“Are YOU born again?”
April 27, 2004
I don’t like the Christianese term born again.”
I had to laugh when in Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott relates a story while in a plane, and a man reading a “hard-core right-wing paranoid anti-Semitic homophobic misogynistic propaganda” book about the Apocalypse (I think she was referring to a Left Behind novel) asked her, “Are you born again?”
What was he really asking her? Are you a conservative evangelical Christian? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Have you walked up at an altar call?
I don’t know what he was really asking her - but Anne Lamott does call herself born again. “I’m just a bad Christian. A bad born-again Christian…I’m a believer, a convert. I’m probably about three months away from slapping an aluminum Jesus-fish on the back of my car, although I first want to see if the application or stickum in any way interferes with my lease agreement.”
I still am not comfortable with the lingo. It smacks of conversative-right-wing-evangelicalism, which is not where I am finding myself these days. Nicodemus cames to Jesus in the night. He told him basically that “we know who you are. You have to have come from God. We know.” Jesus replies with: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of god unless he is born again.” Eugene Peterson puts it this way: “You’re absolutely right. take it from me: unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to - to god’s kingdom.” So…Jesus talked about being “born again.” Jesus seems to say, “No, you really can’t fully know that, you really can’t fully know who I am unless you are reborn. unless you have a 2nd birth, a rebirth.”
So the question is: what does born again mean anyway? I tend to think that when people use the phrase today, they aren’t using the same meaning that perhaps, Jesus meant when he used the phrase. Jesus says that if we are to fully know him, to fully know about the Kingdom of God, then we have to be born again: to have a new birth, a new life, a new arrangement of beliefs, a new set of priorities, a new calling (to seek after God’s kingdom), a new vision of what it means to be human, a new realization that we are spiritual beings…
Being born again does not mean you sign your name at the end of a 4-pg tract. One is not simply born again because they walked forward for an altar call at a weekend tent-revival. Could that be the “beginning” - strong>the moment of conception - the point at which the birth-process begins?
Yes. But that’s just the beginning. There are 9 months left. There is a huge process of birthing that they have to go through in order to fully be born again…but we have relegated born again to a one-time deal. Something that can just…happen…and then you’re good to go.
What does it mean to be born again?
Tags: Born-Again, Christian, Conservative-Christians, Theology
Posted in 
Adam Walker Cleaveland: 
April 28th, 2004 at 9:40 am
good post man. I agree.
I think there’s so much more to being Born Again than just the one time event;
I think it’s more of a day to day dying to ways that aren’t God’s best and letting Christ come alive in me. Paul said some stuff about working out salvation with fear and trembling; I think that’s a big part of the process too.
April 28th, 2004 at 11:16 am
I too have struggled with the term “Born Again”. I both resent and understand the term. In many ways it applies to me because I haven’t always tried to live my life in God and Christ. Once I made the commitment I felt the difference in all I did. I understood the feeling of being born again. Later, as I continued my faith journey, I came to despise the phrase. Just the use of it begs the question “Do these people consider themselves superior to other Christians?”. What about all the good Christians, raised in faith, that NEVER felt the need to connect with Christ simply because they have known him from the beginning?
This starts to edge into my thoughts on baptism. As a Presbyterian I know that the doctrine is infant christening. But I stuggle with that because I also feel that whatever your faith there come a time as you reach adulthood that you make your own life choices, decisions, and firm your convictions. I believe that that time (or after) is what Jesus was referring too. Before this time perhaps you practiced faith through doctrine and what you were told you should and shouldn’t do. From this time forward you practice your faith through belief and feelings. A person doing this has allowed the Holy Spirit into their life - and I tend to believe that baptism is perfectly suited for this affirmation. After all Jesus, who was God, was baptised as an adult and recieved the Holy spirit then. Actually I had a real interesting discussion with someone recently just on this subject. This person believes that Jesus did not become God until this event occurred.
Anyway, somewhere in the New Testament is the phrase, “In Jesus all things old are new again”. That probably speaks to born again as much as anything. When you make the choice to follow Christ as a pathway to God people change. Their attitudes, priorities, decisions and choices are all set in a different light. It’s unfortunate that some people have decided to trademark the term and hijack it for other uses.
April 28th, 2004 at 11:25 am
your blog needs to be born again.
April 28th, 2004 at 1:52 pm
Great new look! It always freaks me out to see born again sights. Jesus came to save them too, I guess.
Years ago, Emo Phillips made the comment: I was at the movies and someone asked, “Is this seat saved?” And I said, “Who am I to know whether or not this seat has accepted Christ as Lord and Savior?” Despite the mangled paraphase of what was brilliant comedy, I feel like the whole vocabulary has become trivial.
Are you “born again” is akin to Jean Luc Piccard asking, “Are you the borg?” It feels like the secret code that lets you in the club. “What’s the password?” “I’m born again.” “Come on in.” I agree that it represents a certain corner of Christianity. Right now that corner has power and clout. Right now that corner seems to rule in favor of all that it is against. Non-born agains appear to be one of those things.
I wish “born again” was synonymous with “good listener.” America’s backyard is like Nicodemus, running around in darkness looking for the light. Hopefully, a few “BA’s” will hear above the cacophonous chorus of disapproval one Nicodemus cry out, “How can I be born again? What must I do to follow Jesus?”
Sorry for the long post.
April 28th, 2004 at 5:56 pm
Where did the cows go?
:-) :-) :-)
July 29th, 2004 at 5:52 pm
Maybe we just need to reclaim “born again” the way you reclaimed “evangelical”?
I blogged about this myself today. Thanks.
August 3rd, 2004 at 12:35 am
wanna know?
Read: (The Bible)
John 3:5
1 peter 1:3
1 john 4:7
1 john 5:1
I saw your picture before this article :)
You misunderstood the term “Born again”
Born again doesn’t come from the devil statues like that.
It comes from God.
seriously I know
coz in the past I was a worker of satan
But God freed me and now I am a born again Christian.
God bless.
January 15th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
I live in Hackensack, New Jersey. Can anyone please tell me if there are any Born Again churches there? Thanks.
rachelslight@yahoo.com
January 16th, 2005 at 11:58 am
i heard Shane Claiborne from the Simple Way in Philadelphia speak about this issue. what he hit on was that Jesus said to one man one time to be “reborn” or “born again” in order to enter into the Kingdom of God or be “saved”. Jesus also said to one man at one time that in order to be “saved” and to follow Jesus, you must sell all that you have and give the money to the poor. So if someone asks you if you are born again, you just say “Not yet, I haven’t sold everything I have and given it away to the needy yet.” And then you ask them if they are “born again” and see how they have to wait a few seconds and say “uhhhhh…..”.
February 28th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
born again. Jesus himself explains his own words. First he explains the need; no one can see the kingdom of God unless he born agin. Then he goes even further by saying no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again. “But how can a man be born again when he is old”? asks Nicodemus. Jesus replies “I tell you the truth no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is born of water(natural brith) and the spirit(spiritual birth). Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit”. We have been seperated from God because of sin. The Bible says “all have sinned and falll short of the glory of God”. Ephesians 2:4 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions”. another verse is 1 John5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the christ is born of God”.