Posted this past weekend, BuzzFeed's "I'm Christian, But I'm Not" is already racking up millions of views between YouTube and Facebook, and that's a whole lot of people being exposed to some problematic ideas. Because BuzzFeed has become such a big powerhouse in the area of online video, it's simply not possible to brush them off when they present problematic fallacies as truth for their millions of viewers.
"I'm Christian, But I'm Not" mentions Jesus Christ a grand total of zero times in its two minute run time. One would hope that a video purporting to show Christians in a positive light would at least spare some of that spotlight for the Saviour. That's a pretty glaring omission just from a surface level, but the presentation of this video makes some really damaging assumptions all by itself.
The very first statement of "I'm Christian, But I'm Not" finishes that title with the word homophobic. I've talked about Christianity and homosexuality on this blog before, so I'm not going to spend a huge amount of time on this, but there's a huge misconception that even allows this statement to be included in this video. The base assumption of homophobia is that as a homophobic person, you hate homosexuals. The base assumption of Christianity is that as a Christian, you show Christ's love to everyone, just as it was shown to you. If you're a Christian, Christ has called you to love others as you are loved. So, as a Christian, no, you aren't homophobic, and the assumption that you are is ridiculous. When it comes to homosexuality and the Bible, that's where our differences are.
Along the same lines, "I'm Christian, But I'm Not" also ends that statement with close-minded. The assumption here is that Christians are against new ideas. I can't understand the logic that leads someone to dismiss roughly two billion people on the planet as close-minded. In fairness, the number of reported Christians is always going to include those who claim the faith, but are not truly saved. The result of that is problematic teaching and actions that are attributed to Christians. There's nothing quite so narrow-minded, however, as dismissing such a large group of diverse and varied people as incapable of accepting new ideas. Christians have always been a big part of developments in education, aid missions, science, medicine, and the arts. Disagreeing with someone's faith doesn't make them close-minded, only reflects poorly on the one making such a limiting assumption.
There's a ton of other statements in this video that are problematic in their own right, and
this post from The Federalist analyzes the entire video quite well, if you want a better look at the issues presented.
Ultimately, my biggest issue with this video is that these six people spend the entire video making apologies for their faith. Christ didn't spend His ministry tip toeing around the status quo and apologizing whenever He upset someone. We're supposed to be doing our best to emulate Christ, not shoving Him in a politically correct box so we don't ever cause offense. Christ always told us that things would be hard, and that includes people being mad at us for our faith. Don't construct a wall of inoffensive defense mechanisms to hide your faith.
I'm Christian, But Nothing.
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