Ready to be one of the 1 million who proclaim their Christianity?

At ibelieve.com, Franklin Graham (in association with Christianity.com) asks “Can We Find 1,000,000 to Proclaim ‘I am a Christian’?”

How does he want you to do it? By signing a petition.

A personal message from Graham on the site says, “At a time when God’s truth is being attacked on all sides, now more than ever, Christians need to take a stand and declare their faith in Jesus Christ. I’m Franklin Graham and I want to encourage you to join the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Christianity.com in declaring your faith.”

Sounds good, right? Are you ready to join the 110,000 or so who have signed the petition?

I’m not.

Even though Graham does a good job of selling this petition, I’m not sure why anybody would want to sign this.

Let me explain. I’m a Christian. I have been a Christian for the past decade, and I don’t have anything against Franklin Graham or the Billy Graham Evangelical Association.

I just don’t understand the difference signing this petition makes.  It just seems like something else to do…another box to tick in a numbers game.

And then, since there’s the confusion about what goes for Christianity these days, could you really trust the signatures you got?

Although 76 percent of Americans claim to be Christian, recent studies show that they pick and choose their beliefs like they are at a spiritual buffet.

Nearly one-quarter dabble in astrology and believe in reincarnation even though astrology is forbidden in the Bible (See Deut. 18:9-12), and one of the distinguishing features of historical Christianity is the denial of reincarnation.

As much as I hear and see Franklin Graham proclaiming Jesus on television and when he comes to town with a crusade, I know he wouldn’t want people who are looking for cool points with Jesus or those who actually need to be converted signing his petition.

And therein lies the problem.

When you have a petition that will accept anybody calling himself a Christian, the chaff is bound to slip in with the wheat.

Christianity and Christ deserve more than statistical Christianity.

If the petition urged Christians to take action by becoming Biblically literate, so that they would know what offends God and what doesn’t or if it called American Christians to live holy lives, I would be all for it because then it would mean something.

It wouldn’t seem like an “I’ve got more people on my side than you’ve got on your side” sort of thing.

It would be a rallying cry for Christians to consecrate themselves before the God they profess to serve.