Who gets to use the word Christian?

     There has been a great flurry of comments today about a 34 year old black NBA player admitting that he is a homosexual young man.  The thing that has me most interested is that there seems to be no way to decided who gets to use the word Christian to describe their position.

      The young man told of his early childhood. How he was taken to Sunday School, helped in Church, was a disciple of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus, the new commandment that "You love one another as I have loved you."  How Jesus does not seem to allow the sexual misconduct of the women to separate him from them. How Jesus seemed to have a great acceptance of all people Samaritans and Romans and lepers.  The young man has claimed for himself the traditions of the Christian faith as he had it taught to him and he celebrates the inclusive love of Jesus as something he tries to follows.

     On the other hand, one of the most blistering attacks of the young man has come from those who want to claim the title of Christian and to use their version of Christianity as the whip to castigate this young man.  The language has been harsh and judgmental.  The blogs and the attacks on him have pour in from a host of people who claim to be Christian and who want to somehow make the reality of this young man go away.

     Sunday at a church I was in we closed worship with the song, "They will know we are Christian by our Love."  I am convinced that Jesus never ask us to be right but he does want us to be loving.  We are not called to be successful. We are not called to be judges. We are called to be kind, compassionate, loving towards each other.  And there are boundaries in love or it is not love. Paul talks a lot about what love is. Nowhere does he say it is cruel or mean to others.   The young man is trying to be an honest and truthful young man and to live as best he can following the words of Jesus. He deserves better from those others who want to claim to be Christian.