If you live under a rock, and you just now decided to come out from under it, then you probably missed Bruce Jenner’s transition into a woman. She is now Caitlyn Jenner.
Now I’m sure you want answers, right? You probably want to know why an Olympic gold medalist would want to transition into a woman at 65 years old. The thing is, I don’t have answers for you, but I’m here to tell you that there’s a deeper issue.
I’ve seen hundreds of unkind, cruel messages scattered across social media about Caitlyn Jenner and the LGBT community for months, most of them are from people who claim to be Christian. The most common justifications I’ve heard from these people are “being a part of the LGBT community is both chosen and sinful” and “we have to give them the harsh truth – the truth is a way of loving them.”
What those people are forgetting is God does not ask us to choose between compassion and faith in the Bible. If they want the real truth, here it is: It’s packed with school hallway harassment, church shunning, workplace hazing, brutal self-harm, and all sorts of continuous, personal terrorism – and none of it looks a thing like love to me.
It certainly doesn’t look like love to the sweet, 12-year old middle school girl in your church who has been repeatedly told she’s an abomination – that God already despises her. It doesn’t look like love to the 60-year-old Christian man who has prayed his whole life to be “fixed” and who God has refused to, yet he is still an outcast in his family of faith. And I’m completely comfortable believing it doesn’t look like love to Jesus either.
When you finally get the courage to crawl out from behind your computer screen and stand face-to-face with a beautiful, wounded, scarred person with a real story, you will realize something is wrong here. This is not what Christ’s love looks like.
Jesus’ love, even when it comes with tough words, always feels like love. People were seen, heard and touched, and left with more dignity then when they started. I’m not sure the LGBT community can say the same thing about most Christians.
Is the hatred aimed at the LGBT community because some Christians really do consider some sins worse than others? Are their sins worse than lust, deceit, pride, lack of generosity, cruelty, and the rest of the endless list?
I don’t have a clue to how anyone in the LGBT community feels emotionally, physically, psychologically or spiritually, but what I do know is that mocking them does not gain us a hearing for the gospel. Mockery is not a characteristic of Jesus. If you would like to argue that, argue with Him.
Real flesh-and-blood people are going through uninvited, individual torment every day at the hands of people who claim Christ. The Church’s treatment of the LGBT community has been completely and utterly sinful, and it’s killing our testimony to the world.
There will be a time and place to discuss God’s design for gender and sexuality. But there will never be a time and place for you to throw stones – not if you follow Jesus.
This is where the love of Jesus we like to preach about is either clearly seen or terribly distorted. We can do better. Lay down your stone.
Tori Jones is a senior at Oklahoma Christian University and is the online coordinator for The Talon.
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