Not Your Sweetie

(#141) (Rated 5.00/1)

by noelschutz (noelschutz@yahoo.com) on 05/18/2004 01:59:52 PM EST

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Jimmy Carter a "self-described born again Christian."
They always dissed Carter, and honest and devout man. But what I don't get here is the "self-described". What is the alternative, "Described by others as a born again Christian"? "Other-described born again Christian."
Bush is one, too, but they do not put things like "self-described" when they speak of him as a Christian. People really have trouble with the "born again" thing I guess. A famous Church of England cleric was once asked by a street preacher if he had been born again. He replied, "I was borned again, I am being born again, and I shall be born again."
It is just a way of saying one has committed himself to being a Christian. In Jesus parable he meant it to mean one has to take a new view of life. It could have a  mystical interpretation, but that is not necessary.
A pet peeve. I never say I am a born again Christian. I just say I am a Christian. When Luke says that the followers of  Jesus were first called Christians in Antioch (as opposed to the Jewish Nazareans), he did not say they were first called born again Christians. So it is not necessary, but what is the problem. I  am a moderate Democrat. I am a conservative Republican. I am a dedicated Zoastorian. I am a born again Christian. Sigh!