Columnist wants to change perception of Christians
I had a class where every time the professor brought up Christianity, the corresponding slide would have a picture of the Westboro Baptist Church holding up signs with terrible anti-veteran and anti-homosexual slurs on them. In the class, Christianity was synonymous with hate, stubbornness and unacceptance. As a non-denominational believer, it broke my heart to realize that this extremist side of the religion was the most commonly known side.
Before I start, I feel the need to note a few things. First and foremost, this article is not in any way justifying the actions of some members of the Westboro Baptist Church, or anyone who would tell you God does not love you. That type of behavior is a terrible example of of the religion.
Second, I am not perfect, and I am not ashamed to admit that. I have fallen short, still fall short almost daily, and will probably fall short in the future.
Finally, this article is not to condemn anyone for doing what they do or believing what they believe.
My God is a God of choice— meaning he has given us the free will to do as we please. However, I did write this to try and convince the reader that Christianity is not a religion that is based on hateful, homophobic and transphobic principles.
Even though, according to the Christian belief, certain actions and ways of living are against the will of God, I have never considered myself anti-LGBTQ. I am not anti-anyone.
The best way I can explain this is by using cigarettes. The actions are not synonymous. It is just the best metaphor I could think of. We all know smoking causes cancer. Therefore, if someone we know and love smokes, we try and convince them to stop. We do not stop loving them as a person. In fact, is it because we love them so tremendously that we try to stop them from doing something we know has often irreversible bad side effects.
That is how believers view not just homosexuality, but all sins. We were raised to believe that no unforgiven sin can enter the gates of heaven, so because we love everyone and want everyone to go to this place of eternal happiness, we try and spread our truth.
The point I am trying to get across is that the core of Christianity, or at least my version of it, is love. Truth be told, I cannot change anyone. That is not my responsibility. All I can try and do is show people the same love that God has shown me and hope that they choose him because they want to experience that unconditional love themselves.
I want to end this by saying no matter who you love, what you believe, or what you have done — God loves you, and anyone who would tell you any different is not representing the belief the way it is supposed to be represented.
1 Corinthians 16:14 says, “Let all that you do be done in love,” and that is a perfect scripture to describe what our actions are supposed to reflect.