I Am an Incarnational Christian: The Tactics

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?