I got my first piece of serious hate mail as the result of this article. Some guy from Australia sent me the sort of email that goes "I am a born again Christian and blah blah blah saying Fuck all the time and blah blah blah WTFWJD and blah blah blah you're not a Christian and you don't have a relationship with Christ and blah blah blah."
Man, I wish I had that decoder ring, the one that tells you who does and does not have a relationship with Christ. Wait, no I don't. That's not even my job. It's my job to talk about my relationship with pal Jesus, and to help people learn about how to be in relationship with Jesus. What happens after that is up to the Holy Spirit. I am not the Holy Spirit. For example, I think the Holy Spirit is taller than I am, and doesn't need major brake work on his or her car, as I do. Although I do like the idea of a Holy Spirit who drives a Beetle.
I understand the urge to put someone's relationship with Jesus on a grade scale, just to see how we're all stacking up. You must be at least this pious to ride. One of the things we humans really like to do is categorize. It's fun, it's reassuring, it shows us where we are in relation to everything and everyone else. It's also dangerous if we start to imagine that we know the mind of God well enough to begin dividing the sheep from the goats ourselves.
There is a place for an honest and careful evaluation of someone's spiritual progress. However, that happens best when we're in a covenant relationship with one another. I have to know who you are before I can know where you are with Christ, and I have to trust you with the same knowledge of me. That's scary shit and I can see why it's easier to lob Scripture at someone and run, or to try to 'correct' strangers. I just don't think it does very much to further God's work.
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