The verdict is in and I am a “bad Christian”. That is not who I am theologically or in God’s eyes but that is who I should remain for my tens of readers. The majority of you who responded prefer the old moniker. So the new name turned out to be every bit as popular as the New Coke. At least I took the risk. The demented minds at despair.com have this to say about risk. “If you never try anything new, you’ll miss out on many of life’s great disappointments.”

To be fair there were some who liked the new name but the trend was clear and one fact is obvious. “Bad Christians” are more vocal.

Reader Don understood the concept but offered a frightening prospect.

I think you will lose some readership, and turn away some potential readers with the phrase “…Saint Who Sometimes Sins.”

That scared me. What would be a smaller increment than tens of readers? Don also made this point.

I know fellow believers in Jesus who also cannot come to call themselves “Saint”, even though it is scripturally true. I think those folks would be turned off by anyone who does so.

I get that. I spent the first three decades of my walk with Jesus being that person. Finally I realized the stubbornness of my position as illustrated by this poster from despair.com.

Reader Cheryl offered this perspective.

I like the original “Confessions of a Bad Christian.” To me, that says it all, especially after reading about your own experiences with “good christians” in church. It brings humor to an otherwise very hurtful dysfunction. I felt like I had found a home when I found “Confessions of a Bad Christian” on the web. I am sentimental, I guess because I had spent so much time searching for understanding and healing after being disapproved of in my own church. Those of us who have been disciplined in church can see the irony in your title and how it reflects the inconsistency within places that are meant for worship.

Who knew that the name “bad Christian” could become sentimental? What several readers pointed out was that hurting and wounded Christians make their way to this site because of the name. God has given me a passion for those wounded souls. I do not wish to drive away anyone who does not understand or accept the theology of the term saint.

So I may be a bad Christian or saint who still sometimes sins but I am not blind to the wishes of my beleagured readers.

So I concede that the title shall return to “Confessions of a Bad Christian”. By the way, the winner of the “contest” for the autographed copy of “When Bad Christians Happen to Good People” is reader Andrea.

Hi, I am a relatively new reader to your blog (I think I read some articles by you at Crosswalk.com and found your blog that way) and I
vote to keep your old blog name, “Confessions of a Bad Christian.” “Bad Christian” has a simplicity that is easy to relate to. It
reminds me of when there are situations where there is a crowd of your brothers and sisters in Christ who you don’t agree with very much and
you blame yourself and think that you must be “bad.” Also, the words “saint” and “sin” have a weightiness to them that sorta takes the fun
out of thinking of yourself as a little “bad” and rebellious, lol. That is my vote on behalf of my own preference though I also vote for
whatever your preference is also because you are the one writing the kick butt articles and you know where you’d like to take a new turn so
more power to ya. Thank you for sharing your story and your insights, I look forward to continuing to learn from them!

If you people want me to embrace the bad Christian personnna then anyone who uses the phrase “kick butt articles” will move to the head of the class.

I will continue to explore the theology of my identity in Christ. The term saint is not reserved for special Christians. It is a term used to describe followers of Jesus over sixty times in both the King James and New American Standard translations. So we can explore what means together. I know I can count on you to keep me honest.

As long as we have each other this journey to be more like Jesus will be fun, authentic and “kick butt” in the most saintly use of the phrase. Reader Bridgette pointed out that I am number four on the list when you google “bad Christian”. With your help I believe I can be number one.

Thanks for participating in this failed experiment and I am glad we could reach a mature compromise.

Check out the whole list of “demotivators” at despair.com.  I get nothing out of this plug except depressed.