The tweet wasn’t about “belief or abstraction,” he said, but was more about an “experience of presence.” He added that he’s glad conversations are happening and people are wrestling with it. “What a wonderful chance to talk about something that I know…I grew up Christian and the word Christ and the concept of Christ wasn’t really delved into that deeply or that often. It was kind of almost as part of Jesus’ name…like his last name or something.”
The largest problem followers had with his tweet was that is was “unorthodox to mainstream historical Christianity.” Gungor replied by laughing and smiling. “I plead guilty,” he said to that accusation.
Being labeled as unorthodox related to historical mainstream Christianity doesn’t “freak [me] out,” he said. Because “historical, mainstream Christianity is the force in the world (not saying it doesn’t have any good or worth) that is responsible for the Inquisition, Manifest Destiny, all sorts of colonialism and genocide, sexism, patriarchy, homophobia, ecological violence, and countless other evils.”
“Most of the time, Christendom has been destroying people.”
“I’m not claiming that my take on what Christ is what most Christians have said,” Gungor made clear. “If you are concerned about that…call me a heretic and I will accept your accusation.”
One of the comments Gungor got a good laugh out of read: “Michael, you can’t keep pointing at things in your room and saying they’re Christ.” He told listeners he believes some people around the world and throughout history have used the word Christ in the way he used it. “I think the triumphalism, the colonialism, the militarism of Christ as a concept is something that needs to be abandoned, or perhaps reformed,” he said.
On Instagram Live, a viewer asked: “Do you think Jesus is the only Christ?” Gungor responded with: “I’m still saying there’s one Christ. I’m saying that when Jesus spoke the words, ‘I am the way, the truth, the life; no one comes to the Father but through me,’ He was speaking as the ‘Christ.’ The one ‘Christ.’ But what is the one ‘Christ?’ Is it the body of Jesus? And what part? The brain?…What exactly is the truth and the life? The fingernails (He clipped)? The brain? The skin? The hair? Or was it the animating life of Jesus?” Gungor ended his answer with, “Yes, Jesus was the true ‘Christ.’ ” Then he acknowledged that his answer was perhaps heretical and added, “As are you. I think that Jesus saw it more clearly than most of us.” Gungor called his revelation a freeing truth.
