tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11918100.post114804753522581955..comments2023-08-23T03:49:23.364-04:00Comments on Christian Thought: Blame the Bad Christians...?Julian Freemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16090211379574469969noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11918100.post-1148053894115944282006-05-19T11:51:00.000-04:002006-05-19T11:51:00.000-04:00I think that labelling is really a situation where...I think that labelling is really a situation where we have to be realistic. It's like being a Thomas Reid to a David Hume - we need a little common sense!<BR/>We live in a world where the term Christian has deteriorated to include Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. These groups are, by definition, not Christian. Not to mention the Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and all the variations in between. Therefore we need to distinguish ourselves as Protestants. Yet, within Protestantism we don't escape confusion with heretics. There's John Spong, John Robinson, John Crossan (the three Johns!) who would find themselves under the banner "Protestant." So then we have to refine our definition and say we're evangelical.<BR/>But evangelical has become so wishy washy that it doesn't look like it did even fifty years ago. If we say we're evangelical, does that really help explain in a quick way, what I believe? Because I'm Reformed, I don't believe things that someone like Bill Hybels or Joel Osteen believes, yet we all call ourselves evangelical.<BR/>Heck, even to call myself a Calvinist doesn't really help! I'm not a paedobaptist Calvinist. You get the idea (surely).<BR/>I think that labels are necessary and helpful. Though they are not the be all and end all of my identity, it does give someone a picture of where my theological presuppositions are coming from.<BR/>Guys who have a problem with that will develop a label for themselves one time or another -- even if its defining themselves against what they are not. We can't escape monikers that explain who we are. People need to give up the false-piety of "no labels."Ian Hugh Claryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14686705614603192797noreply@blogger.com