On “Christians” who spread anti-LGBTQIA+ messages, especially during Pride month:
Two things, from the bottom of my unruly Quaker heart:
1: Fuck off with your hateful bullshit.
2: I too am a Christian and boy howdy do I not appreciate folks posting, picketing, setting up booths, etc during Pride events to spread homophobic, anti-LGBTQIA+ propaganda - and say it’s in the name of God.
Get God’s name out of your hateful mouth.
Y’all don’t even know how to have a good time. Instead you spread messages that supposedly say, “I don’t hate you but BTW you are going to burn in hell for all eternity and you don’t deserve human rights and blah blah blah.” (A.k.a. “Hate the sin love the sinner.”) Uh … no.
Then you (or your pastors) cherry-pick quotes from the Bible to make it seem like God judges people for being who they are.
I don’t find Bible quotes very persuasive in an argument because the Bible is a big and rather confusing and allegorical book, and you can find almost anything you want in there. Including sea monsters.
Inevitably, folks cherry-pick Bible quotes to prove their points or confirm their priors.
“Oh no, I don’t cherry-pick. I follow the whole Bible.” Oh. Ok. Really?
So … you don’t mix fabrics in your clothing, like, heaven forfend, wearing a poly/cotton- blend t-shirt? Nary a 50/50 wool/cotton sweater hath touched itself to your bod? No? Not ever? You don’t trim the sides of your hair, I hope. And you’d better not eat any fat, at all, ever. Never never. Because those are just 3 of the 76 rules in one book of the Bible (Leviticus) alone.
Oh, wait, what? It’s ok to do some of those things? So … you’re selectively choosing ?
Ah, yes, I like cherries, too.
Thing is, there are easily as many, if not more, Bible quotes that support LGBTQIA+ folks — yes, including trans folks — when one bothers to look into the possible variations in meanings and context of all the Bible’s translations. Why not cherry-pick those instead?
But ok. Let’s stick with the Bible, the Christian part, the Gospel. Let’s say some rules are more important than others. How to decide? Hmmm. Hmm hmm hmm.
Oh! We don’t have to decide. It’s in there:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
So … ok. Yeah.
That’s pretty clear.
So if we say LGBTQIA+ folks are “wrong,” or “wicked” or “against God,” simply for being who they were born to be, are we loving our neighbor as ourself?
Hint: The answer is no. We’re not.
We’re judging, separating, shaming.
We’re saying, “I am not that, and what they are is not ok.”
And if we go shout at people during their Pride fun, piss in their punchbowl as it were, are we treating our neighbors as ourselves?
Nope.
So we are disobeying one of the two guidelines Jesus said were literally the most important.
Because if we loved all our neighbors as ourselves, we would understand that everyone is born the way they are born, the way that WE were born they way we were. And are.
We would say, “She, he, they — are me. I am — them.”
We would defend folks and and care for them and keep everyone safe and not effing judge them for who they are — because we are each other.
And some of us are big flaming gays. (Or bisexuals, aka half-gays.) Yay, us!
Fam. It’s not God or Jesus who judge us. It’s humans who cast judgment on other humans.
The Great Cosmic Echidna, or God, or Jesus - reader’s choice - adores everyone.
I repeat: the Universe adores everyone, all the time, always. Full stop, period, the end.
Notice how there’s nothing about hate or judginess there?
If anyone disagrees on my theology, that’s fine. I’m not a theologian, nor do I strive to be. I do strive to be a decent human.
And in that vein, I invite any “Christians” who get Big Mad about gay pride to pause and reflect on the ways you are and aren’t treating your neighbors as yourself. We could all stand to reflect on that a whole helluva lot … all day every day and in every interaction.
That’s really all it takes: be a decent human. Don’t be hateful. Don’t tell people they are going to burn in hell for the way they were born.
And for God’s sake, don’t ruin Pride.
Because that makes you not just a hater, but a party-pooper as well.
Happy Pride, y’all.
Xoxo
P.S. If you’re out and about during Pride or being an ally and some haters are spewing hate, do what the local community did yesterday: create a “human wall” around the haters, so revelers don’t have to be subjected to them.
P.P.S. If some haters try to preach on a bullhorn, or stream to the interwebs, do what young people know to do: blast Disney songs as loud as you can near them. Why? Disney is notoriously strict about its copyrights and will almost immediately take down nearly any post with its copyrighted content. Ta da! Magical unicorns!
P.P.S. Paid subscribers support my work and keep Unruly Quaker free for everyone. If you can, please become a paid subscriber. Link below. And thanks!
Great column. Great advice on how to react to the haters….who we must also love.