Many a time I have been asked, “Are you born again?” On most occasions it was as if the questioners had erected a wall around them and I did not have the password to enter their gated community. Each time my face wore a puzzled look.
There are many who behave as if being born again means gaining membership to an exclusive club of the “saved”. I recently encountered one such youngster who told me she was interested in apologetics, the science of defending the faith. It is fine as long as it is to assert one’s convictions, but more often than not it boils down to being critical of other religions or world views.
The term ‘born again’ apparently became popular with the evangelical Christian renewal in the United States in the 1960s. But it was perhaps Charles Wendell Colson, better known as Chuck Colson, who gave a cultural construct to it with his book Born Again, where he speaks of his conversion. He was one of those named in the Watergate conspiracy. He later found the Prison Fellowship International.
With the many renewal movements in different churches in India, the idea gained ground here too.
The unquestioning Christian enthusiasm is now bandied about in matrimonial columns as one of the personality traits or possessions that a prospective bride or groom seeks.
Sample this:
Wanted Brides—Born again 26/178/fair/slim, BE work IT field, boy seeks born again, simple girl working at … able to converse in English from spiritual family….
The fetish for ‘fair’ skin or ‘wheatish’ complexion only shows the entrenched caste bias in our community. A born-again Christian ought to judge a person by ‘the content of his or her character’ rather than the ‘colour of their skin’.
But the quintessential Christian family [in Kerala] that is interested in dowry needs more than just educational and professional qualifications to find the ‘perfect’ match! It needs a rhetorical label such as‘born again’.
What is the meaning of being ‘born again’ if it is not about acquiring new attitudes? The Oxford Dictionary of Learning says: born-again, adjective, “relating to or denoting a person who has converted to a personal faith in Christ (with reference to John 3:3)”.
Just how is a personal relationship with Christ life-changing? For instance, what should be the born-again Christians’ attitude towards money? Many think it is the password to attaining riches. The signature verse for televangelists promising such prosperity is John 10: 10: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
But the Scripture also says that when the multitudes that came out to be baptised by John the Baptist asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’, he answered them: “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise… and be content with your wages.”
Jesus spent more time among the poor than among the rich. In his Sermon on the Mount, he says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
But any such talk is sneered at. I remember how a friend’s sermon about making ethical choices in investments was met with indifference. There were attempts at being defensive like the “rich young ruler” who came up to Jesus to know what he should do to have eternal life.
Last year, the Church of England withdrew investment from Vedanta, which is involved in a mining project in Orissa. The church was dissatisfied with its respect for human rights. As ‘spiritually reborn Christians’, would we rearrange our finances?
Not just about personal finances, many people do not appreciate pulpit talks about social inequality too. “We took on personal salvation—we need our sins redeemed, and we need our Saviour,” says Rick Warren, author of the bestseller Purpose Driven Life. But “some people tended to go too individualistic, and justice and righteousness issues were overlooked.”
Can we overstate the importance of individual salvation when the reconstruction of communities is as, or even more, important? Can personal faith substitute for social conscience?
Tri Robinson says once he realised it, he no longer could separate his passion for the Kingdom of God from his commitment to care for the environment. He is the pastor of a church in the United States. “I had to tell everyone that Christians should not only care about creation but had been mandated by God to be leaders in a worldwide environmental movement. I shared this mandate with my church, I wrote a book on caring for creation (Saving God’s Green Earth)…. Together with other like-hearted people I started a ministry called ‘Let’s Tend the Garden’. … I told everyone that caring for the creation is not an option but a commission, especially for those who value and believe God’s word in his Bible.”
Do we share this conviction? As Christians, are we ready to change our practices?
The Nicodemus question still torments my heart. “How can a person be born again?”
There are many who behave as if being born again means gaining membership to an exclusive club of the “saved”. I recently encountered one such youngster who told me she was interested in apologetics, the science of defending the faith. It is fine as long as it is to assert one’s convictions, but more often than not it boils down to being critical of other religions or world views.
The term ‘born again’ apparently became popular with the evangelical Christian renewal in the United States in the 1960s. But it was perhaps Charles Wendell Colson, better known as Chuck Colson, who gave a cultural construct to it with his book Born Again, where he speaks of his conversion. He was one of those named in the Watergate conspiracy. He later found the Prison Fellowship International.
With the many renewal movements in different churches in India, the idea gained ground here too.
The unquestioning Christian enthusiasm is now bandied about in matrimonial columns as one of the personality traits or possessions that a prospective bride or groom seeks.
Sample this:
Wanted Brides—Born again 26/178/fair/slim, BE work IT field, boy seeks born again, simple girl working at … able to converse in English from spiritual family….
The fetish for ‘fair’ skin or ‘wheatish’ complexion only shows the entrenched caste bias in our community. A born-again Christian ought to judge a person by ‘the content of his or her character’ rather than the ‘colour of their skin’.
But the quintessential Christian family [in Kerala] that is interested in dowry needs more than just educational and professional qualifications to find the ‘perfect’ match! It needs a rhetorical label such as‘born again’.
What is the meaning of being ‘born again’ if it is not about acquiring new attitudes? The Oxford Dictionary of Learning says: born-again, adjective, “relating to or denoting a person who has converted to a personal faith in Christ (with reference to John 3:3)”.
Just how is a personal relationship with Christ life-changing? For instance, what should be the born-again Christians’ attitude towards money? Many think it is the password to attaining riches. The signature verse for televangelists promising such prosperity is John 10: 10: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
But the Scripture also says that when the multitudes that came out to be baptised by John the Baptist asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’, he answered them: “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise… and be content with your wages.”
Jesus spent more time among the poor than among the rich. In his Sermon on the Mount, he says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
But any such talk is sneered at. I remember how a friend’s sermon about making ethical choices in investments was met with indifference. There were attempts at being defensive like the “rich young ruler” who came up to Jesus to know what he should do to have eternal life.
Last year, the Church of England withdrew investment from Vedanta, which is involved in a mining project in Orissa. The church was dissatisfied with its respect for human rights. As ‘spiritually reborn Christians’, would we rearrange our finances?
Not just about personal finances, many people do not appreciate pulpit talks about social inequality too. “We took on personal salvation—we need our sins redeemed, and we need our Saviour,” says Rick Warren, author of the bestseller Purpose Driven Life. But “some people tended to go too individualistic, and justice and righteousness issues were overlooked.”
Can we overstate the importance of individual salvation when the reconstruction of communities is as, or even more, important? Can personal faith substitute for social conscience?
Tri Robinson says once he realised it, he no longer could separate his passion for the Kingdom of God from his commitment to care for the environment. He is the pastor of a church in the United States. “I had to tell everyone that Christians should not only care about creation but had been mandated by God to be leaders in a worldwide environmental movement. I shared this mandate with my church, I wrote a book on caring for creation (Saving God’s Green Earth)…. Together with other like-hearted people I started a ministry called ‘Let’s Tend the Garden’. … I told everyone that caring for the creation is not an option but a commission, especially for those who value and believe God’s word in his Bible.”
Do we share this conviction? As Christians, are we ready to change our practices?
The Nicodemus question still torments my heart. “How can a person be born again?”
