There are people who assume that Christianity is about the afterlife and that our chief problem in this life is that we are sinners who need to be punished and the point of Jesus life is that he took our punishment so we can go to heaven. I write about the problems we get ourselves into by misunderstanding and limiting the way we think about our faith.
Imagine that Christianity is about loving God.
Reading is not just about learning to recognize and pronounce words, but also about how to hear and understand them... It is wise to remember that when we are reading letters never intended for us, any problems of understanding are ours and not theirs.
Religion is much more than language, but to be Christian does mean speaking Christian for most people. The language many of us use has contributed to the crisis in Christianity in North America. Traditional Christian language is becoming less familiar to millions of people. The language is frequently misunderstood by people.
The image I have sketched views Jesus differently: rather than being the exclusive revelation of God, he is one of many mediators of the sacred.