Theoblogy
The reason that I’ve been pushing this new label, incarnational Christian, is that I don’t feel that the options available to me work. I may be an evangelical Christian, a liberal Christian, or a progressive Christian. I may even be a mainline Christian. But each of those terms has its own shortcomings, as I’ve written about in previous posts.
I’m looking for a new label, a new category. And, honestly, as another presidential election approaches, I want a way to describe myself to friends, reporters, and blog readers that does not rely on the old, politicized categories.
To recap:
- Yes, everyone has a label within Christianity. Go ahead and tell people that you’re “just a Christian.” It doesn’t work.
- Evangelical has become a political and cultural marker, and I don’t fit in the same camp as James Dobson.
- I’m not particularly liberal.
- I don’t know what progressive means.
- And I’m not mainline because I don’t live in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
I’m not going to campaign on behalf of this term. I’m not going to put out a press release or build a new website. If it catches on, great. If not, then I’ll just be my own little tribe of Christian.
But, if you’re in on this with me, here’s what I think we can do:
- Change your Facebook religion/philosophy to “incarnational Christian.”
- Put it in the bio on your blog, on Twitter, etc.
- Talk and post and tweet about what it means to be an incarnational Christian.
- If a reporter asks you for a quote about politics, insist that you be identified as an incarnational Christian in the article.
What other tactics do you suggest?
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