He was a buddhist. I am a christian.

It has been so interesting reading the wonderful editorials about Steve Jobs this past week. Without fail it seems to come up that he was a Buddhist. And, it is always presented so that we are to infer that all the good he did could be attributed to his spiritual beliefs. I have no problem with that. What has caused me to wonder is that when a good Christian man, or woman, passes on people don't say - He was a Christian. And, if they do, people often snicker, or smirk, or make some unkind, unchristian remark. I am certain if Steve Jobs had been a Christian he would have been just as good a human being.

Granted, there are Christian people, or people who call themselves Christian, that I wouldn't trust at all. But, I also know some Buddhists that aren't so nice either. It is interesting to me that we want to paint a whole mess of people with one Christian, or Buddhist brush.

I am a christian. Note, the little 'c'. I follow the teachings of Christ. The teachings are pretty simple. Love God. Love your neighbour as yourself. I can also totally get with the Buddhist eight-fold path: Right view, Right speech, Right intention, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right deed, Right Mindfulness, Right concentration. Of course I believe those 8 paths could be summed up by following Jesus's two. But, that is really neither here nor there.

However, what is relevant, to me, is it is not so 'in' to be christian in 2011. I can also imagine it is not so 'in' to be Muslim in 2011 either.

So, maybe I am being too hard on the biographers of Steve Jobs. I would be proud if my obituary read: Mary-Anne Taylor. She was a christian. Just sayin'