Sunday Sparks, Week 3

This week the spark's on me. With inspiration from these posts about labels from fellow bloggers, I wrote and shared the speech below with the congregation at our church last Sunday. It felt great to be so open and honest with a group of people that I thought - just a few years ago - would never accept me and my liberal belief system. Judging by the reaction, most of them not only accept me but are glad to welcome me into their community. And some of them even agree with me.

The Labels of My Faith

Published the year I graduated from high school, Douglas Coupland’s novel, Generation X, characterized my generation – at the time – as a cohort of twenty-somethings whose main characteristic was a tendency to have no main characteristics. It was a label that stuck in the media. And then, of course, the label was quickly embraced by a generation of self-proclaimed label haters.

It’s true. My generation, now known as Generation X, has produced legions of independent voters, including myself. Outside of politics, we defy labels like house wife, soccer mom, yuppie, hippie, punk or workaholic. We don’t want to be pegged or pinned down or stereotyped, so we focus on individuality and rebel against anyone’s efforts to pigeonhole us into specific categories.

This is especially true when it comes to faith. And that’s really what I want to talk about today: The labels of faith – and why so many men and women in my generation are more likely to say they’re spiritual as opposed to religious.

Why is this? While I can’t speak for millions of irreligious Americans, I do think I have some insight into the issue. The term spiritual is fuzzy and uncertain, which makes it safe to a label hater. Its imprecision makes it easy to claim some ambiguous level of faith without being pinned down to any single religion or set of beliefs.

And – perhaps even more importantly – if you don’t proclaim any particular belief, no one can compare you to the other followers of that same belief system.

You see, there was a time when I was questioning whether or not I should still call myself a Christian.

Why? Primarily because I didn’t agree with most of the Christians that I saw on TV and read about in the newspaper. I didn’t want to be grouped in with the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons of the world, whom I found to be frighteningly self-righteous and entirely too fundamentalist. But guess what? Those are labels. And ultimately it was the labels I was rebelling against, not the people or the faith. I feared that labeling myself as a Christian would also brand me as self-righteous and fundamentalist.

Along those same lines, I didn’t think that my strong yet questioning faith would be welcome in a Christian church. I thought that I would be turned away and shunned for not agreeing with the literalists, the fundamentalists and the evangelicals.

But I kept returning to my Bible anyway. And praying. And reading countless books by religious scholars and believers whose faith was more in line with my own. And do you know what I found? I found dozens of sub-labels for Christians, including progressive, post-modern, ecumenical and many more.

But most importantly, I found that I was not alone. I found that there was a label for me – more than one – that I could live with. I now call myself a progressive Christian, which means that I have found a personal approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, but that I still recognize the faithfulness of other people who have found God through other paths. And I acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as my way is true for me. It also means that I find more grace in the search for understanding than I do in dogmatic certainty and more value in questioning than I do in absolutes. And most significantly, it means that I believe the way we treat others is more important than the way we express our beliefs.*

So now I’m proud to call myself a Christian again – and more precisely a progressive Christian. Finding this new label was comforting to me. Knowing that such a label existed and that there were other Christians who agreed with me, gave me the confidence to return to church. And when I did, I found messages that both spoke to me and challenged me. And I found many fellow believers who were happy to welcome me into their church and – even if they didn’t always agree with me – were open to hearing my opinions and views on faith.

But now that I’m here and comfortable again in this church family, I’m realizing something else. Just as I seek acceptance from others for my differing beliefs, I need to embrace those Christians who do not believe exactly as I do. So even though I disagree with fundamentalist Christians on many levels, I now recognize that we are more alike than we are different. That we all can work together and pray together in the name of Jesus. That, more than anything, Jesus wants us all to love one another and share together in faith and fellowship. That whatever differences we do have are not too large for God. That he loves us all and is working through each of us individually and collectively – regardless of labels.

*The statements of belief in this paragraph are from the Center for Progressive Christianity.

Comments

[Mich]

Great post, Alison. I am proud of you for reading this at church. A lot of people feel the same as you.

[jen]

At work a girl used to wear a t-shirt that said "people need people" it was a great concept to daydream about and could usually keep me going for least an hour --thinking of all the different ways people need each other whether we like to admit it or not.

Nice Sparks, Al. Progressive sounds more modern and action oriented like "Paying It Forward" kind of compared to traditional which sounds boring, outdated and lazy. I'm still looking for the hippy church

[running2ks]

Wonderful post. I think the reason labels are important to people is that they want to know what to expect when they start talking to you. I'm glad you found one that works.

[Erin]

Fantastic post. I still haven't found my label...but I feel better knowing you feel the way you do.

[mr. gobley]

Well felt, thought, and said!

[Mich]

I've been thinking about this since I read it on Sunday. It is really a shame that we feel this urge to label what "kind" of Christianity we subscribe to. What if you had to describe what kind of lover, mother, or daughter you are with a one-word label that would instantly align you with other "groups" of women whom you have never met? I think that you are wise to choose one label that fits but to also admit that your belief system does not soley subscribe to that label.

[Alison]

But we DO create frustratingly inadequate labels for those things as well, especially the mother category: stay-at-home mom, working mother, attachment parenting, etc.

But the reason I'm fascinated with labels on the religious front lately is because one single type of Christian - the conservative, evangelical type - seems to be getting all the press lately. And most of it is negative press.

I'd like people to know that there's another type, and that not all Christians are the holier-than-thou types that you see on TV.

It may be unusual, but it's my type of evangelism.

[Alison]

Hey, I forgot to thank everyone for the nice words here. I really appreciate it!

[jen]

MAGNUM is so sexy!

I'm not sure what to think of your labels. It seems like too many of them overlap to pinpoint a specific one. A Christian should be happy to be a Christian regardless of any labels. Maybe I'm still in the rebellious stage agains labels.
Your last paragraph is very open and honest and should be the goal of all humans regardless of religious decree.
I'll have to examine my use of labels for others because I don't realize using them, unless you can call "stupid" a label. There's a bunch of Stupid Kids at work.

[Alison]

Magnum? Jen, you're such a trip. Was that supposed to be some kind of subliminal message, or do you still think Magnum is God?

[Marcy]

Unfortunatley I wasn't able to make it to the service that you spoke at, but I heard the tape of it and you were great! Good job Al.

[karen]

Magnum is pretty darn close to God, in my book. I miss the old days.

[jen]

Oh the Old Days.
Thou Shalt not give them up.

If all men looked and acted like Magnum the world would be a glorious place.