What Does it Mean to Be Called a Christian?

In my life I have been to many churches. I grew up in a Mormon family, but as many people do, in my teenage and early young adult years I went out on my own to search for my own faith. I was on a search for a religion that I could truly and fully believe in without feeling like I was only following the faith of my ancestors.

For seven years I went from denomination to denomination, faith to sect, mega churches to Home bible fellowships, and I saw something that truly began to set my mind reeling. Each church claimed to be Christian, but none could fully agree on what being a Christian was.

Obviously growing up LDS many people tried to tell me that I was not Christian. What was the reasoning behind this? Well, they felt that I worshiped a different Christ then them. I hate to run this by you all but as I went from church to church, each denomination had a different idea of who Christ was. Each denomination had a different idea of what the spirit was and how it works in your life. Each denomination had a different idea of who God was. I silently laughed a bit as people automatically sentenced me to a life in hell, while they would full on support and have prayer support meeting with denominations who believed that God was a woman. I even saw during a sessions of General Conference (a bi-yearly meeting where the LDS church leadership speaks encouragement and direction to the members of the church throughout the world) mixed in with the "Christian" protestors outside the building protesting against the LDS peoples right to assemble, protestors who had signs saying that anyone who didn't use only the KJV bible were not Christians either. So where did the word "Christian" come from.

The dictionary definition simplified basically says that a Christian is someone who confesses a belief in Christ. The word is first used in the New Testament in Acts to signify someone who is a disciple of Christ. Even within today's different "Christian" denominations, the idea of what is Christian is different. Some believe that all you have to do is try to do the things Christ taught, other say you have to be baptized, and still others that you have to believe in the Nicene Creed. Even denominations have different feelings of who Christ is. Was he just, or loving, or a mixture of both? Was he black or white? Was he a man with the abilities of God, or God himself? Does he have all power to forgive, or is he just a path to the creator who has the ultimate power of forgiveness? Everyone has a little different view, so if we start excluding some faiths that include Christ in their belief systems, we will have to exclude everyone that is not of our own denomination or church.

When did Christian move from being someone who professes a belief in Christ, to an exclusive term that only one church or denomination can label themselves as? If we were to stick to the Biblical early definitions of what a Christian is, I doubt that any church could in totality call themselves Christian. This is mostly because we don't know enough about the lives and day to day faith of the original Disciples of Christ, especially after their martyrdom.

Maybe it's time that we stop refusing the Christian label from others and start looking at our own lives and focusing on our own faith walks. I believe it's time we stop excluding others and come to the greater cause of creating a united group of people who share the love and charity that Christ was so well known for throughout the bible. This is what I believe the word "Christian" truly embodies.