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When I say …For permission to publish the poem, WHEN I SAY I AM A CHRISTIAN, in video, slide, print, songwriting, or audio recording, please contact the author through the form on this website. To license with the author to create products for sale that feature the words of this poem, please contact the author. To obtain images for use on social media please click on the links provided below. Specific images of the poem, WHEN I SAY I AM A CHRISTIAN, have been created by the author for the purpose of posting, pinning, and sharing on social media only. Any use of these images beyond social media is strictly prohibited. Any alteration of text or images featuring the text is also prohibited. https://www.facebook.com/whenisayiamachristian http://whenisayiamachristian.tumblr.com http://pinterest.com/whenisaypoem/when-i-say-i-am-a-christian/
THE STORY BEHIND THE WORDS My heart was heavy as I wrote the poem, When I say, “I am a Christian. ” The year was 1988. I had begun to sense an increasing societal resentment within American culture toward the attitude of self-righteousness that has been adopted by so many Christians. I knew such behavior was and is a distortion of Christianity. Thus the sentiment of the poem was born out of my personal awareness of this distortion and the heartache it can cause in our pluralistic society. I jotted down my thoughts with an inner determination to define the Christian spirit as I wished to experience it. The resulting words formed a reflection of my own beliefs and the reputation I hoped to secure for myself. Four years later, I sent the poem to 5 different publishers. As a result of its first publication in 1992, someone placed the poem on the Internet where it miraculously began taking on a life of its own. From Manila to South Africa; Australia to Singapore; Finland to Bahrain—I’ve received e-mails from people all over the world who have read this poem and who share a common desire to walk humbly with God.
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