Some Answers For 'Questions Christians Have For Other Christians'

I suspect there will be plenty of posts responding to the latest Buzzfeed project from Christians who are challenging other Christians to step up their game. "I'm Christian But I'm Not…" certainly sparked a lot of conversation; "Questions Christians Have For Other Christians" looks to do the same. I'd hate to see these questions be reduced to rhetorical status, so... let's do this!

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“Do you really think [Jesus is] freaking out because his name isn’t on a cup that you get to hold for ten minutes while you drink a pumpkin spice latte?”

Nope. If I had to guess (and I don’t have to, but I want to), maybe 10% of Christians initially thought this mattered, and 5% of them got talked out of it by the 90% of Christians who rolled their eyes when they saw the story cross their news feed. If this incident hadn't fit neatly into an increasingly popular cultural narrative wherein all Christians look crazy like Josh Feuerstein, this would have been a non-story.

 “Why does Christian music always sound like a mixture of Nickelback and Third Eye Blind?”

For the same reason so much non-Christian music does – it sells. And though there is definitely a lot of derivative and uninspiring music put out by Christians, there’s also needtobreathe, Switchfoot, Andy Mineo, NF, Steve Taylor, Josh Garrells, Fireflight, Flyleaf, Rend Collective, All Sons and Daughters, For King and Country, Kirk Franklin, Lecrae, August Burns Red,The Devil Wears Prada, TFK, Jonny Lang...

“Do devotions actually happen if you didn’t post about it on Instagram?”

Of course, but point taken.

Six Flawed Claims in Buzzfeed's "I’m Christian But I’m Not…”

Plenty has been written about Buzzfeed's viral video featuring a number of people who address all the ways they believe Christians have been unfairly stereotyped. As much as I appreciate the spirit behind their attempt, I'm not thrilled with the attempt itself.  First, the fact that Christ is not mentioned in a discussion is a significant oversight. Second, though there are  some decent observations (you can read the whole text here), there are also a number of claims that reveal a fair amount of confusion about what it means to be a follower of the person and teaching of Jesus.

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"I’m Christian but I’m not close-minded."

Let’s not kid ourselves: everyone is close-minded about something. I am close-minded about torturing babies or driving drunk. I have friends who are close-minded about global warming, eating meat, and whether or not Christianity is a good idea. On the other hand, I am open-minded, if by that you mean I listen to competing voices on religion, politics, and current events, try to weigh them fairly, and seek to be honest about whether or not what I believe to be true actually is true.

It’s a virtue to keep an open mind – until it’s time to close it. Being close-minded isn’t automatically a bad thing – though it can be. It’s not always easy to identify when that moment arrives, but we all do it. In this case, I would hope that identifying as a Christian means someone has made an informed decision between the claims of Jesus and the claims of other world religions. Choosing to follow Jesus on biblical terms requires an agreement that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one has access to God except through Jesus (John 14:6). Even if followers of Christ entertain questions and doubts (as I suspect we all do in some fashion), if we claim to follow, obey and worship Jesus and not other gods, we have closed our minds around something.