Tuesday, September 12, 2006
I’m sick of the ridiculous stuff that takes our time and energies. Recently a friend of mine asked the question “should we refer to ourselves as Jesus followers rather than Christians due to the way the term Christian is perceived”. www.mrharvey.blogspot.com I thought this was an excellent question. The sad fact is that there was an immediate response, from people that I thought would have known better, that we need to redeem (I suggest this means preserve) the name and enough of this sort of talk. It’s a bit like the discussions on the web as to ‘did Jesus had a beard’, or, ‘is body piercing ok?’ My response is “who give a rats arse (Bottom if you are Baptist)!” Poverty, oppression, people who have no knowledge of Jesus (as opposed to people who think that have so much knowledge that they can tell the rest of us what language to use), child abuse and disease, these are the issues that should take our time and efforts. The system and its language aren’t worth the time and energy they take up. I think its time that, Jesus followers, Christians, people of the way, (your choice) start focusing on the real issues. The recent UNOH Surrender conference did this. It focused us on Jesus and therefore indigenous peoples rights, fair trade, mission, micro enterprises among the poor, poverty and our responses to it…. ….and not once did I hear a discussion on terminology! Excellent stuff!