Name Calling...

Last Sunday evening I was sitting at a table sharing the peace-meal with a group in Bristol, when I got talking with the lady next to me who I had just met for the fist time. The conversation unfolded around the use of the name ‘Anabaptism’ (re-baptiser) and how fascinating it is how other people actually see us. “I am much more interested in what other people call us than what we call ourselves” she said. Of course Acts 11:26 came to mind, where in Antioch the followers of Jesus were first called ‘Christians’ or ‘little Messiahs’. You can imagine the accusing finger, “So you think you are little messiah’s do you?” A reflective pause, and then the confident reply, “Yes, that’s right!”

The radical reformers of the 16th Century were the frequent butt of name-calling. We have mentioned ‘Anabaptist’ because they practiced re-baptism on confession of faith and so laid an axe at the very foundations of Christendom. But there were many other jibes too. They were called ‘Donatists’ and ‘Cathari’ after the 5th and 13th Century dissident groups who had been branded ‘heretics’ (‘those who think differently’) because of their desire for an authentic church that was pure in heart and practice and free from the controls of the state. They were also called ‘staff-carriers’ because of their commitment to non-violence and refusal to wear a sword, and ‘communists’ because they shared their possessions and finances in community. They were ‘clandestines’ because they did not meet in church buildings and ‘faction-makers’ because among other things they refused to take the oath (another threat to society). They were also ‘sacramentarians’ because they insisted that faith had to be both living and life transforming and accessible to ordinary people in their mother tongue, not dead rituals in Latin.

“Sticks and stones can break your bones but names can never harm you” I was told as a child. Of course it is not true, name-calling by a bully can do very real damage, even though they are almost always lies. But when they contain the truth, whatever the name-caller’s purpose, they are something we can embrace and make our own, walking-tall and empowered by the name. As my friend said, “I am much more interested in what other people call us than what we call ourselves”. Remember that biblically, ‘names always refer to character’. Makes me wonder, “What are people calling me behind my back, let alone to my face?”

PS: If you want to explore these ideas in more detail read Leonard Verduin ‘The Reformers and Their Stepchildren’ Eerdmans 2000

Noel Moules