Labels, Part 1

I have often thought about labels, their convenience and how quick some are to adopt them. I have tended to be careful to attach labels to myself. Last night I had the privilege of visiting the Bosch Baha'i School to see two of my dear college friends who were there for an intensive Ruhi workshop. We delved into a number of excellent questions about beliefs and certainty, including deep discussion of where I am at in my spiritual journey. While eating dinner a young man came up and after being introduced to me astutely asked me one question, "Are you Baha'i?" To which we all gave qualified replies... This later got us to a discussion of labels, the use of the "Baha'i" label, the "seeker" label, the "Christian" label...

When I was young, I called myself a Christian. I was cognizant of the difference between "Catholics" and "Protestants" (as many of my friends were “Catholics” and I “Protestant”) but also repeatedly found myself informing or reminding people that we were all Christians, believers in the same God and the same Christ. In elementary school I became interested in attending church, which my mother and I did sporadically, with some regularity for a couple years at a Presbyterian church, where we found an excellent minister. Then I called myself a “Presbyterian.” I went to a Presbyterian summer camp, which provided me with yearly spiritual boosts. My mother and I stopped attending this Presbyterian church when I was in junior high school following the departure of our beloved minister and our discomfort with the style of his replacement. I was still interested in attending church, so my mom and I went to a few masses at various churches around town, searching for a place that felt like "home". In high school, I had a piano recital in a local Lutheran church, and something about it felt right. So I convinced my mother to go with me. I found in the pastor of this church a wonderful spiritual teacher, one who has always thoughtfully investigated my questions with me. Having never been baptized as a child, I started doing independent study with the pastor to learn more about the Christian faith of the Lutheran bent and on December 6, 1997 (perhaps it was 1998) I became baptized as a Christian. I was now a “Lutheran.” I became highly involved in that church, in its youth group, in teaching confirmation classes, in its service trips to Baja California...

Then in college I began to question my use of the Christian label. This didn’t come entirely out of the blue. Like one of my roommates who had grown up "Christian" and had a number of doubts about the interpretations of the Christian faith, I became less comfortable seeing myself as a Christian. Perhaps this was, in part, because my mother had lived awhile in India and had a broader vision of Christianity. I never doubted the idea of a higher power, but I had greater trouble accepting that the ONLY way to God is through Jesus Christ [I am now forming new sentiments on this matter] and that all who do not recognize Christ are somehow damned to this fiery place called hell. I had trouble believing that God, who had created us different in different parts of the world, would somehow judge non-Christians. These were not new concerns for me, but ones that I began to feel more and more unsettled about the more I saw how many others interpreted and applied the use of the Christian label. To me, it made much more sense that there was this one God (or whatever you want to call it) who had revealed [Himself] in many different forms to different people across the world as best worked in different cultural contexts.

Throughout college I struggled quite a bit with these questions and had a number of excellent discussions about them with others (including with the friends I just saw last night). It was definitely more en vogue at our small liberal arts college to label oneself as "spiritual" than as part of any particular religion (I once wrote an op-ed piece on that distinction for the college paper). I found it much more comfortable and convenient to use this “spiritual” label, because I continued to maintain a strong sense of myself as a spiritual being and, for me, much of college was about getting to know myself more fully; I sought to strip away veils and get to the core of my being. Freshman year I was introduced by (L, who I saw last night) to the Baha'i Faith and discussion of the Faith ended up being how he and my roommate (A, who I also saw last night) got to know each other... she continued to investigate the Faith, but, at that time, I didn't really know where to go to learn more.

I finished college four years ago, so where does that leave me now? More to come in part 2. Stay tuned! :) Meanwhile, I welcome your thoughts, and any writings you want to share related to any of what I've just written. I'd love to hear about your journey in choosing or rejecting different labels for yourself.