In the earliest era of the Church, the Christians were Jews. Then Peter had a vision and embraced the notion that even Gentiles could be Christian. But Peter was one guy - and there was resistance to accepting Gentiles fully as Christians.

When we gather with my family, nothing overtly anti-gay is said these days, but we are clearly treated as outsiders as though our religious beliefs are contagiously corrupted. Surely ours must be a counterfeit faith corrupted to permit lies and evil at its core draped in white linen as to appear nice enough - as any authentic belief in God, they believe, would cause us to repent of believing that God actually created us to be gay on purpose as a good thing.

And of course, if we don’t believe the latest fad in conspiracy theories, then we’re obviously choosing ignorance…

It is hard to live in community. Community requires that we all remain committed to being in authentic relationship together despite our diversity. This is easier said than done, especially for anyone who has been… well excommunicated, as it were, from one’s family before with stipulations spelled out for current and future acceptance (which we rejected outright). Community (and family) relationships conditioned on behavioral restrictions that are untenable to one or more parties, later rescinded, remain superficial. And superficial is better than nonexistent, I suppose, but pales in comparison to authentic relationship. Maybe hope should still remain for an authentic true familial relationship, but I’m not holding my breath.

This is Christian judgmentalism, and it isn’t new. It isn’t particularly different from any other type of judgmentalism, but categorically is “Christian” due to the content of the judgment. And it hurts. It hurts emotionally, but it also hurts in the sense of it being detrimental to true communion and a true sense of belonging. The fact that very few passages in the Bible to argue about with respect to same-gender attraction and marriage prevent almost all religious discussion - instead of the discussion taking place with respect to a plethora of other religious topics in which there is common ground - only underscores the themes of suspicion and distance.

I don’t know if there is any antidote to this posture of judgment. It seems baked into the heart of the “oppressed” Christian who feel attacked by a culture more concerned about truth than the church (evolution, climate change, gay isn’t a mental disorder, trump didn’t win, the earth isn’t flat and it revolves around the sun). These “victims” have no idea what it feels like to be condemned simply for being the person God created them to be. The world isn’t worse now than its ever been. The sky isn’t falling. Global violence and bloodshed, while bad, isn’t more prevalent today - just more broadly observable. How did mainstream Christianity become so gullible, so myopic, so given to unfounded conspiracy theories. They believe what their itching ears want to hear. But I suspect it has always been this way. This is why there were Salem witch trials (and outside of Salem, too). This is why Galileo Galilei had his research condemned. And this is why denominations are splitting over gay marriage and clergy today.

How can there be one Body of Christ with many members when the members are so prone toward fear, hatred, division, and judgment?

There is hope. After all, the Jewish Christians opposing the Gentile Christians were fairly quickly outnumbered. And, LGBT+ folks have made great strides - much has been won in recent years. Public opinion is yet favorable toward gay people currently. Still, one wonders if the underlying theme of fear and denial of inconvenient truth will continue to erode the credibility, and efficacy, of the church. Thanks be to God, who working in us, can do more than what we could ask or imagine in Christ Jesus. Jesus, I trust in you - to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. Amen.