Christian Labeling? No Thanks!

I grew up in a large family, one of nine children who lived in a rambling home in northern New Jersey. My father was a Roman Catholic, my mother a Quaker (Society of Friends) who married in March 1946. All of us children were “christened” as babies, received our First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

Some went on to be married in the Catholic church, my younger brother was buried following a Catholic service, eleven months after his battle with an acute form of Leukemia was first diagnosed.

Our mother never converted to Catholicism and rarely joined us at church, prefering to use that brief hour or so on Sunday morning to stay at home. It wasn’t until much later in life that she started to attend church with me, professing Christ as her Savior when she was 76. Both of my parents are now gone, the surviving eight children live on with most having spouses, children and now grandchildren expanding their own families.

Growing up, we lived in an area that was  middle class, fairly mixed between Catholic and Protestant, with a handful of Orthodox Christians and Jews in the mix. I had heard that as recently as a generation before my time the town was very WASPish, not all that welcoming to people who didn’t fit the town mold. Our Irish Catholic/English Protestant family wasn’t a very common mix, but I don’t recall that being a big issue.

I remember first hearing Billy Graham preaching when I was either 14 or 15 and found myself very drawn by his message. I had long been interested in spiritual matters, but I didn’t know that I could get in touch with the personal side of God. I was also interested in UFOs, psychic Edward Cayce and believed that I possessed an acute awareness of a higher realm. I owned a copy of The Way bible which I read from cover to cover when I was 16.

By the time I was 18, I received Jesus as my Savior, but I quickly got caught up in a “Christian” cult, which I left nine months later. After that, I went head long into sin and stayed away from God until I was 26. That was in 1985 when I decided that I had had enough with life on the run and returned to the Lord by saying a simple prayer of repentance and commitment in the privacy of my apartment.

Since then, I have been walking with the Lord, not perfectly but with consistency. I have stumbled, I’ve fallen, but I’ve gotten back up and moved on. Not the same backslidden state of my early days, but there have been times when my heart wasn’t always fixed on the cross of Jesus Christ. I’m married now and my wife and I have two young children.

I’m sharing these thoughts with my readers to emphasize one point: Christian labeling. I understand that using certain identifying language can be helpful when guiding someone who is seeking reconciliation with God or to help the young believer make sense of what his relationship with Jesus Christ is all about. But, I also know that labels can hamstring us, causing us to choose lives which may be too limiting.

I’ve come across quite a few blogs written by Christians over the past several years and have had time to read lots of articles. I usually like reading what people have to say, even if I’m not in full agreement with their point of view. Sure, I know and understand the essentials of our faith and encourage people to grasp those essentials for themselves. Regular Bible reading and study, attending a healthy church and spending time with fellow believers is important.

But, I also recognize that one person’s journey can be vastly different from someone else’s walk, therefore I have learned to tolerate people where they are at. The operative word here is learned.

Unfortunately, I’ve also come across a handful of websites that add little or no value to the proclamation of the gospel. Instead of building people up, they tear them down. I know that sin needs to be calle d for what it is — sin — but when you’re passing judgment on other believers, you’ve crossed a line of distinction.

Over time, I have purposefully avoided those blogs and websites which are not uplifting, realizing that I need to guard my own heart and keep myself unspotted. No, I won’t name or link to these sites, instead I will encourage everyone who follows Jesus to do this: examine your own heart first and then encourage others to do the same.

Starting with this Sunday a very important eight day period in the church calendar begins. I think that it is critical for all who call upon the name of Jesus Christ to personally reflect on what our Savior went through during and how much He loved us then and loves us now.

When we remember His death as payment for our sins I think we can look at others with a right perspective, interceding for them in ways that are pleasing to God. 

Related Reading: The Earth Is The Lord’s

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