Happy pride month to all who celebrate! I try to be an ally and fight for equal rights all year long, especially as long as there are so many attacking the rights and the lives of vulnerable populations such as transgender people and immigrants. But it is nice to have a special time to celebrate our LGBTQIA community and show them extra love.
I have heard stories recently of women with short hair being attacked or harrassed when going into a women’s restroom, and this is an unacceptable display of hatred and ignorance. It is wrong to target transgender people AND it is wrong to assume that a woman with short hair is transgender. (Similarly, it is wrong to arrest and deport any person with a foreign sounding name or tattoos without due process.)
Growing up in church and christian school, I was taught to love others as God loves me and that Jesus loves all the children of the world. Then I noticed that there are certain “sins” that people consider to be worse than others. For some reason, people like to focus on what some other people do in the privacy of their homes, but they would be offended if you tried to talk about their private lives in a similarly invasive way. The Bible frequently tells us not to judge, but that has to be the most ignored scriptural instruction of all. We learned that we love the sinner but hate the sin, which involves judging that someone is sinning. It was believed that these “sinners” chose their “lifestyle” and could just change if they wanted to. But this is a false belief and an impossible expectation for most, which has led to much hatred, abuse, hiding, and suffering.
I would like to share excerpts from an article by Mark Sandlin: “Hate the sin, love the sinner,” is not real love because love isn’t mixed with hate and judgment. It is just “cruelty in church clothes.” Many kids and adults “couldn’t survive the weight of a God their church told them hated them” and decided to stop living. “If your theology drives people to despair – it’s not Christlike. It’s abusive.” “If your faith makes you cruel, it's not Jesus you're following.
It's control.
It’s empire.
It’s fear wrapped in religion.
But if your faith leads you to love more, welcome wider, and tell the truth even when it costs you?
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Because that’s where Jesus lives.” - Mark Sandlin, It's Clobberin’ Time: The Bible, LGBTQ+ Folks, and a Whole Heap of Bad Theology.
Image: Sow Love So Love by David Hayward
Some of the most loving, joy-filled people I know are those who have been rejected by their faith communities for being different. We all can benefit from expanding our circles, opening our hearts, and getting to know people from the LGBTQIA community. Let’s try to spread a little love every day to every person we meet.