ChristQuest: ElectionYear

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

We live in a fairly diverse neighborhood, religiously speaking, although we've never been a very religious family ourselves. One recent evening my 9 year old was pogo-sticking on the front sidewalk with an Orthodox Christian, an Israeli Jew and an avowed Atheist (no this is not the opener to a joke.) The lot of them must have gotten to talking about religion, because The Wee One came running in the house to ask "Mom, we're Christian, aren't we?" Without thinking too much about it I responded, "Yeah, honey. We're Christian," and that seemed to satisfy him. Not two minutes later, he came running back inside and with some urgency in his voice he asked "But Mom, what KIND of Christian are we?" If his first question wasn't enough to set me thinking, his second sure was.

"What KIND of Christian are we?" What kind of question is that for a 9 year old? Turns out, its a very good question, one I've been asking myself for a good decade or more. And because I've not yet found an answer that I'm completely satisfied with, my nine year old is left to pogo-stick off into the sunset without a clue as to his own religious identity.

I never had to wonder about my religious identity when I was 9 years old. I was born into and brought up in a church that converted from Baptist to Non-Denominational round about the time Christianity was becoming as much a political endeavor as a spiritual one. As such, my religious identity was chosen and spelled out for me. I didn't have to ask "What kind of Christian are we?" because I knew the answer from my family, my church, my school and our media would be simply "The ONLY kind."

It wasn't until I got to college that I began to question things. I'm still questioning things. It's not that I'm questioning God or even the teachings of Jesus. I'm questioning Christianity. All the people who most loudly profess Christianity to the masses, via Satellite and live from the White House, have turned it into something unrecognizable . It's been spoiled, I think. And so for many years, I wrote it off altogether. Sure, I'd grown up Christian, but I was a wee bit hesitant to claim the label as a free-thinking adult, knowing full well that to do so is to rank myself among the likes of Ann Coulter, Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberson and Bushes I and II.

But when a 9 year old - YOUR 9 year old - asks "What kind of Christian are you," it's time to stop and think about it. Really think about it. As a parent it is my duty to educate my children. Sure, it takes a village to raise a child and all that, but the ultimate responsibility for my children's education falls to my husband and me. And for us to let our own misgivings prevent us from giving our kids any kind of spiritual and/or religious instruction was doing them a grave disservice. And so, when confronted with the fact that my children are looking for a religion to call their own, I reverted to the one I called MY own for so many years, the one I knew before it was so publicly hijacked: Christianity.

I've been struggling with the decision, mulling it over and over and over and over, trying to get to the root of the question: What Kind of Christian Am I? The root of Christianity is, essentially, Christ. So I went back to the Bible and read every word attributed to Christ. I wasn't looking for Saints Peter or Paul, Moses, Abraham or King David. I was looking only for Christ. What did HE, as its namesake and deity, have to say about Christianity?

The most noteworthy and comforting thing I rediscovered about Christ is that he is, in word and in deed, absolutely NOTHING LIKE the "Christians" on Fox News! I was so terrified that going on a Christ Quest would result in conversion to a Far Right Republican! They do, after all, claim sole ownership of Christianity. What a relief to find that Christ did NOT, in fact, preach hate and greed and war and capitalism as so many of his professed followers do! And did you know that Christ NEVER said he hated homosexuals like so many of his professed followers do? And guess what else - Christ told his disciples to preach PEACE, not WAR! And did you know that Christ chastised the greedy and preached relief and justice for the poor? But when confronted head on with Politics, when asked directly if he was a political leader, he said in effect "Politics isn't my thing. Its not why I'm here."

Wait just a minute. What this?? Jesus was apolitical??? That's got to be a misprint, right? He lived in one of the most politically tumultuous regions in the history of the world, and while it was occupied and governed by armed Romans, no less! He had a large and loyal contingent of politically fired-up followers and had he campaigned even slightly he could have ushered in quite the wind of political change, a bloody uprising at the very least! But he didn't. He opted out of Politics as Usual. Why?

A simple answer that makes sense to me is this: Jesus didn't come preaching politics, he came preaching principles. And his principles speak for themselves.

So my first steps to finding my faith again are learning to see Christ as he wanted to be seen: completely separate from politics. Learning to turn down the TV for a just minute so I can hear Christ over the cacophony of Crossfire between Right and Left.

The next time my son asks me "What kind of Christian are we" I hope to be telling the truth when I answer "Not like the one's you see on TV."