Cardinal Cupich's Correction

I am compelled to comment on Cardinal Cupich's statement (below) that many who have no faith system at all are many times are "the greater Christians". On reading this I was immediately reminded of C.S. Lewis's gripe about the misuse of the word 'gentleman'. This word failed to endure its misuse and eventually came to mean a man the commentator liked rather than a person of property. The Cardinal's recent comment signifies a similar lack of precision. We already have the word 'nice' for such pleasant people as the cardinal refers to. But the word "Christian" should mean someone who has a set of beliefs. It is much more accurate to say the person is a bad Christian who doesn't live up to their creed than to say he isn't a Christian at all. The same thing goes for the nice person who we say is a Christian when in fact he doesn't believe the Christian creed. We've then ruined the word for any value it once had.

The phrase "without any faith system at all" is the most problematic. Yes, the atheist may be nice (we can't read the heart so even 'nice' might not be as accurate as we think) but to say that he is one of 'the greater Christians' is to badly misuse the English language. A nice atheist is just that: a nice atheist. But to say such a man is a great Christian is take no account for the dictionary definition.