I’m almost done calling myself a Christian

“. . . the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26)

The word “Christian” is used only three times in the Bible: when King Agrippa used it ironically to mock St. Paul’s testimony by sneering, “Soon you will persuade me to play the Christian” (Acts 26: 28); when the Apostle Peter urges his readers not to consider it a disgrace to suffer as a Christian (1 Pet. 14:16); and when newly converted persons were first called Christians in Antioch. It seems from other writings from the New Testament time that the label “Christian” was used primarily as a derogatory term by enemies of the followers of Christ.

Literally, the word “Christian” comes from the Greek (Christ = anointed; tian = little) for the “little anointed ones.” A much more common New Testament reference to those who believed in Jesus was “followers of The Way.” See Acts 9:2; 18:25; 19:9; 19:23; 22:4; 22:14 and 24:22 for the frequent use of “The Way” as designating those who followed the Christ (who called himself “The Way” as per Jn. 14:6). It wasn’t until about 100 years after Christ’s death that Ignatius of Antioch first referred to the followers of The Way as “Christians.”

Defining myself today

Today, as in New Testament times when the term was pejorative, “Christian” has become freighted with largely negative connotations. Do you call yourself a Christian? Oh well, then you are probably a self-righteous, capitalist, homophobic, right-wing, misogynistic Trumpian who believes that Canada and especially the USA are Christian nations called by God to fight against immigration, socialism, liberalism and all things “woke.”

Sometime during the 1980s, I was invited by a literacy organization at the University of Alberta to talk about whether my being a Christian had any impact on my view of how reading should be taught to young children. The first thing I did was disabuse my audience of any notion that identifying myself as a Christian meant that I considered myself morally superior to non-Christians. I pointed out that, as a Calvinist Christian, I was well aware of my personal moral shortcomings. Secondly, I assured my listeners that I did not share the belief of many fundamentalist Christian educators that phonics was God’s ordained way of teaching reading as opposed to the “New Age” nonsense of a balanced literacy approach.

Let me explain . . .

In short, then as now, the label “Christian” is one that I’m increasingly uncomfortable using. Perhaps, instead of “Christian,” I’ll start calling myself a “Follower of The Way.” This unusual self-designation will probably raise questioning eyebrows of incomprehension. But that would allow me to explain the “hope that lies within me” (1 Pet. 3:15) rather than having to distance myself from all the unhappy connotations that the label “Christian” now engenders.