Christian?

Lately I’ve become sensitive to the use of the word “Christian”, which, I just now discovered, my word processing app insists upon capitalizing. Okay, I get that. It’s a religion. Just as “Jewish” is a religion. Wow. The word processing app merely underlines the word Jewish if it’s not capped. What about “catholic”? Nothing. I guess that’s because “catholic” can also be an adjective. Ok, “Episcopalian”. Ah ha! Automatic caps. What about “druid”? How about “wiccan”? Nope and uh-uh. (In fact, "wiccan" is underlined capped or not, meaning, I guess, the app just thinks it's wrong.) From all this, I deduce that it’s only appropriate to apply capitals when it’s a religion and nothing else. After all, Christians, by definition, are followers of the teachings of Christ. What bothers me is when people use the word “Christian” to define a person’s character or actions, regardless of their chosen religion:

            “It’s the Christian thing to do.”

            “That’s not a very Christian attitude.”

Call me paranoid, but to me this implies that anything other than Christian is somehow less worthy.  Politicians are bantering this term about, skating rather close to the separation of church and state issue unless they are using the term in another way besides defining a religion, say, defining someone’s character or actions. It seems to be one of those things we all do, but never really think about or discuss. Words can and do hurt. As a writer, and more importantly, as a human being, I am very aware of this. Each time I hear the term “Christian” used this way, I think, what about me? I’m not a Christian. Can’t I do something nice for someone, or wish someone well without being called something I am not? I have many Jewish friends who are charitable, generous people. They are not Christian, and unfortunately when someone says “That’s a Jewish thing to do,” it’s not always meant in a nice way. Maybe we should just say “kind” or “caring”.

How about that?