Opinion: Perspectives from readers

I attend church fairly regularly. I am into biblical studies not only because it is interesting but because the Bible is the foundational text for the church and we need to understand it in all its complexities. I love singing hymns. I believe no one comes to the Father but through Jesus. Of late, however, I have a harder and harder time identifying as a Christian.

At first, I thought it was because I’m no longer in seminary, an explicitly Christian context, but that wasn’t it. I began struggling with this when I worked at Prison Fellowship International, an explicitly Christian organization. I thought, Perhaps it’s because I’m doing “real” work outside a faith-based context. That was getting closer, but wasn’t quite it. Finally, it struck home. The far right is winning, but not in the way they think.

I have fallen into the trap of letting the loud far right define “Christian.” These are the Christians (mostly men) who go on Sean Hannity and complain about Obama insisting that church-affiliated organizations (e.g. schools and hospitals, not the churches themselves) must provide insurance that offers complete health care for women is the same thing as Nazism, yet they are silent when a pastor advocates putting people in concentration camps, as pastor Charles L. Worley did earlier this year. Or these Christians trumpet the cause of Israel while perpetuating anti-Semitic theology. Or they claim there is no war on women but rewrite the Violence Against Women Act so that it protects only certain women and certain crimes. Or they rant and rave about freedom but are quick to deny it to others, especially Muslims.

The problem is that the far right is being allowed to define what it means to be Christian. And that definition is judgmental, bigoted, sheltered, hypocritical, insincere and uncaring. To this we can add anti-science and anti-intellectual.

Yet, in contrast to popular perception, it is precisely because of my faith that I am pro-gay rights, pro-women’s rights, antiracist, anti-imperialist and committed to Jewish-Christian dialogue and reconciliation. That I proclaim Jesus as Lord means that I cannot participate in nationalism and cannot deny civil rights to my LGBTQ siblings or full health-care coverage to women. My faith is the reason I am passionate for freedom of (and from) religion. My faith is the reason I love education and support open and free inquiry. It is because of my faith that I am pro-science and cannot deny the evidence in support of the theory of evolution. I care for the environment because I believe God created the heavens and the earth, and to violate the created order and abuse Creation is to violate the will of God. I hold to these beliefs not in spite of my faith but because of my faith.

What frustrates me most is the way right wing Christianity has co-opted the language of faith. They are the ones who use words such as “faithful” and “biblical” and “Jesus the Savior” and “God the Creator.” They are usually portrayed as the ones who act out of “faith” or “religion” while the progressive elements act out of a desire for “tolerance,” “civil rights” or “equity.”

However, this is not necessarily true. I believe in biblical justice, justice that is concerned for the least of these, that teaches us to love our neighbor and love the Lord, that holds us accountable for failing in these things, that holds us especially accountable if we knowingly violate these things, a justice that places human dignity before profits or personal wealth or being practical. My faith cannot deny the findings of science or academic inquiry (e.g., the problematic nature of the Bible’s historicity) because they are inconvenient for my faith. It is precisely because I believe in Jesus the Savior and God the Creator and worship a God who is paradoxically merciful and just that I am committed to justice in all its forms. And this understanding of God is rooted (though not wholly) in the God revealed in the Bible.

I’ve had enough of the far right defining what it means to be a Christian. It is time for progressive Christians to stand up and reclaim the vocabulary of faith. When speaking about social justice, we must use “biblical,” we must speak of God’s will for humanity.

I am not advocating for “praying in the streets” (Matthew 6.5), but I advocate reclaiming the language of faith from the far right. They are not the spokesmen and women of Christianity. They are not representative of my faith, my convictions. It is time I have the courage to stand up and say, “I am a Christian.”

Justin James King is a member of Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold, Ohio.