Not THAT Kind of Christian!

Yesterday, I got confronted with my secret–it had finally gotten out. I was talking with one of my clients, whom I have known for a year and a half. In the middle of the conversation, he said, “I heard that you used to be a pastor!”

I told him that yes, that’s true. (I consider myself to still be a pastor, ordination intact and everything, but that’s not the point.)  I asked him where he’d learned the secret, and he indicated one of my colleagues. Oh well–it was inevitable.

Don’t get me wrong–my faith was not the secret. My ordination was the secret. My Christianity is something I wear on my sleeve–literally, with a big Celtic cross tattooed on my right forearm. Somehow, he had missed it. Religion isn’t something we talk about with clients much unless they bring it up. And his only mention of religion in the past eighteen months has been negative.

My client is Native American, so his experience of Christianity has been in the context of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, which pushed his people out of their homelands and into reservations. His only experience of my religion has been when white Christians ripped Indigenous children from their families, put them into boarding schools, and tried to “civilize” them. No, he doesn’t think much of Christians.

“Yes, that’s true,” I told him. “I am a pastor. I just don’t tell my clients that, because from the moment they hear I’m a pastor, they’ll judge me, for good or for bad. The ones who are Christians will try to make me their pastor, and I’m not their pastor–I’m their case manager. The ones who don’t like Christians will judge me negatively for it.”

So, while I wear my cross on my arm, and try to live the love of Jesus, I don’t go around advertising my ordination.

Then, my client said, “There was a time when I would have judged you, if I’d known it. Because most Christians are judgmental assholes. But you’ve been with me through good times and through tough times, and I know that you’re not THAT kind of Christian.”

We talked for a while about that. I apologized for the behavior of “my people,” and by that, I meant white Christians. I explained that I try not to follow the examples of those who oppressed his people, but that I try to follow Jesus, instead. I told him that I try not to get caught up in judgement, but instead try to live in love. By the end of the conversation, he said, “Man–you’re all right!”

Client relationship saved!

But as I reflect on that conversation, it breaks my heart that so many believers these days find themselves having to say, “I’m not THAT kind of Christian.”  Because the name of our religion has become synonymous with bigotry, oppression, religious legalism, and judgment. One reason that Christianity has declined so much over the past few decades is because we’ve used the Bible as a weapon against those we dislike–and the world is catching on.

Rather than getting discouraged, I’m hopeful. If I was able to save this relationship with my client simply by living the love of Jesus and proving his prejudices against Christians wrong in my case–I can do the same with others. And if I can do that, you can, too. We can turn the tide and show the world that we’re not THAT kind of Christian.

Because isn’t a Christian supposed to act–you know–like Jesus?