growwwl fffttt hiss hiss!

Read this first for the context...

then this for the aftermath.

This is why, while I am as far from ashamed of Christ as I could be, while I am proud of my faith and want so much for others to be able to share in the relationship, when someone asks me if I am a "Christian" I always hesitate.  Too many people have experienced things like this for me to be comfortable saying that I am a "Christian" without sharing enough relationship that we can rightly understand what that means to you and what that means to me.

The God I know doesn't encourage people to bully each other. Judgement is God's task, not ours. Why? Because we as people are not truly just. We're guided by our own prejudices, our own ideas of what is right and wrong and what means what. In the end, every one of us is putting our own interpretation on things. And in the end, there will be lots that we all will find out that we had completely wrong.

Does a 5 year old boy dressing up as a female cartoon character mean he will grow into a homosexual man? Maybe. Maybe not.

Is bullying ever ok? No.

Is bullying ok when cloaked in religious language? The answer is still no.

If you really think a parental choice is endangering their child, by all means, speak with the parent. We are, as the church would put it, "called" to help our brothers and sisters live in the light. But be prepared to do so 1) away from the child/ren 2) with a mind open to new understanding [even ohmygosh the possibility that you could be completely off base] and 3) with genuine love.

Not the self-righteous "I know better than you and am concerned" bullshit that people dress up as loving concern, but rather, "I love you, I am concerned about what I see, but what I see may not be (and probably isn't) the whole story, and how can we make this journey together, how can we grow together and be steel sharpening steel." This is difficult to impossible without some kind of foundational relationship with the person you're speaking with.

If you can't do that, maybe it is best to stop trying to fit God into your own tiny little box and let God be God and you be you - no better, no worse than the other person that you so look down upon.  And yes. I have my blind spots. I have my hypocrisies. None of us is immune. We're ALL of us human.