You are a “New Age” Christian.

What does this mean? And, why must people constantly label others?

My critics sometimes say to me, “You’ve just become too ‘New Age’ for me.” Or, “You’re just another ‘New Ager.”

What is meant by this criticism?

I am not quite sure.

Here are a few guesses, however.

1. I am sometimes labeled a “New Age” Christian because I do not regard the Bible as a magical and infallible book, miraculously dictated by God herself to the Biblical writers themselves.

Plain and simple, the Bible is full of contradictions. I have great regard for the Bible. And, I believe it to be inspired. But many of its teachings are so antiquated that to lump all of Scripture together as if it is either equally infallible or even equally applicable to today’s world is utterly ridiculous. To say anything less is, in my opinion, either to admit to ignorance of the Bible or dishonesty about its content or both.

2. I think a second reason Christians label me as a “New Age” person is because I frequently refer to God as “she” about as often as I do “he.”

Why? It is because God is neither. And, I think it is time that we graduate beyond this elementary image of a big, superhuman-like male granddaddy figure who instantly pops into our minds whenever the name of God is mentioned. God is not a super-duper human male who lives above the sky…who sits on a throne…with angels – more males with wings – all floating around on clouds and singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Jesus himself said, “God is spirit…”(John 4:24).

3. There is a third reason I am labeled a “New Age” Christian. The fact that I am an Ambassador to the Parliament for the World’s Religions and promote interfaith unity, cooperation, and respect is inconceivable to some Christians.

They view my openness as compromise. They cannot tolerate someone who believes truth might be found beyond that truth which comes in-and-through the Christian tradition.

My understanding of God, however, is much larger than the little God I grew up being taught to believe in – a God who was tribal…”our God”…a God who favored “us” over “them”…and, a God who could not be known any other way than by “our way.”

People ask me all the time, for example, “Is Jesus the only way to God?”

I answer by saying, “He is my way to God.”

Is he the only way? I do not think so. And, that is not the teaching of John 14:6.

John 14:6 may be the most misunderstood verse of Scripture in the 21st century. Jesus was not starting a new religion. Nor was he singling himself out as the one-and-only-way to that new religion which he, further, was arguing was the “one-and-only-way” anyone could know God.

BTW, Christianity is a religion, but it was not a religion started by Jesus. I think the greatest disservice Christians do to the Bible that they regard as infallible is to misinterpret Scripture, as they almost universally do with John 14:6.

Now, this may not be true of you but what many who ask me whether Jesus is the only way to God are really asking has nothing to do with my personal faith in Jesus. My personal faith is of no interest or concern to them. What they are vastly more concerned about is their beliefs and my willingness to join them in saying, “Jesus is the ONLY way to God.” It is not, however, truth seek. Confirmation that what they believe is “right” is what they really seek. What they do not know, however, is this: the only way you ever know you are “right” is to make others “wrong.” So this is what they do. They make any other way to know God wrong by insisting their way of knowing God is right.

There are likely other reasons I am labeled a “New Age” Christian. Maybe you can think of one and add it in the comment section below.

4. I will mention one other possibility here. Some label me a “New Age” person because I frequently use terms like “awaken” and “enlightenment” to refer to spiritual transformation.

In other words, I am not bound to the more traditional words like “salvation,” or “repentance,” or “the saved,” and “the lost.”

In this respect, however, I like to remind traditionalists that, if they would read the New Testament, they would discover Jesus was the first “New Age” thinker. He used the word “awaken,” for example, long before I did or anyone else has done.

Consider his words here:

Jesus said to his disciples, “Be awake. Be alert. You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man travelling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work. And he orders the gatekeeper to be on watch. So I tell you, watch. You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cock crow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you, I say to all: stay awake.” –Mark 13:33-37

While I was taught so as a child, this passage has nothing to do with the second coming of Jesus.

He is referring instead to the need to stay alert…to awaken…to be aware that each moment is a Divine moment.

If there is any place in my life where I need “saving” (to use the more traditional word), it is in this area of my life. Most of the time, I go through the motions of living my life with little or no alertness to the Eternal Christ who may be making herself known to me in everyone and through everything that occurs.

In fact, there are times when I actually stand in resistance to what is happening at this moment in my life because, instead of seeing the moment and what is happening as a Divine moment, I see it instead, and so respond to it, as if it is a burdening moment…an unwanted moment…or something that is happening that should not be happening.

This is your “New Age” thought for today. As Fr. Richard Rohr, whose devotional thoughts today inspired my own musings this morning, “Christ is always coming; God is always present. It’s we who aren’t.”

Consequently, make it your spiritual practice to live INTO everything that occurs. Resist nothing. Be alert. Watchful. Awake. Aware. Conscious even that the Eternal Christ is inside everyone you meet, as well as everything that occurs.

If you will make this your practice, your life will transform. This is cause for rejoicing (how’s that for a good traditional word?). Rejoice that, like Jesus, you are becoming a New Age person, or what Saint Paul called, “a new creation in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Dr. Steve McSwain is an author and speaker, counselor to non-profits and congregations, an advocate in the fields of self-development, interfaith cooperation, and spiritual growth. His blogs at BeliefNet.com, the Huffington Post, as well as his own website (www.SteveMcSwain.com) inspire countless followers. Dr. McSwain’s interfaith pendants are widely sought and worn by those who share his vision of creating a more conscious, compassionate, and charitable world. Visit his website for more information or to book him for an inspirational talk on happiness, inner peace, interfaith and diversity respect, or charitable living (www.SteveMcSwain.com).