What comes to your mind when you hear someone proclaim, "I'm a Christian"?

It should raise a red flag. If someone starts off a sentence with "I'm a Christian," especially when in a confrontational situation, it could be that they are trying to not only convince you of their moral superiority, but that they are attempting to assuage their own doubts about their position.

More typically, a person who calls himself or herself a Christian does so with the intent of evoking superior moral character, so that whatever comes after must be weighed against not only their personal opinion, but the collective opinions of God and the Christian community. So why bother to debate at all, since in their minds, they have already won.

In one sense, I consider myself to be Christian, but not in the same sense that most Christians, especially fundamentalists, might imagine when they hear the word. In other words, I am not a bible-thumping, proselytizing, Jesus freak.

I believe that Jesus was a very charismatic man and I believe it would generally be a good idea to base one's life around his teachings, as long as those teachings are applied to the maturation level of present-day society, and not necessarily to the agrarian, and sometimes barbaric, society that existed in Jesus' day.

Is Jesus the son of God? In one sense, perhaps we all are children of God, so that makes Jesus one, too. But he had, arguably, a much better understanding of God than most of us do even today. He was one of those very few special people who got it. And he was trying to teach it to the masses who didn't.

Jesus may be a path to a better afterlife, if such a place/condition exists. I would like to believe it does, but not as depicted in the pages of the bible. The bible is not a good source if you're trying to find facts. Perhaps Heaven is a place of total enlightenment, and if so, I believe that Jesus is but one path to it. There may be many others.

The bottom line is, I believe that nobody knows the mind of God. Maybe Jesus came close. But possessing that knowledge is a rare gift that Christians, Jews, Muslims, or other persons of religion have not acquired.

The difference between many other Christians and me is that I will readily admit to not knowing anything about what God wants of us, if anything. I do not know the nature of God, and therefore, cannot base my life around what I think he might be like. The bible doesn't offer any answers, because it was written in a time when superstition ruled the day.

I believe that Jesus can be a conduit to eventual enlightenment. And in that sense, he is a conduit to salvation. I believe to be "born again" is to become enlightened. And in that sense, most of those who profess to being born again are just the opposite of my definition of the phrase.

Most born-again Christians have given their lives and souls over to their image of Christ, and in doing so have given their minds as well. When you give up your mind to a cause or conviction, you've given up the search for enlightenment, because in your own mind, you've already achieved it.

I'm an agnostic Christian, and that is no oxymoron. I'm using the term's root meaning of "without knowledge." And being without knowledge one cannot, and should not, judge others.

But many Christians, by their very nature, are judgmental. Maybe they don't mean to be, or maybe they don't even realize it, but they are. Otherwise they would never see a need to profess "I am a Christian."

Since most churches have a doctrine based on their interpretations of the bible, they are by nature exclusive. By embracing a doctrine, they have taken up a position that this is what they believe and others may, and probably will, go to hell (although none are likely to say that with the possible exception of the extremely fundamentalist Pentecostals or Jehovah's Witnesses).

And that's why I do not attend any church. I am not a religious person, but a spiritual one. And spirituality is a very personal and private thing to me. I don't believe in the merits of public prayer, nor do I want anyone to volunteer to pray for my soul, as if they held some power over it. That offends me.

I believe their are many other "Christians" in the world whose beliefs parallel my own. Many are struggling with their faith. They see a big problem with what they've been taught in church or what they read in the bible, but they don't want to give up being Christian. So they continue to attend church and call themselves Christians, even though, down deep, their hearts aren't in it. If you are in this group, break loose. Seek enlightenment through your own mind, or through your choice of spiritual leader. You don't need to belong to some artificially segregated group called a denomination in order to be spiritual or for your life to have meaning.

It has been said that the greatest threat to Christianity is a Christian thumping the bible. I have no doubt that this is true. Christianity may one day self-implode. That wouldn't be such a bad thing. It would release a lot of people from their internal struggles with spirituality. And it might mean an end to the self-righteous evangelists like most of the preachers you see on television.