Words change in their meaning. What was a perfectly good word when it was coined can be watered down over time to become a disguise or an insult. One of the words that has lost is meaning is “Christian”. It was originally coined by Jesus haters who were trying to find a way to insult followers of the resurrected Christ. It was a put down. The people insulted embraced it with enthusiasm. They could do that because being a Christian was illegal and the label could be accepted as a statement of your genuine faith.
No longer. Now being a Christian has come to mean someone who was raised in a generally Christian culture and is not a Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or atheist. It has become a cultural term rather than a spiritual state. I still think of it in its original sense but refrain from using it around some people because of the misunderstanding.
I have been looking for a good word for people who attend church but have not embraced the savior. I don’t want to call them “Christians” because they really aren’t. “Church attenders” doesn’t sound too catchy. Might I suggest they are in the state of “pewberty”.
Like puberty it describes someone who is no longer a child but is not yet an adult. It is a state where your status is uncertain. You speak with many different voice ranges. Your hormones are raging and adjusting how your body works. You want the claim the benefits of both worlds that your feet are unfirmly planted in.
Someone in pewberty likes to be thought of as a Christian in certain circumstances but does not want that to take away from their childish, self-centered demands the rest of the time. They don’t want to be held accountable for their behavior. They are neither fish nor fowl.
I doubt if the word will catch on. I may never use it again. It is still descriptive.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.