Why can't people just mind their own business. It isn't as if they don't have issues - we all do. Ruining someone else's dream or plan is just plain wrong - worry about your own home before you try to ruin someone else's.
You have said with such eloquence and passion what is in my heart. And I would add to that the judgements made against the poor, the homeless, the troubled strangers we encounter every day. It’s not our job. Our job is to share our blessings with them.
Isn’t this woman (THIS woman) The God fearing Christian woman who had been married 5 or so times? And I think twice to the same man?
I thought she was the worst hypocrite in 2015 and she seems to be hoeing the same line today. Someone or some right wing group has got to be paying her way.
Agreed. I have said many times that so much MAGA angst could be avoided if they’d simply mind their own business. All of a sudden that gay married couple four houses down isn’t a problem anymore…and so much else. Have whatever relationship with Jesus seems appropriate to you - and grant others the same grace. It’s not that hard, and it’ll make you and everyone else a lot happier.
Belief in some supernatural being should be a highly personal choice, not a social or political obligation. A decision that such a belief system is inappropriate and irrational is also a highly personal choice. One problem is that (most?) people are afraid to confront the realities of their lives as a series of choices made by not just themselves, but also by the people who raised them, the society that acculturated them, and the systems that educated them. I would also venture to say that most people fear death as much as they fear acknowledging their responsibility for the choices they have made. "Religion"--that is, institutionalized belief systems that demand conformity to a series of ideas, rituals, and relationships--is something invented by men who wished and continue to wish to exploit the fears and insecurities of others by creating supposed "communities" of like-minded "believers." They created the systems, the rituals, the ideas. The desire to impose them on everyone else is part of the system of religio-political dictatorship that most organized religions operate under, and especially in so-called evangelical systems such as most forms of Christianity and Islam, this is an actual goal. One of the easiest things for autocrats to convince people to do is to fear and hate a minority that is doing absolutely nothing to harm them because it deludes people into thinking they are somehow powerful and superior. When in fact they are just plain afraid. QED.
I do not think I am naive. But I was apparently wrong. I was stunned to learn recently that two Evangelical churches in my hood discriminate against gay people. I approached one and they said I would be welcome to attend, but as a gay person, I could never be in a leadership position. The other told me that I could attend services but not be a “member.” I live in California in a liberal area. How are people not outraged by this? I would like to expose this but all my friends roll their eyes and walk away.
I'm not gay myself, but I do use the 'can gay people be in leadership in this church' as a litmus test for a church's ability to hear what God is doing, and their attitudes to those things. I would not attend a church that failed that test.
Bigots are everywhere unfortunately, even among those folks who claim to be followers of Jesus. An Anglican Church in my neighbourhood had its congregation halved when its anti-gay-marriage priest announced at the end of a service, without warning to many people in the congregation, that that day would be his last day, that he had rented a unit in an industrial park to start a new church outside of the Anglican Communion, and that he had already contacted the people in the congregation who agreed with him. Then he walked out, and the members who were going with him stood up and followed him out the door. His issue? That same-sex marriages were permitted in the church.
The church did not survive the departure of half of its congregation and then amalgamated with another church does perform same-sex marriages.
Thank you for reassuring me that my love for my LGBTQ brothers and sisters who want to marry is not a sin that "harms God". I know that God loves all his children. How could He not, when He created us to be who we are? The only thing "harmful" is the hate that others show to His children. And that must never be tolerated in any way, shape or form.
John 8:7 is a verse where Jesus confronts the scribes and Pharisees who brought a woman caught in adultery before him. In response to their question about whether she should be stoned, Jesus famously says, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
This verse is part of a larger narrative (John 8:1-11) where Jesus uses the situation to teach about sin, forgiveness, and the hypocrisy of judgment. He challenges the accusers to examine their own hearts before condemning the woman. The passage highlights the concept of grace and mercy, suggesting that true judgment belongs to God, who sees the hearts of all people.
I wrote about this last year in my coverage of Project 2025 in "Sex and the Christian Nationalist." I'll leave a link, though it is archived and will be paywalled. Here's an outtake:
Christian Nationalists worship an angry, vengeful Old Testament God.
Old Testament God ordered the Israelites to expose and punish all sexual immorality, because one couple’s fornication polluted the whole community.
Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things,
for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled.
And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
Source: Leviticus 18:24-29 NIV
One could translate the phrase the native-born and the foreigners as believers and non-believers. Or Christian Nationalists and everyone else.
As an example, say 100,000 people live in a city. Two people commit fornication. The residents of that city must expose and punish the couple’s sexual immorality because it displeases God. If they fail to make a lesson of these fornicators, it could lead the whole city down the path of debauchery and perversion. God will judge the whole city for permitting this defilement.
Christian Nationalist pastor John MacArthur espouses this view from the pulpit HERE. I pulled a quote from the five-minute video below.
God gave them over to sexual immorality, homosexuality, a reprobate mind. So when you see a nation deep in sexual sin, pervasively affirming of homosexuality and the insanity of a reprobate mind where they make laws to criminalize righteousness and to legalize gross evil, you know that nation is under God’s judgment.
Source: John MacArthur YouTube
###########
Christian Nationalists use this interpretation of the Old Testament to give themselves the right to police every private thing we do. They tell themselves God will judge everyone (including them) until they stop what displeases him. THIS IS WHAT THEY MEAN WHEN THEY SAY "IT DISPLEASES GOD."
And this is what we should be calling them out on: Their selective, cherry-picked interpretations of the Old Testament. They drag this crap out when it suits them and gives them power.
Why can't people just mind their own business. It isn't as if they don't have issues - we all do. Ruining someone else's dream or plan is just plain wrong - worry about your own home before you try to ruin someone else's.
My god, those people who say someone else "harms God" are insufferable assholes.
She has no joy in her soul so she feeds on hatred.
So true. Thank you for expressing this so eloquently.
So well written and passioantely stated John. Thank you!
You have said with such eloquence and passion what is in my heart. And I would add to that the judgements made against the poor, the homeless, the troubled strangers we encounter every day. It’s not our job. Our job is to share our blessings with them.
If someone's marriage between consenting adults hurts their god - that's a pretty wimpy god.
Isn’t this woman (THIS woman) The God fearing Christian woman who had been married 5 or so times? And I think twice to the same man?
I thought she was the worst hypocrite in 2015 and she seems to be hoeing the same line today. Someone or some right wing group has got to be paying her way.
Yeah, law for thee but not for meee... because I'm forgiven. 🙄
Good one…
Agreed. I have said many times that so much MAGA angst could be avoided if they’d simply mind their own business. All of a sudden that gay married couple four houses down isn’t a problem anymore…and so much else. Have whatever relationship with Jesus seems appropriate to you - and grant others the same grace. It’s not that hard, and it’ll make you and everyone else a lot happier.
Belief in some supernatural being should be a highly personal choice, not a social or political obligation. A decision that such a belief system is inappropriate and irrational is also a highly personal choice. One problem is that (most?) people are afraid to confront the realities of their lives as a series of choices made by not just themselves, but also by the people who raised them, the society that acculturated them, and the systems that educated them. I would also venture to say that most people fear death as much as they fear acknowledging their responsibility for the choices they have made. "Religion"--that is, institutionalized belief systems that demand conformity to a series of ideas, rituals, and relationships--is something invented by men who wished and continue to wish to exploit the fears and insecurities of others by creating supposed "communities" of like-minded "believers." They created the systems, the rituals, the ideas. The desire to impose them on everyone else is part of the system of religio-political dictatorship that most organized religions operate under, and especially in so-called evangelical systems such as most forms of Christianity and Islam, this is an actual goal. One of the easiest things for autocrats to convince people to do is to fear and hate a minority that is doing absolutely nothing to harm them because it deludes people into thinking they are somehow powerful and superior. When in fact they are just plain afraid. QED.
I do not think I am naive. But I was apparently wrong. I was stunned to learn recently that two Evangelical churches in my hood discriminate against gay people. I approached one and they said I would be welcome to attend, but as a gay person, I could never be in a leadership position. The other told me that I could attend services but not be a “member.” I live in California in a liberal area. How are people not outraged by this? I would like to expose this but all my friends roll their eyes and walk away.
I'm not gay myself, but I do use the 'can gay people be in leadership in this church' as a litmus test for a church's ability to hear what God is doing, and their attitudes to those things. I would not attend a church that failed that test.
Interesting. Thank you.
Bigots are everywhere unfortunately, even among those folks who claim to be followers of Jesus. An Anglican Church in my neighbourhood had its congregation halved when its anti-gay-marriage priest announced at the end of a service, without warning to many people in the congregation, that that day would be his last day, that he had rented a unit in an industrial park to start a new church outside of the Anglican Communion, and that he had already contacted the people in the congregation who agreed with him. Then he walked out, and the members who were going with him stood up and followed him out the door. His issue? That same-sex marriages were permitted in the church.
The church did not survive the departure of half of its congregation and then amalgamated with another church does perform same-sex marriages.
The diocese of Toronto has a gay bishop, who is married. He’s a wonderful person and an excellent church leader.
Thank you for reassuring me that my love for my LGBTQ brothers and sisters who want to marry is not a sin that "harms God". I know that God loves all his children. How could He not, when He created us to be who we are? The only thing "harmful" is the hate that others show to His children. And that must never be tolerated in any way, shape or form.
John 8:7 is a verse where Jesus confronts the scribes and Pharisees who brought a woman caught in adultery before him. In response to their question about whether she should be stoned, Jesus famously says, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
This verse is part of a larger narrative (John 8:1-11) where Jesus uses the situation to teach about sin, forgiveness, and the hypocrisy of judgment. He challenges the accusers to examine their own hearts before condemning the woman. The passage highlights the concept of grace and mercy, suggesting that true judgment belongs to God, who sees the hearts of all people.
They've been around for the entirety of human existence. It seems many people need someone to hate and persecute.
Indeed, for some people, the entire reason for their existence is to judge others. Sucks to be them...
Amen!
I wrote about this last year in my coverage of Project 2025 in "Sex and the Christian Nationalist." I'll leave a link, though it is archived and will be paywalled. Here's an outtake:
Christian Nationalists worship an angry, vengeful Old Testament God.
Old Testament God ordered the Israelites to expose and punish all sexual immorality, because one couple’s fornication polluted the whole community.
Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things,
for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled.
And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
Source: Leviticus 18:24-29 NIV
One could translate the phrase the native-born and the foreigners as believers and non-believers. Or Christian Nationalists and everyone else.
As an example, say 100,000 people live in a city. Two people commit fornication. The residents of that city must expose and punish the couple’s sexual immorality because it displeases God. If they fail to make a lesson of these fornicators, it could lead the whole city down the path of debauchery and perversion. God will judge the whole city for permitting this defilement.
Christian Nationalist pastor John MacArthur espouses this view from the pulpit HERE. I pulled a quote from the five-minute video below.
God gave them over to sexual immorality, homosexuality, a reprobate mind. So when you see a nation deep in sexual sin, pervasively affirming of homosexuality and the insanity of a reprobate mind where they make laws to criminalize righteousness and to legalize gross evil, you know that nation is under God’s judgment.
Source: John MacArthur YouTube
###########
Christian Nationalists use this interpretation of the Old Testament to give themselves the right to police every private thing we do. They tell themselves God will judge everyone (including them) until they stop what displeases him. THIS IS WHAT THEY MEAN WHEN THEY SAY "IT DISPLEASES GOD."
And this is what we should be calling them out on: Their selective, cherry-picked interpretations of the Old Testament. They drag this crap out when it suits them and gives them power.
https://andrawatkins.substack.com/p/sex-and-the-christian-nationalist
Thank you so much for your wise and compelling essays. You are a light in this darkness.