Happy Easter: are you a religious or are you a follower of Christ?

Today is Easter and I have so much on my mind and my heart. I no longer identify with Christianity and yet I have been shaped so deeply by it, for better and for worse. 

My mother (aptly name Mary), named me Christina because she said I was her miracle baby (for health reasons, I won’t go into here). She raised me to walk in the path of Christ. And at multiple points throughout my life, I had to ask myself ‘am I being a following of Christ or am I merely being a religious Christian?’

When I was young, my grandfather made me a beautiful wood plaque with the bible verse for my name- Psalms 86:11. “Teach me thy way, oh lord, I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart, that I may fear thy name.” The general translation is, essentially, teach me your path, I will emulate it and in doing so, will honor you. 

And if you read the bible, Christ laid out a path of actions that clearly demonstrates the type of people his followers should be. He cared for the sick, the poor, the needy. He defended the marginalized and the oppressed. And he preached kindness and empathy at every turn. Loving our neighbor as ourselves was #1 on his list of priorities.

We live in a time when over 500,000 people died from COVID in the US alone (largely because people didn't wear masks or socially distance and there was minimal financial support from state and federal governments to enable marginalized individuals to do this without hardship/burden). There have been 107 mass shootings in 2021 thus far. The US has the highest rates of incarceration of any country in the world. The wealth gap is expanding, homelessness is rising. The list goes on. By the measures used to document empathy, we are often failing; while we are performing on all measures related to apathy and violence. We are a country (as a legislative whole) that does not care for our neighbor. And so often it’s (white) Christians I see defending, rationalizing, and upholding these systems and behaviors of violence and oppression. 

So on this Easter, as you sit with your family, ask them and yourselves: am I follower of Christ or am I religious?

Do you love, support and defend the rights of individuals who are LGBTQ? or are you religious?

Do you protect and advocate for the lives and wholeness of Black people, Asian people, Latinx people, and other People of Color? or are you religious?

Do you care for the homeless, protect those most vulnerable and support legislation that makes wages and housing fair and equitable? or are you religious?

The list of prompts goes on but ultimately ask yourself: do your words, your actions, and your vote align with the message of Christ? Or are you merely religious? 

I am not asking these questions out of judgment; I am asking them to prompt and encourage Svadhyaya (self-study). 

No one is perfect- I am learning and growing all the time. Often the process is painful (sometimes embarrassing and humiliating and shameful) as I am exposed to my blind spots, my inconsistencies, my hypocrisies. But it is infinitely better to free myself from these limiting feelings, and move through the discomfort into a place of enlightenment and growth where I can be better to others rather than to avoid the pain altogether which inherently means I’ll cause pain to them instead. 

I’m not a Christian anymore. I don’t believe Jesus died and came back to life. I don’t care if there is a heaven or a hell. It doesn’t matter to me if there if there are no gods or hundreds. I believe what matters is not what happens after we die but what we do with the time we are alive. I believe it is my responsibility to help others and to try to make the world a better, kinder, more just place. 

I am not a Christian, but I think to some extent my beliefs are rooted in the idea of being a follower of Christ.