this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
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The framing of "God's love" you just gave is a very important one and completely true. I'm no theist and I also stand with Stephen Fry on the issue. But I'm pretty sure that Xhieron was trying to express something genuine and positive. Maybe don't be so harsh to someone who was clearly trying to follow Jesus's teachings to love thy lemmy user as thyself?
I think the phrase goes, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." It doesn't matter what a person means. It is our actions that define us. You can be as positive as you want to be, but if you preach a message of hatred, all the lollipops in the doctors office can't make up for the pain you cause. Claiming God's Love is good when God's Love means hating doesn't make God's Love better. It makes you worse.
As a bisexual man who grew up Christian, I feel you. It’s easy to assume our experiences are those that every queer Christian has ever felt. It’s easy to hear the stories of hate, maliciously disguised as ‘love’, and to throw that assumption onto a whole creed of people. I don’t know your story, and you don’t know mine, but one thing I’ve learned that I think might be worth sharing is it’s not a great idea to assume the intent of someone based on a group they belong to.
For so many years I lived in the closet, fearful that my Christian mother wouldn’t accept me. I finally came out to her in my thirties and I was met with nothing but love and acceptance. She actually quoted scripture to me to reinforce why she loved me no matter what. All I’m saying is that true Christian love does exist, and while it may be rare, don’t discount an entire population of people based on our learned notions about them. We humans are biologically trained to recognise patterns, but sadly that same impulse leads to stereotyping. We need to moderate those impulses to give others a fair chance to show they love us.
Anyway, big love to you and yours. I hope that you’ve been able to find acceptance in the family you’ve made for yourself.