A Christian writer named Mike Barrett got interested in the idea of connecting with and learning from those who live a more radical faith. In an article for Christianity Today, he writes about a lesson he discovered along the way:

I began randomly interviewing strangers. Pity those like the woman in her mid-50s who sat on an airplane next to me between Portland and Denver. "What do you think about Christian radicals?" I asked her.

She was not a fan. Modern radical Christians, she complained, have hijacked their faith traditions and changed the original intents. She mentioned people who picket abortion clinics as the perfect example. "They don't seem very smart to me, because they don't understand the teaching of their own faith. They shove it down people's throats."

"Those people," she concluded, "are on the fringe to me." And she had no respect for anyone who was on the fringe.

Before returning to her Sudoku game, she paused thoughtfully, removed her glasses, and leaned over to say, "Actually, the anti-war protestors of the Vietnam era were a good kind of radical."

So for this random sample of one, carrying signs and marching can make you a radical. But [whether or not you're a good or a bad radical] depends on where you are marching and what's on your sign.