In The Name of Love

For some time now, I have considered writing about the so-called Christian Right, but felt I couldn’t mount adequate arguments to counter their ignorance and stupidity. Quite obviously, I cannot view these people with an objective eye. Their intolerance and hatred of anything or anyone different leads me to believe that they are neither Christian nor right.

Then, a friend sent me a link to a website that said all that I have been thinking – and said it far better than I ever could. The site, http://www.soulforce.org/, addresses Christianity, the Bible, science, and more as they apply to the LGBT community (although the information presented could be used to argue for women’s issues, racial issues, even religious issues and more).

Written by a pastor, who also happens to be gay, the articles present straightforward, unemotional cases for inclusion of all in God’s grace. He makes one important point that really stuck with me. The Bible is a book about God’s love, not a book about human sexuality. So, why then are those self-professed evangelical Christians so fixated on S-E-X? And, how can they profess to follow the tenets of a book about love, yet spew such hate toward fellow human beings?

I may be a Sunday School drop-out, but I seem to remember something about being made in God’s image. Who’s to say what that image is? White, Protestant, heterosexual male is not the only mold that God created. To say that it is, quite simply, is ignorant of history, biology, and religion. If you believe in any parts of the Bible, then you have to believe and accept that ALL human beings were created in God’s image, whether they are genetically wired to be straight, LGBT, African-American, developmentally disabled, whatever.

I’m not particularly interested in religion of any type. I have seen more devout and spiritual people among non-Christians than among the church-going types I have known all my life. That does not mean that I cannot appreciate and accept the beliefs of those individuals. What I will never accept are those who take one Bible verse, then twist and corrupt it to support their own fears and prejudices. That is what the Roman Emperor Constantine did to create the Bible we have today. That is what today’s Christian Right is doing to gain control and impose a state religion upon this country.

And, by the way, this country was NOT founded on Christian principles, but on personal freedom and religious tolerance. Read your history books, folks! If the earliest settlers had wanted the strictures of a state religion, they would have stayed in England. Nor do we have God-given rights as Americans. Last time I looked, America isn’t even mentioned in God’s Word. What we do have are Constitutionally-guaranteed rights – but that’s another discussion.

I strongly recommend checking out http://www.soulforce.org/. If you are a religious person, you will come away with a clearer understanding and deeper appreciation of what your Bible actually says. If you’re not, you will find the support you need for responding to those who base false claims on the Biblical text. Plus you will have the smug satisfaction of saying, “Told you so.”

Contrary to what we are led to believe, all of the world’s major religions share one primary theme – that we love each other. We need a lot more love and a lot less divisiveness in this world. Because, as a great man once said, “All you need is love.”