Just What Do You Mean By "Christian?"

Because I lived in Michigan for twelve years, I've watched with some interest as events unfolded following the arrest of twelve members of the Hutaree "Christian Militia" group last month.  The arrests broke up their apparent plan to kill local law enforcement officers.  There are lots of things to ponder with this, but the one that I keep coming back to is their designation as a "Christian" Militia group.  Christian?  How so?

Sure, I've been to their website and seen prooftexts from the Bible.  It seems that "Christian" was part of their own self-designation.  And it seems to have been pretty easily picked up and passed on by the media.

But "Christian?"  Frankly, I'm ready to declare the word "Christian" as meaningless in the English language.  Think about this:

There are Amish who live near these Hutaree folks.  Are they Christian?  Is Mother Theresa a Christian?  Is Jeremiah Wright a Christian? Are the snake handling sects in Appalachia Christian?  (I lived in Asheville, NC also.)  Is Glen Beck - a Mormon - a Christian?  I have heard each of these people claim the designation, and have seen them publicly referred to as "Christian."  You see where I am going with this:  If the one word "Christian" can refer to all of those people with their array of convictions and lifestyles, can the word have any meaning left?

The usual response to this confusion is for one party to clearly define their use of the word "Christian" and use that definition to affirm that they are a true Christian and whoever they disagree with is not.  That may work among our own tribe and on our own reservations, but it doesn't do a thing for public discussion.  I may think that these Hutaree folks are not Christians (and I do think that, actually), but they are still given the designation on the nightly news.

Usually, I'm inclined to enjoy diversity.  And I'm not inclined to argue much with a person's self designation.  I'll try and be faithful to my convictions and let God sort things out in the end.  But at some point people like the Hutaree clan are used to give me a bad name - and I can only begin to guess what Jesus must think of it all.

So what's a person to do?  I am certainly not giving up Jesus, or my experience of His grace.  I still want to be generous about just who is in the family and who is not even while maintaining my own convictions and accountability.  Perhaps the best I can hope for is that the people I interact with will be able to see something at work in me that makes itself clear apart from any label.