply saying I do not think Mark Driscoll is a racist.  And in any case, there's a pretty important commandment in Scripture about bearing false witness to your neighbors that I try to follow.  So I don't think that's it.

But as to the latter...as a mainline Christian who is pretty fluent in evangelical jargon and is comfortable in both mainline and evangelical circles, can I just say, GROW UP, WOULD YOU PLEASE?

I won't pretend to know why Mark said what he said in that tweet.  For all I know, he was trying to be provocative (it certainly wouldn't be the first time), and I've risen to take the bait.

But I have to say...it sickens me that conservative evangelical Christians deign to determine for themselves who constitutes a Christian and who does not.  To me, that is a form of playing God, with all of the immaturity (both emotional and spiritual) that entails.

It sickens me that a pastor with the pulpit Mark does is using it to repeat an insidious and disproven lie--that our President is not a Christian (not that it would matter if he were something else--I vote for a politician's policies, not their religious affiliation).

And it sickens me personally because it is an affront to my faith and MY relationship with Jesus Christ that pastors like Mark claim to so highly value.  I've never been born-again, or at least I don't identify as born-again.  I was raised from birth in the church.  I've never recited the Sinner's Prayer, in which I ask Jesus to be my Lord and Savior.

I simply said, upon my baptism at age 10, that He already WAS my Lord and Savior.  Becuase He is.  Not because I made it so.

I believe President Obama is a Christian until and unless he says or does otherwise.  He deserves the benefit of the doubt from me on this particular pecadillo.

But know this: the people who say that he isn't a Christian aren't just throwing stones at the President, they are throwing stones at millions of their brothers and sisters in Christ who have a different faith journey than they do.  They are insulting a faith journey that can, and should, result in a growing of faith, the performing of mission and social justice, and the attainment of salvation.

And no matter which way you cut it, impugning that is just plain sinful.

Yours in Christ,

Eric