Sunday, March 20, 2016

Christians Want Me To Deny Christ

I try to avoid arguments whenever possible, but when I stumble across awful people on the internet making awful statements, I feel compelled to respond, if I can, and at least try to help make the world a better place.
I try not to be nasty, but sometimes I am just as obnoxious as they are (even if they don't know they're being obnoxious). I most often argue with anti-gay Christians, as a gay Christian.
I don't even know what I am sometimes, other than just me, but I know that I'm more "Christian" than the arrogant, angry homophobes I come across once in a while. I know that if there is a God, then I'm much closer to  him or her than they are--or, if I'm wrong, that God is someone I don't want to be close to.
Some of them are "sad" that LGBT people don't want to give up their "sin." 
 "If you are so bothered by gay people not committing to lifelong celibacy," I often suggest, "then I invite you to lead by example."
So far, I've gotten no response from my polite suggestion, except for the first time I suggested it, when I was already talking to someone. That time, the person tried to ignore it, because he was a horny little coward, but I didn't let him.
I don't mean to sound obnoxious, but what they are saying--basically that God plays favorites, with more rules for LGBT people--is very obnoxious indeed. I hope to show them what a sacrifice they're asking other people to make.
But lately, most of the people I've come across are not even at that level of understanding when it comes to gay Christianity. So I have to teach them, first, that being gay is not a sin, just like being straight is not a sin.
And I've found a disturbing pattern, with these Side X (good Christian men love pussy/good Christian women want the dick) people. I recently got into a discussion (over now, thankfully) with several of them, and as I recall, all of them wanted me to do something, that they likely brag that they themselves would refuse to do under torture and penalty of death.
These good Christian people want me to deny Christ.
I call myself a gay Christian in arguments, because I believe I'm more "Christian" than them, at least. And I know that there are others who are LGBT and who try harder than me to get close to and please God, so I don't really feel bad or like I'm lying.
The people I argue with say that one can't be gay and a Christian. So my choice, according to them, is to either deny Christ, or to lie and say I'm straight (or lie by omission, and let people assume). They wouldn't put it that way--deny Christ or lie--but what they don't realize is that they're asking me to do just that.
One person asked me why I didn't just call myself a Christian, instead of a gay Christian. I replied that usually, I do just call myself a Christian (when I "feel" Christian, but that's not any of his business), but that we were talking about homosexuality, for crying out loud, and I wasn't going to lie and say (or let people assume) that I was straight.
 I read the Left Behind series when I was thirteen, about twelve years ago, and though I subscribed then almost wholly to LeHaye and Jenkins' views on the world and the end times, something in the books rang false to me even then. When the One World Church was established in these books, I remember that Christianity (plain, Protestant, non-Mormon, etc, Christianity) was left out. There was no representative from the Christian church, and so Christianity was not included under the Antichrist's One World umbrella.
"That's stupid!" I thought. "There will be some kind of Christian presence there, even if it's a false one!"
Now, all of the Real True Christians had been raptured to heaven at that point, but there would still be some kind of Christian presence there. At the time, I thought the false version would be the progressive, pro-choice, gay-affirming version of Christianity. But now, if there is to be any end times and any One World Church (a question to speculate on another day), I believe it would somehow include traditional evangelicalism, which is still very popular in the U.S.
This is the same system of belief that, when taken to one of its most extreme forms, says that gay people cannot be Christian (even if they're completely celibate and don't even lust), and must somehow change the unchangeable (unchangeable according to actual lived experiences of sincere gay Christians, not just speculation by straight Christians, or the rare "ex-gay" story that they think disproves thousands of other stories to the contrary). Not even LaHaye and Jenkins themselves subscribe to this idea, if their use of the phrase "practicing homosexual" in the novels is any indication.
It goes even further, too. One of Ted Cruz's favorite preachers calls for executing gay people, and all those who say that it's okay to be gay to possibly gay children. (I don't want to look up links for that upsetting news, please don't make me. But I know that it's probably not false, as it seems very genuine.) He's not the only one, too, not by a long shot.
So, if there ever is a nightmarish, apocalyptic scenario, like some people think the bible predicts, is it not too far-fetched to believe that Christians may be torturing other Christians, in order to get them to deny Christ?
People are already trying to get me to deny Christ, because of my bisexuality. They think it would be more "honest" of me to do so, so that's their justification for trying to goad me into it (though I tell them, "I don't need your permission to be a Christian, or have a relationship with God"; I often have to tell the same person many times!).
So, if you combine the idea that gays can't be Christians, with the idea that gays should be executed for being gay, and maybe throw in the belief that hell is even worse torture, and that man-made torture in this life could save someone from it...
Then that's how you get Christians to torture other Christians, in order to get them to deny Christ--with or without the other option of lying by "denouncing" one's innate sexuality. They would want LGBT Christians to deny what they believe God has done in their lives, by making them born again (and anti-gay Christians do want them/us to do that, even now).
And the worst part?
A lot of these Christians would be torturing other Christians out of love. Trying to get others to deny the Savior they themselves proudly claim...out of love and concern for the souls of "the lost."
Most anti-gay Christians would deny right now, when life is relatively easy, that they would do something like that. But when the Antichrist is also breathing down your neck, and you believe that other Christians are "lost," and any one of you could get killed at any time for claiming to be Christian (even if you believe that your LGBT friend or loved one is a false Christian), I believe that scared anti-gay Christians would do some things that are very drastic, and possibly very violent.
Assuming, of course, that it came to all of this. I don't believe Revelation was predicting what a lot people think it was, maybe even not predicting anything for modern readers at all. But that's a subject for another day.

No comments:

Post a Comment