What is a "Christian"?

June 17, 2014;  2:50 PM
What is a Christian?  An interesting question, given the proliferation of bigots, misogynists, and outright narrow-minded ignoramuses in American and Western society today, who claim the title.  In my humble opinion, a Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, also called Jesus Christ,  Who, when asked what was the first Commandment of all,  answered, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."  (Mark 12:28-31)

You will note that He did not add any exceptions to that second Commandment, like "except if they're gay, (or transgender, or black, or white, or Mexican, or Muslim, or Jewish, or Arab, or Palestinian, or...)". (That list could go on for several pages, I suspect.)

The point is that the acronym WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) is very appropriate for today's so-called "Christian right".  Under that criteria, I suspect many of them will be doing the old "wailing and gnashing of teeth" bit, come Judgement Day.

I don't claim any special ranking among the Christians of the world - indeed, I have as many sins on my soul as anybody.  I know very few real Christians - no more than a handful.  I know of, without having met them, maybe 2 or 3 more.  Oddly enough, the current head of the Roman Catholic Church heads that list.  In fact, I suspect, that he will be named a saint within a month of his passing.  Pope Francis is the only Pope since John XXIII to be what I would call a true Christian.

I don't mean to make this a religious rant.  I am merely trying to point that we could all (Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, atheist, agnostic and all the others I've missed) stand to "lighten up", as we used to put it "back in the day". Cut your neighbor some slack, and do a few "Random acts of kindness" to others as you go through life.  It'll brighten your day, and that of others as well.