Atheist Christian???

In honor of what is perhaps the greatest coup by chocolate and egg marketers (eg Easter) I am going to post about religion. You may stop cringing Pat for this is not to be the blogger equivalent of a crusade.

I believe in God. Let’s get that out of the way off the bat shall we. I say this because many people in my acquaintance are surprised to learn this. Apparently I don’t seem like the type. I would talk about this but that is a matter for another day.

Although I believe in God, I don’t consider myself a practicing Christian. I went to church on a pretty regular basis until early adulthood, even taught Sunday School for awhile but I haven’t attended with any kind of regularity since I started college. I suppose that makes me what my minister likes to call a Christmas and Easter Christian. More on that later. There are many reasons for my lack of church attendance in recent years but the main one is that I don’t feel that attending church at this point in my life is a necessary component of my religious beliefs. Put another way, I don’t need to go to church to believe in God, Jesus and so on. Obviously many are going to disagree with this view and do.

The question that inspired this post is where does someone like me fit in in the religious vs not religious debate. As I’ve said, I identify as Christian but I do not attend church. In recent times this has made me feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place. Many of my fellow Christians few me as a traitor, sell out, poser and so on. Fair enough but people on the other side of the debate have a tendency to lump me in with people who hand out cards on campus. I don’t think either is a fair assessment. There doesn’t seem to be a happy medium. You’re either with us or against us sort of thing and I don’t think that’s fair. Religion is a choice and not only should everyone be free to choose what if any religion to practice/identify with, so too should there be a choice in how they do so. Organized religion is not for everyone but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t be religious.

Which brings me to the Christmas/Easter Christian thing. I have many issues with this label, mainly for the reasons mentioned above. It suggests that if you only attend certain days you are not really Christian. That might even be true but not for everyone and besides, does it matter? Who cares if someone chooses to only go to church those two days of the year. Is anyone getting hurt? Who gives us the right to say when or why someone should attend. This isn’t school; there’s no attendance list, no 20 percent for participation and attendance. Are you less of a believer if you attend one day a year or not at all? Are you automatically a ‘better’ Christian if you attend every day. I don’t think so.