Are you a Christian?

You would be amazed, if you don't live in an overly religious area, how often I get asked this question. I first started getting variations of this question when I moved to the midwest.  Conversations usually went like this:
"Oh, are you new here?"
"Yes"
"What street are you on"
-answers-
"Oh so and so lived up there, died last year, did you know him?"
"No, I'm new here."
"Well which church do you go to? You can come to mine!"

Every. Single. Time.

Then, I moved further south, and it was straight up, "Do you have a place to worship?"

Thankfully, I attend a lovely Unitarian Universalist fellowship and can honestly say, "yes", although I'm not sure worship is quite the word for it. 

Then the other day...quite unexpectedly my boss says, "Are you a Christian, Lynn?"

Me: 0_o

My first inclination was to say, "Well I don't believe you can legally ask me that dude."

But I felt like it was asked innocently enough, and decided to go with it.
"No, no I'm not. I do attend a church however, and I have spiritual beliefs about the here and now."

Him: "Oh. I don't have much use for church anymore myself."

Well that was a relief to hear! His father was a minister and we do actually advertise as a Christian organization, so this was an interesting revelation to me.

I wonder how many others there are down here, who are just a round peg in a square hole, trying their best to get by?

Let's get some FAQ's out of the way, so I don't have to answer them again.
Am I a Christian? No.

Do I believe in an afterlife? Yes, but I haven't been able to scientifically determine what that means yet, so I largely count myself an atheist.

But don't you believe in god/s? Nope. While I do philosophically count myself as Buddhist, more as a guideline on how to live in the now, I see gods more as metaphors.

Are all your friends atheists? Some, but a lot of atheists find my mix of beliefs to be bullshit, so no, not all.

Do you hate Christians? Nope, I have a pretty live and let live approach. You let me do my thing, I'll let you do yours. I have no tolerance for hate however- if you're anti gay, pro-life, etc, we likely aren't going to be besties.

That probably covers a good beginning. I'll chat on more as I blog.