Food for thought (Pride Month)

I was going to post this in June, but I chickened out like I knew I would. However, today I saw another post about pride made by a Christian, and I looked at the comments and was just like, “Dudes! Y’all need to chill!”. I lowkey hope no one reads this because I don’t like talking about this subject. Especially as a Christian because we’ve gotten ourselves a bad yet totally deserved reputation about the issue. Also, I’m not a fan of what I have seen many Christians saying about the LGBTQ community. If you are a Christian reading this, I would like to start by saying I don’t care if you disagree with me or think I’m wrong. This is me expressing my probably totally unqualified opinion, and I’m not gonna fight with anyone. Anyway closes eyes and looks away in dread, here it goes.

I wasn’t ever going to write something like this. I’ve wanted to for about three years, but I wasn’t going to. Then I saw something the other day about LGBTQ that I didn’t like. I’m not trying to offend anyone, so please feel free to correct me if I say something incorrectly. I’m not an expert on the subject, and I have no problem admitting it. I had numerous discussions about this topic at bible college. Still, I felt like I always struggled to really express my thought process, and I would like to do that now. Since this is written by a Christian, for other Christians to read, let me just start with the thing all Christians usually begin with.

“Homosexuality is a sin.” Okay, yes, but so is lying, stealing, cheating, getting drunk, jealousy, cursing, and you know what else? Hating others. The bible says if you even dislike someone, you have committed murder in your heart. I’ve lied, and I will admit my language isn’t always the most kid-friendly, and jealousy is a HUGE issue for me. I also know many people who get drunk (Okay, that sounded way worse than I meant it to). Drinking is not a sin but getting drunk, I think, is. My question to Christians is this: what makes some sins worse than others? My second question is, who decides which sins are worse? Why do you have no problem accepting me; who will most definitely lie and curse again at least once in the next week or so? Technically I lie every day when customers ask me how I’m doing, and I tell them I’m doing pretty good. It’s almost always a lie. I’m not perfect, but why doesn’t anyone condemn me for living a sinful life? Not that I want anyone to, but they seem to have no trouble pointing out the sins of LGBTQ people, what makes them different from me.

This may be awful too, but when it comes to sin (see, it’s such an ugly word!) I feel like it’s a pick your poison type of deal. None of us are perfect, but we each struggle in different categories. My big ones are lying and jealousy. Plus the fact that I should probably start a swear jar. Also, I’m lazy and don’t really like helping others. I just do it sometimes because I know it’s what I’m supposed to do. So why am I eligible for God’s love and others aren’t, or am I going to hell too since I am also a sinner? Secondly, lots of LGBTQ people aren’t even religious. I feel like condemning them is like forcing me to only eat vegetables just because you don’t like meat, and that’s not okay. If you wanna be a vegetarian, I will support you wholeheartedly, but let me eat my stupid burger! If people aren’t even Christians, why are we expecting them to live their life according to Christian standards in the first place?

One person once said, “Well, if they can have pride month and stuff, why can’t we as Christians do the same thing?” We do! We have billboards on the highway, and there are outreaches in many cities. Plus, let’s face it, no one is afraid of people turning on them if they say they are Christian. When I was in high school, one of my friends texted me, saying, “I have something to tell you.” I HATE that sentence, by the way. I was freaking out. I was like, “Oh no, is she on drugs? Did she commit a crime? She probably shouldn’t tell me if she did. Is she suicidal? I can’t handle that pressure. Who am I supposed to tell!!!”. So, I’m freaking out, and I just said, “okay…” and then she told me that she was gay, and I let out the biggest sigh of relief!!!!! I was like, “Okay, that’s fine. I don’t care”. She was my friend, and she was super fun to be around! Then she went on to tell me how nervous she was because she had already lost 2 friends that day! In my opinion, she was better off without them. First of all, that clearly wasn’t easy for her to say, and then they had to go and make it worse by being a jagweed about it.

We had a speaker come talk to us one evening at bible college, and we had such a good conversation that I feel was a lot like this post. He said a lot while not actually saying that much. He talked about his sister, I think it was, that was lesbian. He said he felt conflicted when he got invited to her wedding, but he wanted to support his sister because he loved her. I think what he did was he didn’t attend the actual wedding, but he came to the reception afterward. I really liked that because I understand where Christians come from. Still, I also think it was a fabulous example of a horribly ugly phrase that I wish would be reworded… “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” God doesn’t call us to hate anyone, and I don’t know where people read that in the bible. Honestly, while I haven’t met many LGBTQ people, all the ones I have met are awesome and super chill. In general, they are just nicer than some of the people I encounter daily at work. While I don’t know them well, the few I’ve met in passing are always friendly, super cool, and easy to talk to. For someone with social anxiety, that combination is truly a blessing. There’s this one customer I don’t see a lot because the location I work at isn’t usually on his way to work. He only comes in when he’s in the area, but he is always so fun to talk to and has the most awesome nails!!! I’m so jealous. Last year around Christmas, he had this red, green, and silver nail art that I wish I could have taken a picture of, but I was working. See, there I go again with the jealousy.

My point is that no one is perfect. My brother stopped going to church as soon as our parents couldn’t force us to come anymore, and in high school, he didn’t always make the best choices. Sometimes he still doesn’t, but he’s my brother, and I love him no matter what because he’s not a bad person. He’s actually one of my favorite people (just don’t tell him that). No matter a person’s religion or lack thereof, they are human beings who deserve respect and basic human decency. As Christians, our number one mission is demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ in our everyday lives and loving everyone! The bible is full of rules and regulations, but remember what the most important one is??? ‘Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. AND love your neighbor (all of your neighbors) as yourself. That’s why it says for God so loved the world he gave his only son. It does not say that God so loved the Christians he gave his only son. He loved the whole world and everyone in it. I saw a sermon a while back by Stephen Furtick, who told a story about Jesus and why he did the things he did. I’m probably killing his sermon right now, but the moral was that Jesus was trying to show that he knew we were gonna fall short and break the rules. He knew when he healed people that even though he told them not to tell anyone, they would immediately do just that. He knew none of us were gonna be perfect, and it’s for that very reason he chose to die for us. Even though we still fail and make mistakes constantly, God loves ALL of us so much that he sent his son. So when we inevitably make mistakes repeatedly, he will continue to forgive us and love us. That love applies to EVERYONE! Honestly, I find it disrespectful when Christians feel the need to point out the sins of others as if their own track record is so super fantastic.

If you are perfect, feel free to judge, but make sure you are judging equally because if you aren’t gonna let LGBTQ people into your church, then you’re gonna have to kick me out too because I sin as well. I do my best not to, but it’s really hard sometimes. I’m just naturally not a very giving person. I don’t like giving my time or money to people for free. I don’t even like sharing a lot of the time. I will probably wrestle with my selfishness for the rest of my life, but it’s only fair if you are going to keep out the sinners, then you have to exclude all of them. Just because everybody lies doesn’t make it less critical of a sin. For LGBTQ people, pride month is about celebrating who they are, and they shouldn’t feel like they have to hide it for fear of judgment. Here is where some Christians would say “God didn’t make people like that”………. Shut up! God didn’t create me to be selfish and dishonest and lazy, but good or bad, it’s a part of the person he created me to be. What I know is that God didn’t intend for me to live the rest of my life hating myself for everything I’m not!! God loves us so much, and anyone else’s religion or lack thereof is none of our business. Just let people live their lives! At the end of the day, we are all people. None of us are perfect, so it’s even more important that we love and encourage each other as fellow human beings in a less-than-perfect world. If Pride Month is against your beliefs, don’t celebrate it, but don’t try to stop others from taking pride in who they are. You can decide how you want to live, but you have no business forcing your opinions and lifestyle on others. One person said that they used to be a Christian, and when they came out, so many people told them that God hated them and would never accept them, and that’s why they are an Atheist now. After all, if that’s the message we are giving about Christianity, I wouldn’t want to be a part of it either. It also tells me that that method of evangelism isn’t working.

In conclusion, it doesn’t matter what my personal beliefs are about LGBTQ because God loves them, which means I also love them, and I honestly can’t justify judging a person based off of only their flaws. If we all did that, then we would have no friends. Also, I’ve finally learned to be proud of who I am even though I’m not perfect, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to feel proud of themselves too. I spent so long hating myself and thinking I was a failure and a disappointment even to God. I like the idea of Pride Month because I believe everyone deserves to feel proud of who they are. Life is too short to feel ashamed of yourself, and if God loves you, then you should love yourself too because that’s the message I get out of the bible. As Christian, our job is to love, not judge, and that’s how I feel about Pride Month.

I’m still not sure that my words came out 100% how I wanted, but I think I got my point across, and if you disagree with me, that’s fine! I’m not writing this to change people’s minds one way or another. I’m writing this so that Christian will hopefully be more respectful about pride month or at the very least learn to ignore it because we are called only to love.

I’m selfish sometimes, and sometimes petty or act without thinking. I lie sometimes, and I get jealous easily. Do I not deserve to feel proud of myself either????? Just because we don’t talk about our sins doesn’t mean they don’t exist. So you tell me…….. are we allowed to feel proud of who we are?