I commiserate with my Christian friends....

The ones who live by what we think Jesus said

The vocal, far-right, people who call themselves Christian are giving a bad name to this religion. These folks are trying to make all of us live by what they believe and they are doing this in the name of Jesus. He must be shaking his head and saying, “I never said that.” What these far-right folks are actually doing is trying to make the rest of us live by their version of Christianity. There are many versions of Christianity.

Recently on Facebook, I posted a video of a woman who is fed-up with this. She correctly says that Christians have every right to live their lives according to their beliefs and religion. What they don’t have the right to do is force everyone else to live by their beliefs. Yet this is exactly what they are doing. Here's a link to the video.

When someone who claims to be Christian starts to tell me that gay and transgender people are sinners and not living according to their bible, I ask them to do one thing for me. Get your New Testament and show me the passage where Jesus talks about gays? About transgender people? They cannot find even one mention. Why would that be, do you think? Perhaps because it wasn’t a big deal to him? Homosexuality, especially between men, was common in his day. If it were that important to him, doesn’t it make sense he would have said something about it? What he did say is, “Love one other even as I have loved you.” He isn’t talking about sexual behavior. He is talking about loving and respecting one another and allowing each person to be true to themselves.

The person in the New Testament who is vocal about gayness is Paul, not Jesus. Here's an interesting article about what Paul had to say. But, Paul isn’t Jesus and if you’re Christian, it is my assumption you would follow the words allegedly said by Jesus - not what other people tell you he meant. Truth is we don’t even know what Jesus actually said since most of the Bible was written long after he left planet earth. What we’re given is what some people sort of remember he might have said and it comes through their memory and their life filters.

If you want to get deeply into the words of Jesus as they are written in the Bible, then you had better study the Aramaic language which is what the Bible was written in. Or was it? Maybe you need to study Greek since some say this is the original language used. Here's a great article about the original languages used in writing the Bible.

My point is this. We really don’t know what Jesus thought about gays, the use of birth control, abortion, math books, transgender people or a whole host of other issues because nothing was recorded about these concepts. If they were that important to him, I truly believe something would have been written down by someone close to him. If you are Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Hindu or have any other spiritual belief system, good for you. I defend your right to practice your faith. But leave the rest of us alone and let us practice our faiths whatever they may or may not be. Do not force your beliefs on the entire country by trying to pass laws that make the rest of us live by your beliefs.

As the old saying goes: MYOB*.

Living with grace and ease,

Krysta

*Mind Your Own Business