I, er, don’t think that means what you think it means.
(Or, what WhyNot said. BTW, I count myself as a non-practicing Jew by ethnic definition.)
What you call an explanation, I call a completely unrelated assertion that frankly means nothing to me. A non-practicing Christian is not a Christian, period, because religious faith–not art, not culture, not music, not genetics–is what defines Christianity. A non-practicing Jew can still be a Jew because of their racial and cultural heritage; I would count the vast majority of the non-Arabic population of Israel Jewish, for example–they speak Hebrew, they fight for the right to live in a Jewish land, etc.–but outside of Jerusalem the practice of the Jewish faith by that country’s populace is rare.
BTW, if you read the Wikipedia article you linked to, you’ll notice that “Cultural Christian” is not a self-identified (or even seriously identified) group, but rather an insult which is based on the target’s perceived shortcomings in faith, not their cultural identity.
OTOH, see this Wikipedia article for a discussion of what “non-practicing Jew” really means. It’s completely and totally irrelevant to the discussion at hand, though.
I believe Jesus Christ existed but not that he was the literal Son of God nor that dying for our sins stuff. Am I a Christian?
There are those who do self-identify as culturally Christian, without the pejorative, precicely because they were brought up Christian but aren’t as serious as following the faith as Biblical Christians. Some are even agnostic or atheist.
Not to Chick tract level (since that would involve quite a lot of hatred and so would get a higher rating (at least) anyway), but it can be preaching.
Take, say, Snakes on a Plane. Sam Jackson spends the film defeating snakes, saving the day, and generally being pretty damn cool. And then there’s a scene at the end; a minor character asks, “Hey, how come you’re so badass?”, and Sam replies “Because I believe in God. It’s through him that I have the faith and power to do what I do”.
One scene, but it sets up the whole rest of the film as a preaching message. You want to be cool, kids? You want to kick ass? God’s the way to that.
Same with this film, I imagine. It’s an inspirational story; one man and a team do amazing things; how do they do it? They believe in God. You want to be a great team, kids? Just believe in God…
Anyway, I think my point stands with any kind of “here’s a really cool person/team doing great things” film. One scene, by providing motivation or explanation for that victory, can turn the whole film into a preaching message.
I think you just described a good number of Muslims, Jews and Atheists.
That statement about yourself you just made is not enough to describe your religious faith… period.
Did they start showing Speedy Gonzalez in non-adult hours again? For a while they weren’t because some moron was afraid to offend Hispanics (I’ve never met a Hispanic who didn’t love Espiri)
There is no such thing as “cultural” Christianity. It isn’t like Judaism which exists as an ethnic and cultural identity independent of religious doctrine. Christianity is ONLY religious doctrine. It has no ethnic or cultural identifyers outside of belief. There can be secular Jews because it’s an ethnicity as well as a religion. There can’t be secular Christians because it has no ethnicity or distinct cultural tradition.
I contend that there’s no Christian culture that isn’t directly related to belief in Christ and/or related stuff like saints, Biblical stories, etc, and furthermore that an atheistic Christian is a “non-practicing Christian”, which means they’re not Christian at all. Which God their parents or grandparents or great-grandparents may or may not have been forced to take on the threat of death and/or rape, is completely irrelevant. And it has nothing to do with a movie that’s obviously about a football coach converting kids into practicing Christianity, which, BTW, is called proseletyzing (sp?).
I’m gonna have to disagree with this. I understand what you’re saying but I think Christianity has been around long enough that people who don’t practice or attend still consider themselves Christian by heritage because their parents were or they “believe” they just don’t attend. They may try to live by the golden rule and that’s the extent of it for them. I wouldn’t really consider them Christian either but I understand their claim to the title. There’s lots of practicing Christians I wouldn’t consider Christians because they make little or no real effort to live the principles Christ taught even though they attend regularly.
I remember being surprised when my wife referred to our kids as Catholic simply because they their grandmother was and she was too even though she had never attended in the years I knew her. To her family if you’re born into the family then you’re Catholic, by default.
Granted that some like myself choose to separate themselves from that title regardless of their heritage or former beliefs. However I do think that there are cultural Christians. They have made it so by sheer numbers.