Down through human history this has led to conflicts, sometimes terrible conflicts, resulting in massive loss of life.
These differences can arise for a number of reasons: place of birth, colour of skin, the language spoken, different beliefs, different philosophies, etc. The list is almost endless. The saddest incidents of these 'differences' arises within the very arena where they should be rarest: the arena of Christian belief. Let me explain.
Christianity, as a faith-based system, is rooted in the Holy Bible, a Book of books: actually 66 books in all, telling the story of creation, the stories of God's and Creation's interaction through Millennia which lead to the Ultimate interaction, that of God sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the redemption of a broken creation having turned bad as personified in the Human Race.
From the moment that the first humans disobeyed God, and Sin entered the world, it has infected our Humanity, our very DNA, and there has been conflict. Even, sadly, where the two Sons of those first humans had a conflict, and one Son killed the other.
That first act of, free-will rooted disobedience, resulted in the whole of creation being broken, from that moment. And it is this broken creation, in which we all live, which causes all the conflict we see every day. And it is this broken creation which seems to be constantly over-looked when we come to consider all our conflict initiating differences, and none more tragic than how we treat each other.
OK, so now we come to the core of this article. How we Christians, view, respond to, and treat those we find are different to ourselves. How the, 'Me' is different to the, 'Them’, particularly, in the 21st Century, how we view certain groups of, 'Them', the ‘Others’.
One of the favourite targets, and there are others, of certain Christian groups are members of the LGBT+ community. An example being the Westboro Baptist church in America, one of whose favourite placards proclaims, 'God Hates Fags'. This church also targets many other groups, as well as other churches. It really is a hate group. Sadly though, their hate-filled rhetoric and messages towards the LGBT+ community, in particular, seems to have influenced many churches, and many Christians groups. But of course, this hatred towards, ‘Others’, this ‘otherness’ is not new.
So lets start with the question: Does God Hate People?
Being part of a broken creation, we are all born into a sinful world. Sin lives in us all, and it is who we are. And it is this Sin, this terrible disease if you like, that fills us and leads us to do sinful things. And that is what God hates. And the only way to deal with this disease of Sin that consumes us was to offer his Son as a sacrifice, which is what happened when Christ was hung on a cross to die more then 2000 years ago. And all this happened because God Loves us and wants us to be free of the disease of the Sin he hates. He did it not because he hates us, but because he hates what has become of us because of Sin and because he loves us and wants to rescue us from that which he hates. God does not hate us. God loves us.
But we are still part of a broken creation, and we still do things that are wrong. But because God loves us, and Jesus died for us on that cross, we have a pathway to be washed clean of all the horrible things that Sin can still do to us.
You may have come across the argument used by many people to condemn people who are Trans-sexual (or Trans), Homosexual (Gays) etc. and you may often hear the argument, 'God made them Male and Female - END OF!’ But what those people forget, or have failed to understand is that, the moment Sin came in, ALL of creation, I repeat, ALL of creation became broken.
From that point onwards everything we did, thought, said, wished for etc., became tainted. Nothing was, or is, how it should have been, nor how it should be.
And this leads us to another very important consideration. Not only is the whole of creation broken Spiritually, it is also broken Physically and Biologically and some of that is down to us.
In 1996, some 30 years after Rachel Carson's book, 'The Silent Spring' was published, another book was published, called, 'Our Stolen Future'. One of the outstanding things in the book was the discovery that Man-made chemical hormone changing molecules have now permeated every living person on the planet. Even isolated and remote Northern Inuit peoples are contaminated. This had led to, in some people, deep psychological, physiological and Biological changes. So people may be born with bodily defects that are a direct result of these human made chemical contaminations.
So it is really no surprise that a person may be born 'Male' and yet feel they're 'Female', or vice versa. Or they may be born with two sets of genitalia, or none. And the list goes on.
Because we are all part of a broken creation, we should not be judging, criticising, ostracising or condemning anyone. As Christians, or as I prefer to say, Christ Followers, we need to heed Jesus' words in the Bible: Matthew chapter 7 verses 1-3 'Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
It is humbling to acknowledge that we are all broken people, and in no position to set ourselves as judges of others.
Remember, as Christ Followers, Love Others.
