It’s Christmas, but there’s only one message any kind of Christian can really give the QLTBG community, which is this:
I’m sorry.
Sorry for all the hate and lies, the vile rhetoric and aggressive posturing, the utterly disgusting suggestion that ‘Jesus Hates People For Being What They Are’.
I’m a Christian in the UK, and it’s only been since I joined these boards I’ve started to realize the kind of filth that’s being chucked around in the name of my faith. It’s different here. My own local bishop is openly gay, and while bigotry is still thick in the ranks of the church right to the very top, the ordinary Christian would no more dream of ‘hating’ someone for being gay than they would of murdering Muslims in the name of ‘crusade’.
There’s no credit in that – it’s pretty basic to anyone who really believes in Christianity (or humanity, come to that). I don’t want to get into the argument of labels or diss anyone else’s deeply-held convictions, but the fact remains that the founder of Christianity (this bloke called Jesus) never, ever condemned any kind of ‘queerness’, and argued only that we should all ‘love one another’. On that basis I’d argue that many QLTBG people are actually even more Christian than those who believe love should be restricted to 'appropriate' gender or social conventions.
I don’t imagine the actual tenets of Christianity are of the slightest interest to those who’ve been abused and vilified in its name for years. I don’t for one single moment suggest that anyone here needs the sanction of my personal religion for who they are. I’m only posting the following for the sake of those who’d like a good argument to smack in the face of the next religious bigot stupid enough to challenge them – but most of all for those who’ve been brought up Christian and are in the intolerably lonely position of secretly believing the God they try to love hates them. I’ve only knowingly encountered one such person in my life, but I cannot, cannot think of a worse or crueler form of abuse than that.
For those people I can say only this:
Christianity makes no distinction as to how we should love as long as we bloody well do it. Any arguments in the Bible against ‘homosexuality’ are derived from either the Old Testament or the Epistles.
The Epistles can be dismissed at once, as these are only letters by the first Christians, many of them the remnants of the original Apostles – and if people remember anything about the Gospels they’ll know the apostles were a kind of Watson to Jesus’ Holmes, always interpreting things wrong. I mean no disrespect to these very holy men who were often martyred for their faith, but they were still people and not God. They were as prone to human error of misinterpretation as we are today, and if their words contradict those of Jesus then (in my opinion) they fail to reflect his message accurately.
The Old Testament also gives the thumbs up to slavery, racism and abuse and subjugation of women. A ‘Christian’ who believes in these things is a contradiction in terms. Jesus certainly didn’t. He famously said he came to replace the old with the New Testament, and proceeded to prove it in spades. He even replaced the whole ten commandments with just two: to love God, and to love each other as we love ourselves. How can anyone see a condemnation of any kind of consensual sexuality in that?
Jesus broke the old laws quite happily (including Sabbatarianism). There is even good evidence he knowingly helped a gay couple – without the slightest hint of judgment. Matthew IX, 9-12 tells the story of the centurion who risked the shame and opprobrium of visiting a so-called faith-healer of a different religion in order to beg for healing for his ‘servant’. Anyone with knowledge of the social barriers of the time knows this makes no sense - I even questioned it when I was a child. It’s only recently someone told me that the actual Greek word we translate as ‘servant’ was ‘pais’, which was more commonly used to mean a same-sex lover.
I know no Greek. Medievalist will be able to say whether this is a plausible interpretation or not, and I’ll go with whatever she says. But I certainly have no difficulty believing this was a same-sex relationship, because it fits so naturally into the creed of universal love Jesus preached.
To most of you this won’t matter, and no-one can blame you for it. But there once was a man who preached universal love regardless of barriers, and he did it nearly two thousand years before the countries we consider the most enlightened today. At Christmas we celebrate his coming, and to me that still means more than all the turkey and mince pies in the world. And I like mince pies...
I hesitated to post this because it feels like proselytizing, which could hardly be less appropriate – or just plain patronizing, which is worse. It could even just be classic heteronormative dopery. Please forgive me if it seems like any of those things, because it’s not what I mean. You don't need my approval, my religion's approval, you don't need anything of what I've just said - it's maybe just that I need to say it.
I need to say I AM SO, SO SORRY for the evils that have been inflicted on you by people who claim the same religion that I do. It’s rubbish, it’s bollocks, it’s hateful and utterly wrong. I feel an utter shitbag for it, and selfishly want to ask forgiveness.
And at least to say ‘Happy Christmas’ and hope that won’t feel insulting. This year let’s celebrate love in whatever form it comes. You guys here lead the way in that, and if anything we so-called Christians should be following. I've learned a lot here, and am very grateful to you all.
Louise
I’m sorry.
Sorry for all the hate and lies, the vile rhetoric and aggressive posturing, the utterly disgusting suggestion that ‘Jesus Hates People For Being What They Are’.
I’m a Christian in the UK, and it’s only been since I joined these boards I’ve started to realize the kind of filth that’s being chucked around in the name of my faith. It’s different here. My own local bishop is openly gay, and while bigotry is still thick in the ranks of the church right to the very top, the ordinary Christian would no more dream of ‘hating’ someone for being gay than they would of murdering Muslims in the name of ‘crusade’.
There’s no credit in that – it’s pretty basic to anyone who really believes in Christianity (or humanity, come to that). I don’t want to get into the argument of labels or diss anyone else’s deeply-held convictions, but the fact remains that the founder of Christianity (this bloke called Jesus) never, ever condemned any kind of ‘queerness’, and argued only that we should all ‘love one another’. On that basis I’d argue that many QLTBG people are actually even more Christian than those who believe love should be restricted to 'appropriate' gender or social conventions.
I don’t imagine the actual tenets of Christianity are of the slightest interest to those who’ve been abused and vilified in its name for years. I don’t for one single moment suggest that anyone here needs the sanction of my personal religion for who they are. I’m only posting the following for the sake of those who’d like a good argument to smack in the face of the next religious bigot stupid enough to challenge them – but most of all for those who’ve been brought up Christian and are in the intolerably lonely position of secretly believing the God they try to love hates them. I’ve only knowingly encountered one such person in my life, but I cannot, cannot think of a worse or crueler form of abuse than that.
For those people I can say only this:
Christianity makes no distinction as to how we should love as long as we bloody well do it. Any arguments in the Bible against ‘homosexuality’ are derived from either the Old Testament or the Epistles.
The Epistles can be dismissed at once, as these are only letters by the first Christians, many of them the remnants of the original Apostles – and if people remember anything about the Gospels they’ll know the apostles were a kind of Watson to Jesus’ Holmes, always interpreting things wrong. I mean no disrespect to these very holy men who were often martyred for their faith, but they were still people and not God. They were as prone to human error of misinterpretation as we are today, and if their words contradict those of Jesus then (in my opinion) they fail to reflect his message accurately.
The Old Testament also gives the thumbs up to slavery, racism and abuse and subjugation of women. A ‘Christian’ who believes in these things is a contradiction in terms. Jesus certainly didn’t. He famously said he came to replace the old with the New Testament, and proceeded to prove it in spades. He even replaced the whole ten commandments with just two: to love God, and to love each other as we love ourselves. How can anyone see a condemnation of any kind of consensual sexuality in that?
Jesus broke the old laws quite happily (including Sabbatarianism). There is even good evidence he knowingly helped a gay couple – without the slightest hint of judgment. Matthew IX, 9-12 tells the story of the centurion who risked the shame and opprobrium of visiting a so-called faith-healer of a different religion in order to beg for healing for his ‘servant’. Anyone with knowledge of the social barriers of the time knows this makes no sense - I even questioned it when I was a child. It’s only recently someone told me that the actual Greek word we translate as ‘servant’ was ‘pais’, which was more commonly used to mean a same-sex lover.
I know no Greek. Medievalist will be able to say whether this is a plausible interpretation or not, and I’ll go with whatever she says. But I certainly have no difficulty believing this was a same-sex relationship, because it fits so naturally into the creed of universal love Jesus preached.
To most of you this won’t matter, and no-one can blame you for it. But there once was a man who preached universal love regardless of barriers, and he did it nearly two thousand years before the countries we consider the most enlightened today. At Christmas we celebrate his coming, and to me that still means more than all the turkey and mince pies in the world. And I like mince pies...
I hesitated to post this because it feels like proselytizing, which could hardly be less appropriate – or just plain patronizing, which is worse. It could even just be classic heteronormative dopery. Please forgive me if it seems like any of those things, because it’s not what I mean. You don't need my approval, my religion's approval, you don't need anything of what I've just said - it's maybe just that I need to say it.
I need to say I AM SO, SO SORRY for the evils that have been inflicted on you by people who claim the same religion that I do. It’s rubbish, it’s bollocks, it’s hateful and utterly wrong. I feel an utter shitbag for it, and selfishly want to ask forgiveness.
And at least to say ‘Happy Christmas’ and hope that won’t feel insulting. This year let’s celebrate love in whatever form it comes. You guys here lead the way in that, and if anything we so-called Christians should be following. I've learned a lot here, and am very grateful to you all.
Louise
