I am fed up. And I hope you are too.
Under the guise of moral outrage, the “religious right” justifies breaking up families with travel bans and immigration raids, telling transgender children they don’t have the right to safely use the restroom, and attacking a person’s right to have affordable and accessible health care. People use the name of God as a reason to deny service to LGBT customers and deny women choices about their reproductive health.
No more.
Our faith is built on the legacy of a savior who said to “love our neighbor as yourselves.” Antagonizing people who don’t look or love like us and denying people a decent quality of life doesn’t seem to fit that narrative.
It’s time to reclaim Christianity to mirror the life of a loving, oppression-fighting, greed-hating Jesus.
A UCC pastor asked for people to start using the hashtag #THISisChristian to change the conversation about Christianity in America.
If people are going to shout that Christianity is about hate, those who know otherwise have to shout louder.
And the response to the #THISisChristian hashtag is a good start.
You let people know that trans rights are human rights.
Believing that #TransRightsAreHumanRights #THISisChristian #spokane @unitedchurch pic.twitter.com/x91buRHSWk
— Pastor Jan Shannon (@exchfamily) March 10, 2017
You told us that Christians are intersectional.
A Black, queer, gender nonconforming person pursuing justice work at the intersection of faith, sexuality, gender and race. #THISisChristian
— ✨TOUS•SAINT✨ (@killerdancer101) March 8, 2017
You reminded people that Christian families are diverse, and that diversity is something we cherish.
Gay mom ministers raising daughters to be leaders of the revolutionary forces #thisischristian #ucc pic.twitter.com/nSDVz462Jz
— Suzanne W. Bossert (@revsuzanne) March 8, 2017
And finally, you confirmed that love has the last word.
“Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now,” – JKerouac #THISisChristian
— Robyn Gray (@RobynStellman) March 4, 2017
So keep tweeting. Keep posting on Facebook. Keep speaking up and speaking out. People can only hijack our faith for hate if we late them. Remind people that your goodness and your advocacy are informed by you Christian faith. Let’s show people how Christianity looks.
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Beka Choate and Aimee Jahnson for their help promoting #THISisChristian on UCC social media.
Marchaé Grair is the editor of the United Church of Christ blog, New Sacred, and the UCC Digital Content Manager. Twitter: @MarchaeGrair