Blurring the lines.

[Mister Agenda]

Just an open ended question.

What's with blurring the lines between those who claim Christianity and those who actually practice it? We've had a couple of recent examples of you guys assuming everyone who claims to be christian happens to be Christian just on their proclaimation. Why is this?

Courtesy. It's not our job to police who is and isn't a real ™ Christian. Christians seem happy to accept nominal Christians into the fold when the topic is what percentage of (say) Americans are Christians. Neil Tyson calls himself an agnostic when he's clearly an agnostic atheist, but if he doesn't want to call himself an atheist, that's his right. If someone wants to call themselves a Christian, that's their right. If you have a problem with who is calling themseleves Christian, take it up with them.

I have brought up that Christ himself says in Mat 7 that not everyone who claims to be a follower is indeed a follower.

Personally, and no offense intended, I think that describes you pretty well. I think your idiosyncratic theology has led you off the reservation of what legitimately can be called Christian. But if that's how you identify, it's not my job to convince you otherwise.

What's more he even went so far as to say even some of those who do great things in His name are followers of Christ. But only those who do the will of the Father.

What has this to do with atheists? Why are we your target audience for your complaint? For the most part, we don't care who really is or isn't a Christian. For me, this is similar to my lack of concern for who really is or isn't a true Star Wars fan.

This means that a Follower of Christ is one who follows the instructions given to us to follow. Not anyone who just calls out 'Lord, Lord.'

So convince the people you're complaining of that you're right. Convincing atheists is irrelevant to the matter.

I hope none of you think that God is bound by your understanding of some death bed effort on your part to keep you out of Hell.

You seem to be thinking of Catholics, not atheists.