JSOM's 4 rules for living a small c christian life. Or reasons why this blog is called Liberal Rapture

This post is personal and a bit presumptuous. Take what you like and leave the rest. I wrote it a while back when I was thinking about Rick Warren.

As I've said before, I am a small "c" christian. As sacrilegious as it seems nowadays, I am a christian who sees personal salvation as the LAST stop, not the first.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."-John 3:16 (KJV) is the most quoted verse by the evangelicals, almost always without context. It has morphed into a demand that to be "saved" (that is, to avoid Hell after death.) one must take a rabbi named Jesus as one's personal saviour FIRST. Of course, that's not what that quote above says at all. Nor does the life of Jesus imply that he demanded personal veneration as a path. This is the purview of cult leaders, not spiritual leaders.

He clearly required a whole hell of a lot from those who expected to follow him. Most did not make the cut. It is damned hard to give up everything and "follow me" as he put it. This "way of life" is exacting. I both believe the answer is in this "way", laid out in the 4 gospels, (and some of the Apocrypha) and I am painfully bad in all my approaches to it. But I get better as time goes by.

Too often this "personal salvation" business is actually a way to reaffirm a world view that the "saved" person already feels comfortable with. And it does do a lot a good. Most of the evangelicals I know are honest and true -qualities sorely missing in our irony laden culture. (FYI: If everything is ironic, nothing is ironic).

The trouble arises not from living this "way" - it comes from insisting that it is the only "way".

Now here is a confession that seems ironic, but isn't. I believe it IS the way if your goal is a spiritual life and a good afterlife.

It is also supremely self centered. I practice my faith so I can get into "heaven." That means attempting to accept what is seemingly unsupportable. The core of the gospels is not John 3/15. It is is Luke 15-32. The prodigal son story is counter intuitive and alarming. And revolutionary. And hard to stomach. The worst wastrel gets a party when he gets "home" to the father.

So my current understanding of the small "c" christian practice, as laid out by Jesus, is, in part this.

1. Love others as yourself. (The virtue here is in loving those who seem unlovable. Everyone loves kittens and a cute baby. I believe the lesson here is to love the "Roman tax collector". Include them. God does. )

2. Help people who are worse off than you. (This practice lessens desire which is essential for "eternal life." All mature versions of heaven or nirvana are desire-less. So finding a way into this experience is helpful. Obviously, killing yourself and others to get to 70 virgins is not a mature version. Sex is dandy. Making love is dandier. 70 partners in one room is a description of hell, not heaven.)

3. Get a community. Not just a family. (Jesus was the quintessential anti-family man.)
This one is hardest for me. I am a loner by nature. Family is important. Community is essential.
12 dudes and some very important women are the template in this case. Mix and match.

(The ladies stuck around to the bitter end, by the by. Women were also the ones who discovered the empty tomb and were the first to say, essentially, look over here, this is where the real stuff has happened, as the men scampered about confused. An archetype that persists to this day.)

And the practice that separates Christianity from mere ethical living:

4. Remember to remember that you are loved already no matter what.

I happen to favor Saint Thomas. He's in the story for a reason. Not to dismiss doubt - but to remind that it is part of the trip.

So far I see no reason to believe that God cares if anyone is a Christian, or anything else, or believes in nothing. So I don't. God does not have an agenda. We do.

She/He was loving enough to show us a fantastic example of how to move on metaphysically. If we want to. Which is what John 3:15 is really about. But we don't have to follow the lead. There are no horrific consequences for those who are not "saved" - whatever that is. However, there are consequences for behavior.

As I said I favor Thomas. I don't trust blind allegiance. In fact, it drives me around the bend. False messiahs are dangerous and never allow questions. Real ones always say "go ahead, poke around...doubt."