#14 Labels are not just for soup cans!

Could you imagine walking through a grocery store looking for something nice and processed to purchase, but there were no labels on any of them?  Or going to the cupboard (under your stairs?) to find a can of green beans only to discover that all the labels have been removed from the cans by some sick puppy who likes to make people guess about what they are going to prepare as a side with their pork chops?  Could you imagine the chaos of not knowing what these things are?  

I have been reading some blog post lately (which is entirely too much of my existence) which have been talking about labels.  One is about how Tony Jones doesn't want to be labeled with the tainted horrible "mainline Christian" label (see here), or for that matter he doesn't want to be labeled as a pastor either.  I am in fact mainline and I don't take offense to this at all because he hates the polity of the church that has gotten in the way and I respect that.  The institution is something I have struggled with, yet I have chosen to stay close to it. Anyway, don't label Mr. Jones because, quite frankly, it is up to him what labels he wants to choose.

Labels in and of themselves are fine.  There is nothing wrong with them.  They just help give a short cut into a history of someone.  For instance, I am a United Methodist.  Now, you have some baggage with that term maybe, which might be, "take a stand on something, dammit!"  Or it could be, "oh you must be nice."  But I also would label myself a progressive Christian.  Now you have new preconceived notions of me from that.  On Facebook, my religious views say that I am "Trinitarian Eucharistic." What doesn't that mean to you?  So even when you are just talking about my religious associations you need lots of labels to get any kind of picture of me.

The problem is when you put labels on me.  If you label me, usually it is done as a way to distance me from you.  For instance, if you are "Evangelical," you may say I am "Progressive" with a sneer, which is a way of saying I don't agree with him (and he is going to hell. Was that an overstatement? Probably).  Or you could say it because, well, I just told you I am a progressive.  My advice is lose the sneer.  Anyway, the point of this rambling is that labeling is fine as long as we are respectful about them.  Bo Sanders wrote here:

Like labeling a Pilsner and a Pale Ale, it is necessary to know that you are getting a different product BECAUSE it has come through a different process and has different ingredients.

Labels help us give a little background information about where we came from.  The first (and only at this point) comment on Mr. Sanders' post talks about having a label placed on him that helped him understand how others see him.  I think that is worth doing as well, but you don't have to embrace any labels but the one you place on yourself.  Who you are, what labels you are going to live into, it's up to you, and it is your choice, so choose wisely my friends!