Cargo-Cult ‘Christians’
30th July 2010
In order to be a Christian:
1. It’s not enough to call yourself a Christian, any more than calling yourself a Navy SEAL or a Congressman makes you one.
2. It’s not enough to talk like you think a Christian ought to talk, if you’re not saying the same things that real Christians are saying (and have said for two thousand years).
3. It’s not enough to believe what you think Christ wants you to believe if that’s not what the people who were taught by Christ believe.
4. It’s not enough to dress up like a Christian, as the Episcopal Church is demonstrating in painful detail.
5. It’s not enough to ‘be a Christian in your own way’ if your way is not His Way.
6. It’s not enough to pick and choose your beliefs from what you happen to like among the variety of tasty offerings, like ingredients at a salad bar.
Just like creating a simulacrum of an airfield with a mock control tower and fake hangers won’t bring you any cargo, so creating a crude parody of Christianity that kinda sorta looks like Christianity if you close your eyes and wish real hard won’t bring you any salvation.
Read the New Testament. It was written by people who either knew Christ in the flesh or were taught by those who knew Christ in the flesh. Accept that they know about being Christian than you possibly ever could. If what you believe is inconsistent with what was taught by people who knew Christ or were taught by those who knew Christ, then you aren’t a Christian, and you’re not fooling anybody but yourself.