Why Are Christians So Hateful? (Especially Towards the LGBTQ Community)

Why Are Some Christians So Hateful (Especially Towards LGBTQ Community)?

Sadly, Often the first encounter many people outside the church have with Christians is one of hate, judgment, and fear.  Christians have gained a reputation for being exclusive, judgy, hate-filled and weaponizing their power to suppress those they disagree with for a variety of reasons. When we consider the treatment of members of the LGBTQ+ community, historically, the church has not handled this well - we have been more focused on loving a position than loving people. Good intentions to hold true to God’s Word have often hurt the LGBTQ community. And we have been all too comfortable with people with bad intentions toward the LGBTQ community as well.

God is grieved over the mistreatment of LGBTQ. Thus, we are grieved. There is no place for hatred, homophobia, or judgment.

The reality is, the temptation when we encounter something or someone new or different is to draw back, to isolate or insulate ourselves from "them".  We would love to live in a world where there are no gray areas or problematic people, or where everything makes sense and lines up with our ideals.  This isn't reality! Jesus didn't live like this, nor should we. Jesus often would hang out with tax collectors and prostitutes (people that religious people stayed away from for fear of contamination). Jesus would have hung out with LGBTQ (along with all other kinds of people that are currently ostracized, and put aside by the church).

That doesn’t mean as Christians we don't look to the Word of God to form and shape us when it comes to our sexuality - but that’s not what today’s message is about.

We recognize this is a highly divisive issue. It won’t be resolved in one blog post. We like to reduce complex issues to one dimension that’s most important to us, as well as build straw man arguments that justify demonizing the other side “them” - we judge “them” for not being like “us.” In doing so, we actually commit the very sin that we accuse “them” of - we “judge the judgers.” We’re great at pointing out the sins of others while ignoring our own. We love to say "love the sinner, hate the sin" but we should focus more on "love the sinner, hate our sin".  

God is the final judge - our rush to judgment only exposes the fact that we don’t trust Him to be the final arbiter of truth and our example of love.

Christians who are hateful derive a sense of meaning and satisfaction from being “right” (not that there isn’t such a thing as right and wrong), from attacking a common enemy, and demonizing them. This is NOT the life that God calls us to. God calls us to love Him, and to love others.  That IS what the church should be known for. So let's work toward this command.

A message to the church: God calls us to love our neighbor, without condition, qualification, or prerequisite – not only those who look like you, act like you, talk like you, believe like you. God didn’t come to condemn the world, but to rescue it.

A message to LGBTQ both inside and outside the church: It takes incredible courage to show up in church spaces. We wish courage wasn't something that was necessary to be present in church. You are hanging on to and growing your faith in Christ despite Christian “hatred.” We as a church aim to move forward to a place where we learn without accusing, condemning, or degrading.