When I recently applied to join the League of Reformed Bloggers (LORB), I was sent a survey to ask if I subscribed to the five solas, and one of several confessions. In particular, I was asked if I hold onto:

a high view of God’s sovereignty in salvation - in otherwords, God saves us on the basis of His choice or election, not on the basis of any foreseen faith in us. Furthermore, his sovereignty extends to His governance of all the affairs of creation. The other thing I mentioned is that all of the confessions affirm the five points of Calvinism.

Although I would have unquestioningly accepted all of those tenets once, I found myself wavering. And it should have been okay for me to not qualify, but I found that it troubled me. I don’t know why that is the case. After all, didn’t I already declare myself a “misfit among misfits,” someone who is very much in the outer of almost every category you can think of? Was it a need to belong? Or perhaps it was more an uneasiness that while I do not belong to the Reformed camp, I found myself not wholeheartedly satisfied with any of the alternatives. I am not sure if I am Reformed. Neither am I Lutheran, nor am I Arminian. My heritage and past affiliations included dispensationalist, Calvinist, Methodist, Wesleyan, Pentecostal, Covenant and Reformed. Currently, I think the most accurate label is Questioning or if you like, Questionable! I saw the group called un-Right Christian, but I just am not sure of the connotation of the label, for while I won’t label myself a Right Winger, I am a little suspiscious of being labeled a Leftist.



What the heck! I told myself. Maybe there are others like me out there. Are there? Are you an uncategorized Christian? A Christian without a label? Someone who just doesn’t fit anywhere else? Perhaps we can form our own Blog-ring, or Alliance or League or whatnot. This may come to naught, but hey it is worth an attempt! So, if you are interested please leave a comment to this post!



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UPDATE:

I am going to give Un-Right Christian a go and join up - I had a think or two about it, and realize that un-Right doesn’t have to be Left. In any case, I still think it might be a fun idea to form a Christian Bloggers Without a Label group. Anyone out there interested??

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Now, I must admit that I am a novice when it comes to things in and around the Blogosphere, but perhaps someone would like to sponsor such a group. If there is none, I am willing to spearhead such an alliance. However, if there were another, more experienced blogger out there, who can point the way, and help to form this group, so much the better. What would be the requirements of such a group? I think it would be this: A firm commitment to the historic gospel of Jesus Christ and a sense of non-belongingness to the standard Christian labels. What shall we call ourselves? Christian Bloggers Without A Label (CBWAL). If interested, please leave a comment to this post.

If you own a blog and you would like to do us a favor, please link to this post and help us publicize to the rest of blogosphere.

Prelude: This is probably the fifth title, and re-write for this post. I am a little disturbed by what I have been reading on several blogs the past two or three evenings. I am disturbed and troubled, and I am still trying to make sense of what to say. In fact, I was not only disturbed and troubled, but I was also discouraged, and nearly deleted my entire blog last night because I found it just too uneasy to be “here”. It reinforced my sense of not belonging here somehow and I was tempted to give up! In any case, I will try to put some sense to what I have been thinking about in this post/rant/incoherent babbling…

I would like to pose a question to all you bloggers out there who think that the fate of the nation’s morality hung on the balance with this election. Do you think that if one side won the election, the morality of the nation will be saved from those who have been dragging the moral fabric of society down the gutters, and if the other side won, this will be the beginning of the end for the nation, and we are heading towards a Sodom-Gomorrah type destiny?

Which do you think would be an easier society for the church to flourish? Does the accomplishment of the misson of the church depends on who won the election? Sure there will be effects, but does it really, truly matter who won the election? Wouldn’t American society remain, well American? Wouldn’t the ministry of the church remain by and large the same? Aren’t there more important things for us to concentrate on?

Whoever wins this election, the Church will still find a dominant society that is pre-disposed to find offense in the Cross. We will still find a society who thinks the supernatural is mythical and who misunderstands what it means to be a God-follower. Our efforts to reach the rest of society with the message of God’s love will not change. It will be no easier to preach the gospel whether or not the next nomination for Chief Justice is more likely to support certain legal positions.

Please don’t mind me. Recently it seems I have more questions than answers. For instance, a couple days ago, I was contemplating admission to a particular group of bloggers. I asked to join the alliance, and was sent an email which asked whether or not I accepted certain tenets of the Christian faith. I was a little disturbed that I couldn’t really answer the question in a clear cut fashion. I was wondering what kind of a Christian I was. Frankly I was a little upset that I didn’t seem to belong. Then I realized that perhaps I belong to a group of Christians who just don’t belong. I am one of those questioning Christians, or perhaps Questionable Christians. In any case, I would like to question the assumptions of those who think that Christianity is about a simple set of behavioral rules, moral standards, and political platforms.

Perhaps, the best way to tackle the set of questions I have introduced is to consider what would be Jesus’ priorities as a citizen of a country. As a group of Christians, or as a Church, and as individual Christians, what should be our priorities?

Along similar lines, I recently came across a blog that seemed to ask the right questions in terms of the seeming preoccupation with sex in this society and in the blogosphere. According to Richard Hall, our priorities when it comes to sex are misplaced because we have simply imitated the mores of the rest of society. Too often, this imitation and reflection of society’s values and concerns, drive the church’s mission, rather than taking the lead from the Lord and letting Him direct our set of concerns, priorities and our mission.

Perhaps the question we need to ask is: “What does rendering to Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s, and rendering to God’s what belongs to God’s”? I believe at a minimum rendering to Ceasar means being a good citizen. So our question would be what are our duties as good citizens? Rendering to God means being a good follower of Christ, and obviously our question here is what are our priorities as followers of Christ? And the ultimate question is “Ought the two priorities always be aligned with each other?” I think the Biblical account, hints at least, that this need not always be the case. And, if we were to take the principles of the Sermon on the Mount to heart, we must always seek first the Kingdom of Heaven. So our final question is, what does it mean to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven for the church’s role in this nation and for this age?