Sigh.
Today I saw another Tweet that left me shaking my head.
Why?
Because it so blatantly misrepresents all that Jesus is and all that Jesus stands for. In fact, it boggles the mind that a person who apparently knows Jesus could possibly broadcast it to the world.
Get a load of this post on Twitter:
I make no apologies for mocking people who claim the name of Christ but have pronouns in their bio
Source: Twitter
Yes, the aptly named Megan Basham is so incensed by Christians who dare to use pronouns on their bios that she believes they deserve to be mocked. What’s more, she’s the one qualified to do the mocking because, well… Megan’s got it right!
If you disagree with Megan, you’re not a “real” Christian. Megan knows it all, and she’s so confident that she’s found the right path that, rather than humbly and gently showing people “her path,” she’s gonna mock them for not choosing “her path.”
They deserve to be mocked!
That’s what Jesus would do, right?
Right?!
Right?!
Wrong.
What would Jesus Tweet?
You really have to wonder what goes on inside the head of a so-called Christian to justify the cognitive dissonance in claiming to follow Jesus while promising to mock other followers of Jesus who don’t follow Jesus in the same way you do.
Can you seriously imagine Jesus Christ mocking a lesbian?
Can you imagine him mocking a person with gender dysphoria?
Can you imagine him mocking a person who showed dignity and respect to a sexual minority, or any minority for that matter?
Can you imagine him mocking anyone at all?
The answer is so stupidly obvious it goes without saying. But, “Christian” Megan is convinced that mocking is appropriate behavior for her to use against anyone who believes or thinks differently from her.
Why not use pronouns?
To me, using pronouns is a way of showing respect and dignity to the LGBTQ+ community.
What’s wrong with that?
I mean, even if you were a conservative who had not embraced modern gender theory, couldn’t you still be respectful in this way?
Besides, historically, the church has treated the LGBTIQ+ community appallingly. The sky would not fall if they could at least dignify this group of human beings — God’s children — in a simple gesture. It would by no means erase the hurt, but it would be a start.
But no.
We will not affirm sin… unless it’s our own
Megan believes that not only should we not respect the LGBTIQ+ community. She takes it a step further and says that we should not respect Christians who respect the LGBTIQ+ community. “I will disrespect the respecters!” She says, “They deserved to be mocked?”
And why?
Because Megan believes that those who identify as LGBTIQ+ are wicked sinners, and to respect them by doing something as innocuous as using pronouns on our bio pages would be akin to affirming their beliefs about gender identity. To Megan, that would be the same as affirming their “sin.”
Let’s imagine for a moment that homosexuality is a sin. I don’t think it is, but let’s pretend. If you elevate the “sin” of homosexuality about other sins — including your own — it would make you seem both self-righteous, self-congratulatory… and homophobic to boot. It is to say, “We ought to treat these particular sinners particularly badly… compared to the average run-of-the-mill sinner who might grace the pew of an evangelical church. The “sins” of the LGBTIQ+ community and those who support them are so much worse than my “sin” that they deserve to be mocked.”
Appalling.
But it gets worse.
Not only would Megan have us believe that we shouldn’t show respect and dignity to the LGBITQ+ community. She believes that we ought to show “love” to these “sinners” by speaking the “truth” to them. By “speaking the truth,” she means: Telling them how sinful they are so they might repent!
There’s no hate like Christian “love.”
Megan’s reply
As you might expect, plenty of people objected to Megan’s Tweet, but of course, as is often the case on Twitter, this only caused Megan to double down on her position. As promised in her original Tweet, she’s making no apologies.
In fact, Megan claims that her mockery is justified because Jesus himself used mockery as a tool. I must have missed that part of the Bible, but I’m sure Megan could point me to the verse she is using to justify her position. Christians are pretty good at that.
Regardless, I can’t find anywhere where Jesus mocks anyone. However, I do see in the Bible in Matthew 25 that Jesus describes true followers as being marked by a peculiar empathy towards the poor and marginalized. And I do see in the Bible that Jesus describes false converts as having the outward appearance of being very religious but a peculiar callousness towards the poor and marginalized.
The only people Jesus came close to mocking were the overtly religious.
A stupid hill to die on
Megan believes that if you’re a Christian who chooses to use pronouns on your bio, it means you have embraced a dangerous ideology that says a person can choose their own gender regardless of their sex at birth.
Of all the things a Christian could take a stand on…
What a stupid hill to die on.
Just because you embrace a person — who is deserving of love — it does not mean you are embracing an ideology. You don’t need any ideology to show love and respect, but you most certainly need one to show contempt and hate for a group of people who are different from you. And you need an ideology to create a boundary fence to demarcate who is “in” and who is “out.”
The thing is, it’s not our job to decide who is “in” and who is “out.”
In the words of Thomas Merton, “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business, and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.”
I love the LGBTIQ+ community!
Go ahead and mock me, Megan Basham! Give me your worst! I don’t care.
You may refer to me as he/him.
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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Photo credit: Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash