Dotsie, I'm definitely a chameleon Christian...I'm a chameleon in almost every facet of my being. I think being a chameleon is a well-honed defence mechanism that began in early childhood out of a need to hide my real self in order to appear more acceptable to - and appease - significant others who had the power to hurt and ostracize me in ways that were intolerable at the time.

Chameleonizing (I made that word up and wanted to use it in my book but my book coach wouldn't let me) served me well over the years, not just as a way to hide my self, values and beliefs from attack and persecution, but also as a gift of attentive listening...it's allowed me to listen to the heart of the other person I'm with and hear what's really being said behind the actual words.

I don't like my wimpiness when my chameleonizing prevents me from being authentically all that I can be, but I DO like the way that chameleonizing allows me to have compassionate conversations with people who might otherwise feel too threatened by my Christian beliefs to speak. I'm almost always able to find a common ground from which to carry on a good, dynamic, non-theocratic-specific, non-denomination, spiritual conversation.

Ironically, my chameleonizing, when driven by compassion and sincere (unconditional?) interest in another person's being and becoming, is one of the few qualities I actually like about myself.