In Defense of Labels.

[RevOxleyParticipant]

My wife, who doesn’t believe in any recognizable god or have any faith system at all – refuses to be called an atheist. For all intents and purposes she is exactly that and this label quite safely belongs to her.  My wife’s desires are, in my experience, reflective of a large number of people who fear not the definition of a given label, but the burdens that come with the label.

My journey from faith required labels.  I don’t know that I could have made any progress without the ability to define the place where I’m at – some adjective is often required when you find yourself in a different place emotionally and spiritually than you were before.

First I was a Christian, later – after becoming quite fed up with the backbiting so common in the church as well as the constant profiteering and abundance of ignorance – I dropped the Christian title and began calling myself Xtian (not to remove Christ, but the association, X of course is the greek Chi- the first letter in Christos).  Some years after this, when I was no longer certain that my beliefs were true I moved on to something different – Doubter or Searcher or simply Un-certain.  Still later doubt became too weak a term to explain my theological position:  Agnostic Atheist.

I don’t know that any god or gods exist AND I don’t believe that any god or gods exist.

Those words do sting for many of us. We were raised to think lowly of people that didn’t hold to an understanding and fear of G-d.  In much the same way most of us were taught to think lowly of homosexuality, many of you might be guilty of using hurtful names like Fag to describe an effeminate male or Dyke as you discuss the intricacies of the lesbian relationship.  Those labels ARE indeed hurtful and IMO entirely unnecessary outside of the LGBTIQQ community, who tend to adopt hurtful phrases in order to use them for their own devices, thereby easing their sting in some small way.

My Defense:

Whether the label be gay, or atheist, agnostic, or Christian I think it’s very important for us to understand this one very important thing:

I didn’t choose what I am or what I believe – they are an inevitability of my research and logical faculties colliding with one another to result in an end product. There may be no genetic makeup that I can particularly blame for my lack of belief, my curiosity perhaps, but in the end I didn’t CHOOSE not to believe – I just found myself incapable of it.

You don’t choose to be gay – you just don’t like members of the opposite sex (I’m simplifying for my illustration).

You don’t choose to be an atheist – you just don’t believe in god and I can promise you that tomorrow you won’t be able to wake up and force yourself to believe suddenly.

If my beliefs are not a choice, like sexuality and attraction, why would I ever fear a label that accurately describes where I am?

Sure, I understand there are associations with the words – no doubt – but then I think back to the civil rights pioneers of the last hundred years.   Never, not once, has any of those people fought against the words that accurately describe them – they fought against the baggage those words falsely carried.

MLK Jr. didn’t try to un-black himself, he tried to show that black was as much a part of humanity as white and that the stereotypes that came with black were wrong and remnants of a more ignorant society.

Harvey Milk didn’t tell people to stay in the closet as homosexuals – he told people to come out, loudly and proudly – make your neighbors know that the people they fight against are right next door or in their families:  Harvey told people to embrace the labels that they couldn’t avoid because they simply were a part of a very unique identity that too often prevents detractors from appreciating all the other parts. Harvey Milk made gay human.

When you are ashamed to accept your label you make it look like something to be ashamed of  when it isn’t.

What do you do with the baggage that comes with being an atheist?

You prove it wrong, every day.

Make atheism, homosexuality, Christianity, etc something people associate with good people like yourself – stand out as the best and most upstanding citizen of the planet that you can be so that the next person in line can benefit from your goodness and start in a better place than you.

[Anonymous]

Rev – well said! Thanks!

[servantgirlParticipant]

I really needed to read this.  I mean REALLY.  Intellectually this has always been my stance.  I live my life in such a manner that it transcends what people think of my labels.  However, recently labels have been the source of some personal pain and I’ve been re-grouping.  Thanks for posting this.

 

[ShiftParticipant]

I can see where you are coming from, labels are basically a social instinct of society to apply understanding by categorizing and many people find it helpful, almost subconsciously, to seek out what category they best fit into, the labels that best demonstrates where they are at the moment. However, I also understand why a lot of people don’t like them. I remember watching a video with Neil deGrasse Tyson whereby the interviewer asked if he was an Atheist, and whereas I have no doubt that most likely does not believe in God, he refuses to call himself an Atheist nor an Agnostic and would get really annoyed when people kept editing his page on wikipedia stating that he was the former. He said its too easy for people when you use labels willy nilly, they all carry other conditions with them and as soon as someone else identifies you as a certain label, they are going to imprint everything they understand about it on you instantly, without even getting to know where you stand on things.

People with bad experiences with arrogant and rude Atheists are going to think all Atheists are like that (I did for a long time), people with limited understanding of Christians are going to automatically think they all hate homosexuals and abortion, and so if they come across someone new who’s a Christian but not anti-homosexual and abortion, it makes no difference, because their attitudes towards them have already been colored with past experiences relating to that particular label. Its bad in a way and perhaps people shouldn’t jump judge others based on their label but unfortunately that’s one of the drawbacks of such a device within contemporary society and why many choose to avoid them. I was an avid believer in God and a follower of Christ, I also went to church so really I was a Christian, however I abandoned using the label simply because I didn’t want people outside that spectrum thinking of me as an anti-science/homosexuality/abortion/intellectualism/same-sex marriage person.

I also think labels are thrown around too much at the moment and are used to dismiss other people’s thoughts and ideas, this is especially true with labels such as liberal and conservative. There are plans to bring in a mass influx of Eastern Europeans into the UK over the next year or so and my parents are very much against that idea for various reasons. When they asked me to sign a petition to stop it happening I refused, because the petition was being signed by a great many different organizations I did not wish to align myself with, particularly racist groups such as the English Defense League. In learning of this, my mum branded me a ‘ignorant liberal’ who’s just been brainwashed by liberal propaganda, and that everyone in my age group has been subjected to the same. Now, she uses that label whenever I try and argue my point to dismiss what I’m saying. I don’t consider myself a liberal nor a conservative, I hold values that could fit into both categories. And then there is the Christian interpretation of liberal and conservative, I’ve heard SO much in ranting about how liberal Christians deny the resurrection of Christ, and how liberal Christians are not followers of the way, and how you cannot be a Christian and a liberal because Jesus demands it. Its insane, and serves nothing but to widen the schism between denominations and communities in general. It adds fuel to argument rather than discussion.

Sure, some labels are very specific to certain beliefs and don’t really carry any baggage, and if they help the individual with understanding where they are then excellent, but I personally don’t believe there is any label in existence that can fully explain what I’m thinking at the moment, and where my beliefs lie, its far too complicated. I’d rather just explain where I am to people if they are curious than have to assign a label to it but that’s just me. I do think labels are important to an extent, I study social history and its a valuable tool a lot of the time, I just think we have to cautious in over-using them, especially to assign a meaning to a person we don’t even know.

[Schroedingers-CatParticipant]

I have said elsewhere ( my blog among other places) that I like labels. I have no problem with people labeling me, or with accepting the labels that people seem to think fit me. Evangelical, Christian, Idiot – they all work, and it helps me and others to have a starting point.

There is a problem when others start to put labels on me – Fundamentalist, Naive, Anti-intellectual, Heathen – but I have to accept them, because some people like to label. I also insist on the right to label myself though, so I can counter some of them. Some of them are just wrong, but I need to prove that. maybe “PhD Student” serves to counter Naive and Anti-intellectual, and “Anarchist” to counter pretty well anything.

People will label me. I can take an issue with this, but it won’t stop it happening. Some people label me Christian in a negative way, because they have an image of what a Christian is. To then prove that their perception is wrong, is to reclaim that label, and, hopefully, make them reassess others with that label.

So yes, while a label has a degree of truth, just accept it. But to define me completely, you need all of the labels. And to work out how they can possibly work together.

[SavageSotoParticipant]

I understand where you’re coming from, Matt.
I think a large part of why I became disgusted with labels was in regards to the “Christian” label that I held for so many years. I held onto the label through my various changes in belief but I eventually got sick of people’s various definitons on who was and wasn’t a christian that I just decided to drop the term all together. This wasn’t the only reason, of course. In addition, I have felt a growing disconnection between not just so-called  “secondary” theological issues but “primary” as well. I felt that I still identified with aspects of the Christian faith but yet felt I needed to expand my mind beyond them and ever since that time, I have not found a label that really describes me.

The more I think on things, the more I become convinced that God and truth are beyond labels and definitions. I free myself from labels to avoid getting caught in the same trap that I once was in with Christianity: limiting myself mostly to one corner of the human thought spectrum. Without a label, I feel free to search out and embrace truth from wherever the source.

[Author]

Posts