Some thoughts on faith. OK... a lot of thoughts on faith.

This is crazy. Hannah, I logged on tonight to write about pretty much exactly what you just wrote about. And we didn’t even talk about it while we were sitting there today, but I was thinking about that too! Only I have a little bit of a different spin, but basically the same idea.

So I went to see this speaker today. Her name was Krista Tippett and she hosts the weekly radio show “Speaking of Faith” that airs on NPR on Sundays at 7am. The last time I listened to the radio at 7am on a Sunday was pretty much never, but I have heard her on the radio a few other times when listening to NPR. And let me tell you, I don’t know where she stands on the Jesus scale, but this lady understands religion. The gist of her talk was about religion in mass media, and why it deserves attention. One of her points was that people who are religious get a lot of flack about not being intellectual. Granted, not all religious people are, but I know a lot of religious people who have given a lot of thought to their beliefs and the ways in which those beliefs govern their lives. Intellectuals and scholars can pour all of their energy into figuring out what makes things work, or how history unfolded, or where we came from, but at the end of the day, none of that answers the innate questions that people have about what their purpose is, or how to love, or who they should become. Religion answers those questions, no matter how far we go scientifically, things like life, death, love, and purpose can never be understood with deductive logic; these are things which at their very core are spiritual questions.

So, with that being said, she talked about how often, when people are religious, that is what defines them in the media. Mitt Romney was never just a guy running for president. He was the Mormon running for president. For the media, beliefs are something that a person must justify. If someone in the media is a professed Christian, he or she must first show people that he or she is also a thinking person who deserves credibility. Why is this not the other way around? Tippett talked about the word evangelical, which has come to mean many things in America: fundamentalist, right wing, extremist, political, proselytism, etc. She pointed out that evangelicals have been around a lot longer than their reputation, which has lately been tarnished. I think a similar thing has happened to the word Christian which is what Hannah was getting at. Being Christian today holds all of these stigmas. To non-christians who meet Christians, a Christian is probably considered any or all of the following: a fetus lover, a homophobic, a converter, a dumb person, a republican, a hypocrite, a follower (as in, they proverbially “drank the kool-aid”), and the list goes on… I honestly wouldn’t categorize myself as any of those things, except maybe hypocrite and fetus lover, but I digress.

Yet, I still feel very strongly about categorizing myself as a Christian. Maybe it’s the writer in me, but I really don’t want to give up on the word. I know people have messed it up with the crusades, and the hypocrisy, but it is such a good word. I mean, look up Christian on Wikipedia: “one who professes belief in Jesus as Christ or follows the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus; one who lives according to the teachings of Jesus.” It’s a good word. And I want to take it back. I want to reclaim the word from all of the people who have used it in vain, who have used it to make money, who have used it to kill, or hate. And I see no point in trying so hard to separate myself from the people who are Christians whom I don’t agree with, because I don’t see it as doing any good. I try not to resent very many people, because it stirs up emotions in me that I don’t really like (this is where we need code words so that I could mention a few of the people who I have a hard time not resenting).

And I totally agree with Hannah about the sentiment that I want to learn to have a better conversation with God on a regular basis. I feel like that’s a big part of why Jesus came: to get the conversation going, and to bridge the gap. And it’s so easy to feel like it is pointless talking to God. Satan tries so hard to convince us of that. I feel like I’ve been giving him a foothold lately, every time I think for a second that there is no one listening when I pray. Ironically, this woman who is (probably) not even a Christian reminded me that religion is a valid thing that fills people’s lives and changes the way they live and that is commendable. And the other thing I learned is that the Christian “box” that we think people put us in is probably not as small as we think it is. Most people I meet (not all, by any stretch) do not make nearly as many assumptions about my faith as I think they do. That’s why it is encouraging to talk about faith issues: because people are a lot more open to it than you’d think. So all that to say that I agree with Hannah that it can be frustrating to be labeled, but I disagree in that I don’t mind the label as much as I used to. If people want to look down on me for being a Christian, then they are entitled to that, and it probably means that I’m doing something right. And if my walk with God, my peripateo, can be more consistent and guided and pure and holy, then I don’t really care what label people give me.

[I always get more long-winded when I’m working at the desk, so sorry for basically writing a dissertation. I love you ladies, and I’ll talk to all of you soon!]

Love,

Katesters

Also... some pictures. Which you may or may not have seen on facebook.

Spring is HERE! ( I generally love foreign words for seasons. Spring in Italian is primavera which I think just sounds like a sauce. So I stuck with English.)