I remember growing up in the 50s and 60s. There was a bully in the neighborhood who delighted in "running" the kids. Somewhere during that time I realized that the only power a bully has over me is the power I give them.

I stopped allowing that to happen, and worked to depower the bully by influencing others. It worked.

I was raised creedally and emotionally by the Evangelical church, and in the late 60s/early 70s there was an enormous influx of change from the Jesus Movement.

But that got absorbed by the Evangelical Machine, and the bullies I saw in the Jesus Movement became bigger bullies in the Evangelical Machine.

I just don't pay attention to them, and I work around them to build networks that do not submit to the bullies.

"You can't be a Christian unless" is the mark of a spiritual bully. And I'm here to say that yes, you can be a Christian--a Christ-follower, a person who is showing in themselves the developing character of Jesus--and not swallow the nonsense you're told are requirements in order to "be" a Christ-follower.

I'm sorry for the years of wasted emotional and spiritual energy that Evangelical bullies have caused. But leaving the environment to develop a relationship with our very selves as spiritual beings with Jesus of Nazareth who told us *explicitly* what he was about is simply a more real and more liveable faith.