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From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: theology = head hair
Message-ID: <1611@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Jan-84 23:20:58 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1611
Posted: Thu Jan  5 23:20:58 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Jan-84 23:27:51 EST
References: <1605@utcsstat.UUCP>, <1118@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 59

I don't know what a Christian is, Greg. I just know that I'm *not* one.
(okay now, everyone stop sniggering...). I thought that it was a pretty
good question, however.

the answers are coming in now. There are 3 main ones. the first goes:
We're all Christians because this country was founded on Christian
principles. 

I don't like this one. I think that you can separate the principles from
the religion and if they are good principles then they are because they
are good -- no matter what the religious belief (or lack of belief) of
the person who presents them. The counter to this claim is that the
only Good comes from the Christian God. So far, 7 people have decided
that they ought to tell me that I am *by definition* a minister of
Satan because I am not a Christian. Any good that I do is just an evil
trap that is to catch Christians. I am not thrilled with *THIS* definition,
either, but if that is the definition then I guess the shoe fits. It
is funny that there is at least one Organised Church of Satan in Toronto,
and if you think that I piss the Christians off you should see what I do
to the Satanists. Oh well.

The second goes:
Anybody who calls himself a Christian is one. 

This, so far, is my operative definition. The problem with it is that it
includes all the non-practising Christians and the Christians who don't
know 2 things about their faith and who see Christianity as a sort of
social club to which a large proportion of their family and friends
belong. I have a lot more admiration for the Fundamentalist than this
crowd. I think that the Fundamentalists are *wrong*, and possibly
*immoral* but I am not going to overlook that they have guts, which
counts for a lot in my book. They < the Fundamentalists > get annoyed when
this crowd is considered Christians, and I can sympathise. Note, I am aware that
there are knowledgable Christians who aren't Fundamentalists, and there
are some Fundamentalists who aren't knowledgable, but as a first order
approximation around here in Toronto, the Fundamentalists and some of the
Catholics can meet the grade while everybody else can't.

The third (which I mostly get from the Fundamentalists who aren't
busy calling me a Satanist) goes:

The Only real Christians are the one's that are living the Faith. When
all the rest show up in heaven God is going to say "who are you?".

The problem with this definition is that you then have to define
"living the Faith". It seems to involve a willingness to try to 
convert anything that is human and not-yet Christian, and doing a
lot of scholarship (or at least, reading te Bible a lot of times)
and going to Church on Sunday. Beyond this, the danger is that
individuals will define "living the Faith" to mean "living just
like me, or better". Rabbi Seigel makes it legal (thanks to
Andy Tannenbaum who taught me this marvellous phrase) strikes again.


For the time being, I am going to define anybody who calls himself a
Christian a Christian, but I am not pleased with this conclusion.

Laura Creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura