I came across a social media post this morning from a former church friend. He was (as usual) carrying on about the LGBTQ community, arguing with folks while sharing Scripture excerpts and blurbs from favorite religious writers to attempt buoy his position. His lengthy responses feigned some sort of objective balance and detached righteousness—but they reeked of prejudice and privilege.
Worse, they marked yet another day where his religion was being wielded as a weapon against people who’d simply awakened on the planet and were going about their business. By doing nothing than simply breathing, they once again found themselves in the crosshairs of his Christianity— victims of an unprovoked attack by someone claiming Jesus said he should.
“Doesn’t he ever get tired of this?” I wondered. “Doesn’t it wear him out, to spend so much time and energy monitoring the sexuality of complete strangers? Doesn’t it get old after a while—always being that deeply entrenched in someone else’s business?”
Honestly, it’s a miracle more Christians don’t pass out from sheer exhaustion. It’s mighty taxing work—policing the world.
When I survey the landscape of America right now, it seems grossly overpopulated with far too many religious people determined to make everyone else in their image; bullying them, bothering them, condemning them into compliance. It all feels so wasteful and mean spirited—not to mention fully draining for them and to their targets.
I pray for a world where more Christians like my friend would grow tired of this kind of cruel religion that has become the rule here. I sincerely believe it would alter both them and the planet in ways they’d never imagine:
When Christians finally get tired of persecuting the LGBTQ community, they’ll realize how fruitless their aggression has been, how much damage it’s done, how unlike Jesus it’s been. They’ll see people whose only agenda, is to live and work and love and worship, and to spend the fleeting days of this life doing something that gives them joy. They’ll see people no different from themselves.
When Christians finally get tired of minimizing the other religions of the world, they’ll be able to see the stunning beauty of every faith tradition, and find a depth and richness there equal to their own. They’ll discover people as thoughtful and spiritual and reverent as they are, and even find themselves learning about the divine through them. They’ll have their religion rightly downsized and their God correctly magnified.
When Christians finally get tired of condemning the world, they’ll be able to see it clearly. When it isn’t darkened through the lens of their damnation, they’ll recognize how beautiful and fragile and precious it all is—and discover how connected they are to it. They’ll cast off the tiring burden of seeing everything as a threat, and see everything as a gift.
When Christians finally get tired of worshiping America, they’ll find that God resides outside of it as well; in Syria and China and Mexico and every inch of this planet. They’ll stop needing to fortify themselves and wall themselves off and dig in their heels and defend God, because they’ll realize they don’t own God to begin with. They’ll realize that making America’s great was never the assignment—it was loving the world.
When Christians finally get tired of a faith characterized by fear, they’ll hunger for one marked by love. They will be deeply burdened to care for their neighbors; the ones who look differently and love differently and worship differently than they do. They’ll stop seeing diversity as a menace, and recognize it as the greatest blessing we can receive: the beautiful difference of humanity.
When Christians finally get tired of being terrible in the name of Jesus, they’ll actually be able to accurately reflect Jesus; to bring his mercy and compassion and forgiveness to the places where it is not plentiful. They’ll be able to see every other as themselves; to see no distinction between them and their neighbor, and recognize the image of God in their faces.
I hope my friend gets tired enough to find a more life-giving expression of his faith convictions; for his sake and the sake of those who simply want to live today unfettered by anyone else.
Life is difficult. People are doing the best they can.
I hope more Christians get tired of being terrible so that they can be loving.
The world needs less terrible. It needs more love.
This should be what people of faith are here to bring.
