Anti-Evangelical clichés

Count how many you use:

1. "Shove the gospel down one's throat." (Feel free to substitute one for people.).
   
   
2. "I think the only agenda should be to love one another." (Basically while this one has many forms, the usage of only/just and "love one another".).
   
   
3. Describing the church as "not a social club" and existing for the exclusive benefit of "non-members" or the "world".
   
   
4. "Who would Jesus kill?" ("Hate/bomb" works as well.)
   
   
5. "All the money they spend on gaudy million-dollar building projects, new sound systems, and projectors could be going to feed the poor."
   
   
6. "They go to church on Sunday, get forgiven, and the rest of the week they're like everybody else." The "Sunday morning bench warmers," who come "so they can sleep better at night," but really "Christianity isn't about looking or acting a certain way!"
   
   
7. "fundies", "the Rapture Ready", or those "holy rollers". "fun-daMENTALists".
   
   
8. "All that matters is that one's heart is right with God", "I'm not a part of an 'organized religion'", or "I'm spiritual, not religious."
   
   
9. "Christianity promotes hate, bigotry, sexism, and homophobia." Or a more academically conscious one..."American Christianity is consumeristic, materialistic, and individualistic."
   
   
10. "The god I worship wouldn't send someone to hell just for not accepting Christ."
    
    
11. "Don't have the right to tell anyone else what to believe(/think)."
    
    
12. "Nuke gay whales for Jesus!"
    
    
13. "Christians are judgmental(/intolerant)."
    
    
14. "3 chords, 7 words, repeated 11 times" or "7/11".
    
    
15. They "want to impose their own particular version of Christianity on everyone else."
    
    
16. "Christians ain't nothin' but a bunch of fuckin' hypocrites!" (Despite its place on the list, this was actually the second one I came up with.).
    
    
17. "Bash someone over the head with a Bible." Or you've described another Christian as a "Bible-thumper" or an activity as "Bible-thumping". Or you've made a comment about someone carrying a "Big, Black Book."
    
    
18. Christians are "nothing more than tools of the Republican Party."
    
    
19. "Last time I walked into a Christian bookstore, it looked like the self-help section of Barnes & Noble."
    
    
20. "I'm so sick of hearing cheap Christian clichés!" ().

So how did you fare?

0-4: You might be an Evangelical. L'Abri counseling advised.

5-9 : You might need to critically evaluate if others are making a valid critique on your religious practice and whether it lines up with the Scriptures. Unless of course, you are not a Christian or are a seeker and it contains little relevance to your life, hence the sparsity of relevant clichés.

10 - 14: You might be healthily holding in tension keeping one distinct from the religious status quo while not sliding into having created a reactionary identity. While far from complacent, you understand the need for encouragingly helping an important section of God's church to submit themselves to God's redeeming grace.

15 - 19: You might need to critically evaluate, assuming you consider yourself a Christian, if you are truly loving the Church as Jesus calls us to. May I recommend some of Derek Webb's music if you haven't tried any out thus far?

20 : Like me, you might have serious problems with the American church which might be indicative of more than merely their issues. Counseling advisable.

I could do a pithy little commentary on the call for solidarity and the divisiveness evident today. Might even follow it up with questioning the sincerity of anti-Evangelicals' so called love, as reflected in attitudes, depictions, and the demonstrable consequences of their basic orientation to not only another human being, but their Christian brethren to whom all are to be known by their "love one for another." But finishing off with a discussion about working towards healing and speculating on the issues of pain which still need to be addressed might be over the top. Words matter, and the tongue is an dangerous member of our body if left unchecked.