Why I am a Christian

 I am not a Christian because I identify with Christ, nor because I identify with anyone else who is Christian. In fact the idea of Christianity as identity is precisely the sort of spurious muddle-headedness causing so much confusion and conflict in our culture at the moment. Identity is placed in the foreground to the expense of any sense of the hard struggle of practice. It should be obvious that I am not a man simply by virtue of my biology or what pronoun I am addressed by; I am a man for reasons that can be recognised universally by any culture that has ever existed, namely, to the extent that I can overcome childish self-interests and aim for something like maturity. In the same way, to be a Christian is not a subjective fancy to identify with someone called Jesus like one does some fashion icon - but rather to try to imagine Christ as THE central revelation concerning the ultimate structure of the world and of human existence as a whole. That is the claim of Christianity, and it is a claim that can be recognised universally as an outlandish and profound claim, regardless whether you even believe in it or not. In fact, really believing in the Christian claim doesn't just happen over-night, like changing your hair-style or gender pronoun. It takes practice!