Well, I don’t know what else to call them and still be able to identify them. The idea that faithful Southern Baptists or church-going Catholics or Methodists are not Christians is … well, it opens a whole can of worms difficult to deal with on a language basis let alone an identity basis.
Politics in the United States, particularly in rural and southern states, are largely dominated by people who call themselves Christians, people who have been called Christians by everybody else for very many centuries.
Only a precious few Christian denominations, like the Episcopalians in the United States, fully affirm LGBTQ people. I don’t think it’s fair for me to say that members of those few institutions are the only Christians in the United States.
If we want to talk about Canada, we have an even bigger problem. The Anglican Church there, like in the United Kingdom, is dominated by homophobic bigots who refuse to grant LGBTQ people full equality in the church. And you know, these are progressive Christians even though at the same time they are evil bigots.
And, I’m sure this goes without saying, but the Roman Catholic Church in Canada is extraordinarily homophobic. Viciously, cruelly homophobic. Same goes for the UK.
So if we define Christian institutions as being only those institutions that fully affirm LGBTQ people, then practically no significant percentage of Christian institutions in Canada or the UK would qualify.
A slightly larger percentage of Christian institutions in the United States would qualify, thanks in large part to the courageous stance the Episcopalian Church takes bucking the homophobia of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
That leaves me as a writer having a very difficult time communicating fairly simple ideas to people. I think when I write Christian, the vast majority of people understand I mean members of Christian churches and members of other institutions that identify as Christian.
If I redefine Christian to mean something else, then a lot of people aren’t going to know what I’m writing about.
