Yes! Thanks so much 4 this ?. It was actually the guitarist of a Dublin-based, punk outfit who turned me on2 this way of thinking about it N the 80's. Asked if he was a Christian, he said it was inappropriate to say so 1self b/c it's a public verdict instead of a self-description
He cited Acts 11:26 ("The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.") & said we have to leave it to others to pay us the compliment of noting that our behavior, speech, & way of treating people is in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. The proof is in the pudding.
I try to refer to myself as an aspiring Christian who'd love to be told that I operate as if Jesus was/is my Jedi Master. "Christian" is a wonderful adjective that can be rightly—and perhaps righteously—applied to all manner of behavior among all manner of human beings.
To risk deploying it as an unqualified self-descriptor is, I think, a little tacky. It's use the word in vain; to boast at being an obvious bearer of a wisdom I perhaps have yet to deeply receive into my own life.
To presume 1’s own Christianity in this way, as a mission accomplished, is to place the cart before the horse. In this I’m informed by a sensibility I once heard articulated by Maya Angelou who thought it most fitting to speak in terms of repeated attempts and lifelong practice:
“I'm grateful to be a practicing Christian," she said. "I'm always amazed when people say, ‘I'm a Christian.’ I think, ‘Already?’ It's an ongoing process. You know, you keep trying. And blowing it and trying and blowing it…”
With this in mind, I hesitate to call myself a Christian convert, unless I can B understood to mean that I’m not yet done converting to, & learning again what it might mean to convert 2—this centuries long experiment in Beloved Community, sometimes referred to as Christianity.
