You Have Some Free Time Now -- Maybe You Should Reread Your Bible

I grew up in a pretty religious household. Southern Baptist, you know? Church every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday evening. Any time our family was needed we were there. I taught Sunday school, watched the nursery, was on the Activities committee, was active in the youth group, was on the missions team, played in the orchestra, sang in the choir, filled in at the piano for the pianist... That all changed when I came out. The church was cruel. People were horrible. Grown men pulling a terrified 16-year-old into a closed room to tell them God hated them and they would go to Hell; the very people I grew up with going around in a circle at youth group listing the reasons homosexuals go to Hell. Yeah, that happened. It was traumatic.

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I drove home in my Periwinkle 1998 Nissan 200SX and cried in the driveway for about thirty minutes. I didn’t tell my parents because I thought what was happening to me was acceptable. As an adult, I’m appalled at these people’s behavior. I would NEVER admonish another person’s child without permission, nor would I ever, as a grown man, put myself in a room with a child or teen with the door closed and no windows. I digress, as these are my own personal grievances, but I felt it was important to set the stage. I grew up surrounded by Christianity, the Bible and Bible verse memorization; i.e., I'm a gay that can use the Bible. Terrifying.

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As the years pass, sometimes I think “Maybe I’ll go back to church one day.” Usually, within a week something happens that completely changes that. This pandemic is a wonderful example. The behavior I am seeing is disgusting. I think it’s important to remember that Christian means “Little Christ,” “Christ-like” or “Christ Follower”--  meaning, you should be following his examples. For the purpose of this post, I’m using Christian as the term these people call themselves. I recognize that there is a large group of true, love-oriented people that also call themselves Christians and I’m not referring to them. I’m also steering clear of the topics of abortion, divorce and homosexuality. Those are my three FAVORITE debates but they don’t fit into the context of the current pandemic.

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Let's break down the common arguments out there that completely contradict your supposed Christian beliefs and lifestyle.

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We live our lives debt free as God instructed and so the people suffering did this to themselves.

Okay, Karen, a couple of problems with this. God actually never instructs this. You may be referring to some of the Proverbs or POSSIBLY Romans 13:8. The Proverbs are just that, Proverbs. Things to try to live by. They are NOT commandments or they would have been called “The Commandments.” They had a word for commandment. It wasn’t used there. If you ARE referring to Romans 13:8 you COMPLETELY missed the point of the verse. Jesus never speaks about living debt free, and actually this mindset is in complete conflict with what he does say; to paraphrase, “I had nothing and you gave me nothing and now you’ll be cast into Hell” (Matthew 25: 41-46). Go read that for yourself. It’s not really open for interpretation. He pretty much said what he meant. Straight-shooter Jesus is quite the pot stirrer and I love every second of it.

 

The government can’t force me to do something I don’t want to do – I follow a higher power.

Again, wrong. Jesus is specific that what is God’s is God’s and what is “Caesar’s” (i.e. the government) is the government’s (Matthew 22:17-22). If Jesus is not an important enough guide (laughable right, but somehow sadly true for a lot of Christians) let’s turn to the seemingly favorite apostle to quote, Paul, who literally says, “God put your government in charge and you need to listen to them” (Romans 13:1-4). Also, to digress for about 2.3 seconds – I wonder how many of you followed that verse when Obama was president... or was it conveniently ignored as so many verses are when it best suits your needs?

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I only care about my family. I’m not worried about these other people.

Wow, this one has been the hardest one to read from so-called Christians. Not worried about others?! You know that’s antithetical to literally the entire religion of Christianity, right? Don’t take my word for it. Check out Matthew 22:34-40. Love your neighbor AS YOURSELF. He literally says you have to be worried about other people.

 

Baffling, right? Feeling guilty yet? Me neither – let’s keep going.

 

Let’s agree to disagree.

This is my FAVORITE response. That’s sarcasm, Meredith. I can’t stand that phrase, because at its core it means no one listened. It also accompanies two types of arguments:

1. The facts contradict their narrative. When confronted with actual facts that they don’t like or want to hear or that conflict with their belief system, they scream, “Why can’t we all get along and agree to disagree?!” Because facts are facts. In high school, did you say to your English teacher, “That is not a noun because I don’t believe it”? No, you didn’t, because that wasn’t an option. If it is a provable fact, you don’t get to “disagree” because it doesn’t fit your narrative.

2. They want to justify their cruelty or discrimination. You know what we can agree to disagree on? How much taxes are used to fill potholes and how much is used to plant trees along the sidewalks. (Although, let’s get real. Fix the damn roads. See – agree to disagree.) What you will not do is “agree to disagree” about the rights of humans.

• Welfare/Unemployment: “These people just don’t want to work and God only helps those that help themselves.” Well, actually that is nowhere in the Bible. Benjamin Franklin helped popularize the saying. I don’t think he’s Jesus otherwise we’ve been doing this wrong. In fact, the Bible says the exact opposite in Matthew 25.

• Medicare/Free Health Care: Again, Matthew 25. Don’t like Matthew 25? Yeah, me neither. Makes me feel guilty, too. So go ahead and try Matthew 10:7-8 on for size. Oops, it’s actually just Jesus saying more of the same thing about, “You received without paying, give without pay.” OOP! Get it Bernie Sanders Jesus. (You people really need to read Matthew.)

 

You just hate Conservatives and Christians.

Nope. That’s not it, Susan. What I do hate is the justification of cruelty using a conservative agenda that you have called “Christian.” Fun fact (as you can tell by all the verses I’ve shared so far, if you would read them), Jesus was basically the Elizabeth Warren of 32 AD. I also have no problem with Conservatives; I grew up in Conservative country. I may now be a raging liberal that wants to eat the rich, but I still totally get where you are coming from. You believe in small government, cool. I don’t. BUT here is where we could have a robust debate and “agree to disagree” (Gross, still hate that phrase but it works here and just like that you’re bringing me over to your side).

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To digress for another 2.3 seconds, unfortunately, you don’t truly believe in small government. I said I would stay clear of abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, but those are PERFECT examples of conservatives NOT actually believing in small government -- because you want the federal government to mandate everyone’s rights based on your own religious convictions. That’s actually the opposite of traditional conservative values, which uphold small government and less regulation. Again – sorry for touching a topic I said I wouldn’t, but for context I wanted to be sure you understood that you are actually pro-federal government and anti-small government, even when you believe the opposite about yourself.

 

It’s the Chinese and foreigners that did this to us.

Whoa! Christian-sanctioned xenophobia anyone? Crazy fun fact: JESUS WAS NOT WHITE. He was also a foreigner AND an immigrant. Yep, your Jesus. Brown. Foreigner. Immigrant. I’m so confused at how you’ve missed this all these years. Have you just not read the Bible for yourself? This is clearly laid out in the beginning of Matthew (1 and 2) along with his genealogy which includes people that were also foreigners and immigrants (we see you Ruth and Rahab; Fun Fact: Rahab was a prostitute). Would you make fun of and criticize Jesus and his culture? No? I didn't think so. Jesus is specific about how to treat strangers, but I know we’re tired of him making us feel guilty with all his Matthew 21-25 nonsense, so let’s look to the book of Hebrews which says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

 

My preacher says we should still go to church and I’m covered in the blood of Christ.

Again, Jesus was pretty specific about government rules, as was Paul. So STAY HOME. Jesus also specifically addresses “teachers” in Matthew 23. We are all equals under the Messiah -- or, as he put it, we are all “brothers” (although I think 2020 Jesus would use a gender neutral term). No one is father, no one is teacher, no one is instructor. So how did we get to the point of letting a man tell us from a stage what to believe, when Jesus was pretty clear that he intended for us to be on equal footing. Why are you listening to someone who does not have your best interest at heart? Jesus also obviously believed in doctors when he used them as a metaphor in Matthew. Still tired of Matthew? OK, me too. Let’s go to Mark 2:17, which says,“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” No one is making a metaphor about things that aren’t real. Jesus knew doctors were important and that they healed sick people. He never said he was the only healer. He knew that doctors were so important to the sick that he used them as the ultimate metaphor for who he was for people’s souls. SO LISTEN TO THE DOCTORS. Jesus thought they were pretty damn important if he compared himself to one.

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In conclusion, stop being hypocrites. Stop justifying your poor behavior with adages that have no basis in theology or Biblical canon. You can very easily pick what I said apart and find verses to contradict me, but most of those verses will not be the words of Jesus -- and again, Christian means Christ Follower, not Paul Follower. You can quote 2 Timothy 3:16-17 until you are blue in the face but again, Jesus never said that, a man did. A fallible man. I’d much rather stake my soul on following the spirit of Jesus’s messages in Matthew 21-25 and Matthew 5-7 than anything Paul or any other apostle wrote decades and centuries after the death of Jesus. Jesus’s messages contain a spirit of giving, love, acceptance, assistance, welcoming, humility, care, mercy and peace. Think about that the next time you speak about someone suffering from the pandemic. Think about that the next time you complain that the protection of others is hurting your stocks. Think about that the next time you say your taxes shouldn’t be used to help people you deemed too lazy. Think to yourself, “Am I following Christ or following a preacher?” If you can truly self-reflect, you may be surprised at what you learn about yourself -- and in turn, you may hopefully be more understanding of our siblings of the world who are suffering.

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