Politics and Opinions to Improve the Lives of Gays and Lesbians

An Argument from a Christian

By Andy Heath

I received an email from an anonymous person a few weeks ago, and because this person did not leave an email address from my contact form, I will respond here. Here is the message, copied and pasted exactly as it was written:

Name: A Christian
Message: I hope you are giving some serious thought to all of the writings you post. I feel that you are a very intelligent person from your writings due to the fact that they are very well written. I am sorry for all of the persecution you have endured over your lifetime, and experiences you have had with people (Christians) of ignorance. I also know, however that this is of no concellation to you coming from an annonymous writer. Do you really believe that the only people on earth that "hate" gays are Christians? I think if you would think deeply about this you would find that is not true. Rather, you may find that these "Christians" are either not Christians at all, or are sadly ignorant and misinformed. A true Chrisitan person does not hate anyone, but recognizes we are all fearfully and wonderfully made in God's own image. That includes you and all others who are gay. I think you need to re-evaluate your stance on Jesus, heaven, and hell. These places are real. I believe that you know they are as well. Why else would you spend so much time trying to poisen others against it? Why would the non-existence of heaven and hell need to be proven? It seems as though you are allowing your past experiences to take control of your future. Don't let all those who have persecuted you in the past control your future. Not everyone has been through what you have, but many have been through much worse. Please try and evaluate your blessings and use them for good and gain peace instead of spewing acid and fury. I only ask that you have an open mind as you demand from others. Just as you do not wished to be steotyped, neither do Christians wish to be labeled "gay haters". At the very least you must understand that Christians love you enough to care about where you spend eternity. (Meaning, we believe in Heaven and Hell and that when we all die, we must go to one or the other). If they didn't care at all they would never say anything. They would simply be content to let you spend an eternity in Hell.

First, it was very kind of this person to take the time to write this note. I wish he or she had left a name or some contact information so we could have discussed this directly. It seems this person feels I am making an assault on all Christians, and I would like to address that.

The fact that I am angry with and have problems with Christianity is obvious from my writing. You might be interested to know, however, that I have some good friends and some close family members that are devout Christians. We discuss the topics of Christianity and homosexuality frequently. I will admit that part of the purpose of this blog is to expose the holes in Christianity; that is certainly true. Another more important part of this blog, however, is to open the channels of communication between Christians and gays. Let’s be reasonable. Christians, as a group, make life more difficult for gays. That’s not an opinion; that’s a fact. It is mainly Christians, especially Christian Republicans, that attack us and try to take away any rights we would be given. They do not want us to have the right to marry, adopt children, or join the military. We choose to be the people that we inherently are, and Christians choose to target us and attempt to make us second class citizens because of it. Not all Christians wish for us to be second class citizens, but those that speak for the concepts and teachings of Christianity do want this for us.

Are there Christians that support our cause and our rights? Yes. Absolutely. The fact of the matter is, though, that Christians as a whole group have hurt gays so badly that their presence in our lives is impossible to ignore. Saying that gays should not dislike Christians because there are some Christians that support us is like saying Jews during World War II should not have disliked the Nazis because there were some Nazis that did not want to kill them. The argument, while it can be reasonably made, has no real merit. If a group is attacking another group, of course there are going to be those from the second group that don’t like the first. And of course there are going to be some people from the first group that support the rights of the second group.

As for the writer’s assertion that the people that want to take gays’ rights away are not truly Christians, I simply cannot accept such an argument. The very Christian Bible says that Christianity is a sin. Who can deny this? The fact that Christians are practicing their own religion and following their own rules of hatred does not preclude them from being Christians at all; the opposite is true. The true Christians do hate gays. It’s in their very Bible!

For this reason, I encourage people to consider leaving the Christian faith, if you can call it a faith. You, all of you, really can do better with your spiritual lives. If you must practice an organized religion, which is not even necessary, you could choose one that does not support hate as much as Christianity does. You could choose one where you as a human being are encouraged to think and make choices rather than one that expects you to blindly accept everything in it simply because God is so unreasonable that he would get mad like a toddler for not getting his way. The idea that God does not want us to question him is patently absurd, as is the idea that God has any interest in whether or not two men or two women should have sex with each other. This is not a criticism, but a statement of logic.

I’m not trying to be hard on this writer. I truly believe he or she had pure intentions in writing me. And as I said, I don’t attack every single person in the world who is a Christian. I attack a broken, outdated religion whose hold on the masses has prevented them from subjecting any of the issues of our day to critical debate, and not just homosexuality. Abortion, euthanasia, and many other issues exist that Christians consider black and white, and such issues simply are not. If we are to move forward, we must learn to change our thoughts for our times. A book that was written over the course of centuries and millennia and which has not been updated in thousands of years cannot possibly hold true to the issues of our day. Following such a book to the letter is silly, as is the fact that this book has such a hold on our conservative political party and that its words are considered on some level in our own government’s legislation.

To the writer: Thanks. I’m glad you care. I’m glad you wrote me. You were very kind to care about my immortal soul, and I’m not being sarcastic in saying that. I really do believe you care. I appreciate that fact that you thought highly enough of me that you were willing to take the time to write the e-mail above. And I’m glad that some Christians care about me. That makes me feel very good, and after all the pain I have gone though in my life, I need to feel good from time to time. I hope what I have said answers what you wrote me.