The “Christian” Taliban

KKK

I don’t want to live like so-called “Christians” would have me live.

I grew up among them in a fundamentalist Baptist church that got its kicks from judging people. When a young, unwed mom lost a set of twins, someone told her “See? God punishes.” I can still see those nasty lips mouthing the words in my mind’s eye. I can remember hoping there was punishment for her one day for being so mean.

We couldn’t dance, play cards, go to a multiplex theater where an R-rated movie was playing (lest someone think we were going to the R-rated movie), do yoga, listen to rock music … We kids did a lot of these things anyway because, well, we thought God put us here to embrace life.

Women couldn’t hold any leadership positions in the church — we couldn’t even serve Communion or teach Sunday School to anyone older than sixth grade. We could be missionaries but not lead churches. We weren’t supposed to use birth control but accept every child that was sent to us. If our husbands beat us, we probably deserved it. We were inferior to men in every way.

We had a guest preacher who said we were doing God’s work in Vietnam killing all those godless (racial epithet). When I objected, I was told to show respect and remember my place. That was about the time I realized that my place was anywhere other than with these hate-filled people.

These are the people who go around trying to make their views the law of the land, the same ones who helped push the jail-the-gays law in Uganda and the same ones who are pushing for laws that would allow people in this country to discriminate against gays.

I don’t dislike Christians — I am one — but I do really, really dislike the hate-spewing extremists.

Fundamentalism in any religion is dangerous. That’s where we get the Taliban and other Islamist extremist groups, not to mention the likes of the Westboro Baptist Church.

A few years ago, people were sporting WWJD (what would Jesus do) bracelets and other trinkets. It might be a good question to ask today.

The way I read the message, Jesus was about loving and not hating. He ate with the most “unclean” people, including tax collectors and women. He healed lepers instead of condemning them. He never said a word about same-sex relationships.

Jesus told his followers to “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” In other words, we don’t own the laws of the world. We don’t get to demand that everyone live in accordance with our beliefs.

You can hate gays if you want, although that likely means I don’t want much to do with you. I don’t like to hear about who’s going to hell; in your eyes I’m probably one of them.

My father taught me when I was very young that you should take each person as an individual and decide whether you like that person or not. To generalize is to limit yourself and every group has good and bad in it.

It’s difficult for me to see the good in extremism, but I will generalize here: If you really hate someone for they way they’re made, I don’t want to spend time with you and I don’t want to hear about your hatred.

And I certainly don’t want you writing laws based on your hatred and expect me to abide by them.

 

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