I’m not antiChristian
I am antibigotry, antihomophobia, antiprejudice, antipedophilia, antisexism, antiracism and so on. And when I see Christians being pro… any of those things, I’ll call them on it. When I see them ascribing it to their faith, I’ll call them on it even more.
As I said to Matt the other day, though, I still regard that as critiquing ‘my side’.
You can add xenophobia, nationalism, laissez-faire capitalism, militarism, merchants-in-the-temple syndrome, death penalty supporting, woman-oppressing and probably a few more to the list of things that I’m agin and I’m seeing way too much of from ‘Christians’ these days.
Thing is, I reckon Jesus (in the words we have recorded from him personally, I mean, not the whole Bible) is with me on pretty much every point.
Incidentally (at the risk of pumping my own comment numbers), my friend Neil Kelly the other day asked why I use the scare quotes around ‘Christians’: am I buying into the whole ‘the people who do these things are not real Christians’ myth that I’ve ranted about here before?
I dunno, maybe I am, but what I *think* I’m doing is reserving the term ‘Christian’ for those who actually follow Christ’s teachings, as opposed to allowing it to anyone who chooses to adopt it for themselves. Maybe it’s not a mainstream usage, but I think it’s a defensible one.