Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife
As one who professes to be an ex-fundie, I strive to express that those fundamentalist Christians seen loudly proclaiming their message on the street corner, on your social media feed, or IRL, are not innately bad at their core. I wish to do this not to excuse their bad behavior and actions, nor nullify how their verbage wounds those they shriek at, but to try to showcase the nuance within us all hoping that that may bridge the aching gap of hatred.
The core message of Jesus's message is one of grace, forgiveness, and, overall, love. The Golden Rule, he professes, "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You" is shared by all world religions (Golden Rule).
Why then, does it appear as if the Fundamentalist Christians seemingly do not abide by this fundamental tenet of their faith? The answer lies within the transformations of their psyches caused by the messages from the pulpit. First, they are taught that the Holy Bible is literal and not to be disputed. (Side note: conservative churches all have a different view of what 'literal' means when it comes to the Bible, which begs the very question of that validity. Discussion to be had at another time.)
In this literal sense, every word of the Bible is to be taken as truth and infallible. So, yes, it is taught that the scriptures in both the Old and New Testament translations referencing 'homosexuality as sin' are correct. The war over one's soul who professes to be gay must be diligently fought through prayer and scripture. Therefore, the commonly spoken expression "love the sinner, hate the sin" becomes the popular nomenclature for this battle for salvation. For ultimately, the core desire of the fundamentalist Christian is to be like Jesus, striving always to love like him, even though His core message has been diluted by the preaching of which they regularly ingest.
For you see, there is something even more insidious happening within the walls of the church that causes such emotional violence on the street. These conservative Christians are taught that the world outside the confines of the safety of the church's walls and Christ's abiding love is evil, that none seek for "righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10) and that Satan roams the earth seeking whom he may devour from being saved for heaven. Some churches, even, as the parishners exit the building have a sign above the door that reads, "You are now entering the battle field". If that message is not there specifically, the message is still professed regularly. In Ephesisans 6:10-18, they are taught to 'put on the full armor of God' so that they may be able to stand against the evil intentions of the Devil.
Furthermore, the deprecation of the Christian continues as regularly they are taught that 'the world hates Jesus, the world hates Jesus in you', resulting with the inner conclusion, that the 'world hates them'. They are encouraged not to seek self-esteem, but rather God esteem, and to always put themselves last. True Joy, they are taught, comes when you embody the acronym, "J-esus, O-thers, Y-ourself", meaning first serve Jesus, then others, and after that is all done, yourself. Ultimately, with all the insisted duties from the church, such as bible studies, serving in the church, etc, little time is left for themselves.
Next, increasingly the restriction of outside information and news occurs, with pastors, church leaders, and teachers strongly influencing their flock to read only the Bible, or church approved texts, and injest only Christian media and news approved by the leadership. Any kind of education, especially secular, is downplayed at best and at worst highly discouraged.
All of this together, out comes this Fundamentalist, with their encouraged ignorance, lacking self esteem, full of self hatred, believing they must fight continually against a world that hates them, what now can be expected of their social interactions with others? It's crucial to understand that they expect an argument, even delight in the potential of being persecuted, even though what they are experiencing is far from such. Therefore, trying to engage will only lead to louder arguments on both sides,with none being transformed or saved, either the fundie trying to give salvation or the non-fundie trying to save the one from being saved.
What needs to happen is found in the title, "reverse love the sinner, hate the sin". The sin here refers to the homophobia, the bigotry, the racism, the ignorance, the hatred. Please first, do whatever regular self-care one needs to do to protect and heal from these emotional bullets, so that you too, non-fundie can put on your own armour. Once done, when a fundie Christian is met, realize the above is true for them, that you are face to face with someone who believes themselve hated by you, by all, hates themselves, lacks self esteem, and is mind-controlled into ignorance. If then that can be realized, perhaps it will be just a little bit easier to love, sympathize, have compassion for that sinner and so doing, disarmor, helping them along to release, healing, and freedom.
Trying hard to reach out
But when I tried to speak out
Felt like no one could hear me
Wanted to belong here
But something felt so wrong here
So I prayed (I would pray)
I could break away
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