I had a conversation with a good friend who works in education the other day that is sticking with me. They were relaying a sad situation where some children at school were using homophobic and transphobic language, which was then backed up by the parents of these children. When confronted the parents used the excuse “It is a part of my faith” to justify their hate speech. My friend was frustrated and just did not know how to respond to such a statement.
First off, I am going to assume that the “faith” that was talked about was Christianity. That is an assumption on my part, but it is what I think I can reasonably go on with the knowledge of the community. If someone is using their Christian faith as an excuse to use hateful speech, perhaps ask them “What part of Jesus’ teaching are you using as your excuse for this view point?”
Jesus did not preach hate. Jesus did not preach exclusion. Jesus did not punch down to those who had less power than himself. Jesus healed, spoke to, walked with, and broke bread with people who at his time would have been considered outsiders or outcasts. He did not make fun of them, he did not tell jokes about them, he did not say mean things about them … okay, he did once in Matthew 15:22-28, but in this passage, he learns and grows in his interaction with the Canaanite woman. In this passage despite his earlier misgivings, he does end up healing her daughter. Jesus shows us it is okay to have made a mistake, to have had a world view that is unjust and to change it. It is not okay to use Jesus as an excuse for that unjust view, as he shows us how to learn and grow.
Someone might respond that “It is right there in The Bible so we have to follow it.” They then might quote you a passage that tries to prove their point of homosexuality being a sin. They would be right in the fact that those passages do exist …but so do many others.
If someone quotes scripture to you justifying hate and uses the excuse that it is in the Bible so they must follow it, perhaps ask, “Why have you chosen to hold on to that piece of the ancient law but have let go of so many others?” or “Why are you choosing to hold on to the passages that promote hate?”
The Bible was written over 2,000 years ago … much longer for some of the verses in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) that people use to quote from. The question to ask someone is: “Why are you holding on to this one piece of text written multi-millennia ago but you have disregarded so many others?”
I have yet to find someone who is abiding by all of the over 600 commandments to be found in the Bible. The truth of the matter is the Bible was not written for us; no one who wrote or read those passages 2,000 years ago thought that someone was going to be also reading them on an app on their smart phone one day. The Bible was written for a different people in a different time. Does The Bible have wisdom in it? Yes, it does. Is everything written in The Bible applicable to today? No, it is not. Which brings us back to the question, “Why are you holding on to that piece of scripture when you are willing to let so many others go?”
If someone truly wants to be a follower of Jesus, one needs to look no further than Matthew 22: 36-39. Those in power were testing Jesus about what the greatest commandment was, and his answer is this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
I am very proud to call myself a Christian. We all choose what parts of our faith are most important to us and how we want to live that faith in the world. I am very proud to live out my faith, one rooted not in hate, but in love, compassion, and inclusion. That is a faith that I am very happy to use to justify my actions.