> The same can be considered a simple form of Christianity as well though.
To an uninformed external observer perhaps. But to be Christian means to accept Christ as your Lord. There is no Christianity without Christ. Not even a “simple form” of it.
To an uninformed external observer perhaps. But to be Christian means to accept Christ as your Lord. There is no Christianity without Christ. Not even a “simple form” of it.
Okay, why not? Then comes all stuff about what does this mean in practice and theory. And there are so many forms of Christianity arguing. The simplest one of them still is just be mindful and kind, for the sake of the Lord who was and is.
This Kumbaya Collective you describe is a behavioral pattern that many folks take part in. Some of them may happen to be Christian, others may not.
But to observe that some Christians are part of the Kumbaya Collective and then go on to imply that being part of the collective is a “simple form” of Christianity is a categorical error.
Behaviour does not imply Faith.
I myself was raised in a Christian organization that did not believe Christ was lord, but rather a person sent by god to show us by example, how to be, spiritually, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. They also don’t believe in the holy trinity.
So do consider that you do not speak for all Christian’s and not all Christian’s hold the same beliefs.
> Although many non-practicing Christians say they do not believe in God “as described in the Bible,” they do tend to believe in some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/05/29/10-key-fi...
I see your point, but also think we're already past the threshold where the term's ownership has moved away from the Church.
It is, for instance, rather common to believe Genesis 1 is more of an allegory than an explicit recounting of God’s work, but that does not preclude someone from accepting Christ as their Lord and choosing to live as His disciple.
I understand it goes against the very defintion of the term, but that's a thing.
I'm trying to steer away from my personal anecdotes, so for instance:
https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-a-Christian.html
> Unfortunately over time, the word “Christian” has lost a great deal of its significance and is often used of someone who is religious or has high moral values but who may or may not be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Many people who do not believe and trust in Jesus Christ consider themselves Christians simply because they go to church or they live in a “Christian” nation.
Suit yourself but I find this reasoning cyclically brain-dead.
That's the same logic regarding any concept at that scale ("American" would be the same case, there is a tight definition, but the wider usage has almost nothing to do with it)
To me that's just how language works.