It is ime to Choose

Love or Hate Wrapped in Religiosity

When I came into American Christianity, I was an adult. I went to church with my Grandmother as a child and had a real spiritual encounter. As I grew up, I let that go. In 1996, I experienced a traumatic event. I was living in New Orleans and felt a deep knowing that something bad was going to happen, and I should leave the city. On December 1st, I woke up and opened my roommate’s Bible to Psalm 56:1,3, which said, “I have kept your feet from falling so you could walk before the Living God.” I just went to the airport and flew back to Oklahoma City that day, and three people were murdered at my work on the shift I was supporting to work in the French Quarter. 

I was distraught and traumatized, and a friend prayed with me. I began this new prayer life with Jesus of Nazareth. So for two whole years, I prayed, experienced answered prayer, and developed a profound Christian spirituality. I still had a lot of trauma, and in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was little information about trauma except for soldiers. There was no trauma-informed care. So I joined a church. It was a multicultural church in Oklahoma City. There were pastors of different races and genders, and they didn’t talk politics from the pulpit, and I thought this was great. 

I took some Bible courses and was taught “groupthink” around American Christian theology. I was told this is what you believe. I was told I had to read the Bible every day, so I spent most of my time reading the Gospels with Jesus because that’s where I felt the Spirit’s presence. The longer I was in the church world, the more I felt a divide from the Jesus of the Gospels, who cared for the poor and marginalized, and genuine hospitality. I stayed, I think, because I believed I could change the church from the inside. I could make them care about hurting people. I had to get away from them and get perspective from the groupthink and understand that believing you can change an entire group of people is like an individual in a toxic relationship thinking they can change a person, but on steroids. 

I ended up moving out of state, then seeing different Christianity in other places, particularly globally, Rwanda, Cambodia, Jerusalem, and finding an entirely polar opposite way of being as a Christian follower. These people had a general love of neighbor, believed in mutual flourishing, and did not demonize people who were different from themselves. 

I then began studying theology for my Master’s and learned the original languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. I realized that some of the literature is poetry and not meant to be taken literally. In contrast, some things that most American churches take figuratively should be taken literally, such as “love your neighbor.” Some of this is wisdom teachings that should be understood through parables like Jesus’ parables. Then I went to the region of the Bible four times and was like OH NO, American Christianity isn’t even close to its origins. It is serious mission drift. 

First of all, first-century people in Palestine (name at the time) were about five feet tall. All the homes were made of stone, and the Greek word “tekton” is more likely to mean stone mason, which explains why Jesus is the cornerstone of the faith. Joseph and Jesus were much more likely to be five-foot-tall stone masons, and that’s just the beginning Americans get wrong. The word for day in Genesis, “yom,” meant era. So 7 days really translates into something closer to the seven eras of a book of poetry. Yet Americans, starting in the 1800s, in their efforts to fight Darwin, began a campaign claiming that the earth is 6000 years old because of the Hebrew word Yom, which means “era” and is used in the Hebrew Bible for the day of Solomon, which was 40 years. These are small examples of the atrocious English mistranslations throughout the Bible. 

I was then taken on a scholarly tour to Gehenna in Jerusalem, which is outside the city and used to be the trash heap, where fires would burn and worms would crawl. This is where Jesus said it is better to cut off your hand or poke out your eyes than end up here at a literal place where my feet stood. I found out the King James Bible took Hades, the Greek understanding of the underworld (where there was fire for some), and Sheol the Herbrew understanding of the underworld (where horses and people slept), Gehenna, an actual location, and any other place in either Hebrew or Christian texts refering to the afterlife and turned it into a word called ‘Hell ‘which isnt in any of the original language. 

I began to realize that every scripture which was meant collectively was somehow reduced to an individualistic understanding in the U.S., and politics were taken out, even though Moses was born, during a political genocide of children, as a political liberator. Jesus was born during a literal political genocide of children, fled to Egypt to hide from political leaders, and then spent 3 years of ministry as someone under Roman political occupation as a political threat. He called Herod (A Trump like Builder and politican figure) a Fox, an unclean animal, and literally called out politically complicit religious leaders and said that they were snakes. I might get mean at times with religious hypocrites, but I’ve yet to call anyone a snake. 

Jesus was kind and loving to marginalized people, particularly women. There was the woman at the Well, the woman with the issue of blood. He was kind to thieves and those with disabilities, lepers, and emotionally tormented souls. He was kind to those at the bottom of the political spectrum. You have to be willfully blind to think Jesus is okay with harming marginalized people. 

The American church focuses on trans people who are less than 1% of the population as a distraction. Keep in mind, trans people are people who deserve love. They are our neighbors who deserve love, and they have nothing to do with the suffering people are experiencing in this country. It’s the same with immigrants and any other scapegoat that politicians can imagine up.

Jesus’s teachings remain true, and they are to love our neighbor and to care for the marginalized, and the American church would rather deify Paul the Apostle and follow his teachings. I wish they would call themselves Paulatians. Jesus said his followers would be known for their love, but  American Christians are not known for love, especially by other Christians globally. Ask Palestinian Christians if they feel loved by American Christians. That would be a no, since so many root for their mass murder. 

I say all of this to say that I will not coddle, nor make the truth digestible, nor will I entertain any nonsense from people aligning with corrupt power who call themselves Christians. If you want to have fascist political leanings, then just be honest about it. Stop hijacking Christ. I have seen and know it is possible to live in accordance with Christ’s teachings because of communities in the U.S. that center marginalized voices, and those around the world that live as the early church did. These communities are not vying for power, nor wealth, nor are they involved in culture wars. They are not addicted to duality, the good guys vs. the bad guys. They do not stigmatize marginalized people. They do call out corrupt authority, and they should, as Jesus did. The truth is, there will always be wolves in sheep’s clothing, but you will know the people by their fruit. Is the fruit love or is it hate wrapped in religiosity

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