Rick Heller recently posted the first of four responses to Bishop John Shelby Spong’s “12 Theses Of Nontheistic Christianity.” Read through them and tell me if you agree:
Someone who (dis)believes what Spong (dis)believes is no longer a Christian. As I wrote in the comments to Rick’s post, if you don’t believe that Jesus is “the Christ,” then you are not a “Christian.” Period. You can play with “Christ” up to a point, but there are only so many shade of meaning you can attach to that word and still get away with it.
Why are so many people who no longer believe what Christians believe so desperate to still call themselves a Christian? Courage, my friends, is a virtue. Play with the language however you like. But if calling Jesus things like “Christ,” “Messiah,” “Son of God,” and “Savior” doesn’t resonate for you, you are at best a heretical Christian. At least own up to that much. Grandma and your childhood Sunday School teacher may not like it, but it’s true nonetheless.
That was certainly my position going into the class. I have more sympathy for Spong’s view now after reading the book with the class (I use “sympathy” rather than “empathy” because I can feel for Spong’s predicament, though I do not share it). I would say that Spong is culturally Christian, but definitely heretical.
I’m in a somewhat similar position regarding my Jewish identity. I now identify as a “Jewish-American” rather than “American Jew” to emphasize that I am a member of the Jewish ethnic group, while I no longer observe the Jewish religious traditions except on family occasions.
I think on an intellectual basis, it’s better to make a clean break rather than to try to fit into a religion. But on a social basis, that can get lonely.
Your idea of a “cultural Christian” intrigues me. I’m gonna have to chew on that. I’ve taken to calling myself “post-Christian” sometimes, because most everything I do still refers back to that (in spite of my best efforts). Hmm…
I wanted to make a very long response to this post but in the interest of not taking over the comments section on your blog, I posted a long response on my blog. If you are interested, here it is.
http://internelizabeth.blogspot.com/2006/06/christianity-without-christ-another.html
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