1 /5 Cali: Shortened to fit google.
During the sermon, the pastor was speaking about our relationship with Jesus & Christianity. He said that it’s not about our feelings, & we put too much emphasis on that now. He then said, “I could say I feel that I’m a cat. And now I’m a cat. Or I could feel that I’m a girl. And now I’m a girl.” Much to the laughter and applause of the congregation. I’m doing my best to remember exact wording. But I believe they have recordings up. From 5.25.25. Maybe halfway through. Anyways, I just immediately felt for if there were any trans people there. Maybe one who had been curious about Christianity, but nervous of acceptance into the community. That person would’ve just been ridiculed into shying away from God.
I went to speak to the pastor Tim after the service. They’re about to do a bunch of baptisms (which is AMAZING! Love to see people committing their life to Christ and being born anew. But during the sermon, they said “even if it’s your first time here! Even if you’ve never even though about being baptized before, today’s the day!!” Which.. baptism is a big deal. Not something you just decide on a whim. It’s not a fad. It’s something that should take a lot of prayer, thought, consideration..)
So Chad (real name) sees me waiting to speak to Tim, because he was talking to someone else. Chad comes over and asks what I’m doing. I told him. He said about what? I said I wanted to speak to him about the sermon. He then said “well don’t you think it’s kinda rude to come talk to him now when all this stuff is going on? Why don’t you just talk to me?” (Reminder, Tim is talking to another churchgoer). I said, “no, but thank you.” This went back and forth until he gave up and walked back to his post a few feet away. Chad was very rude.
I finally talk to Tim. I shake his hand and tell him what I really enjoyed about the service. I then told him that it felt very un-Jesus-like to be mocking trans people to an entire congregation. I was very clear in saying that I wasn’t asking him to change his convictions, only to be more loving. He immediately became very defensive and went on about how trans people are living in sin and they’re going to hell and so he doesn’t want to associate with people like that. He said, “these people are living in sin” and I said, “ok so you’ve never sinned?” And he said, “now you’re just being petty.” (Need to note that my tone was not petty. It was humble and calm and not argumentative. This question I asked is, however, the closest I came to accepting bids for a debate/argument).
He said that mocking them is totally fine as Jesus mocked people (Jesus did not MOCK people. He was known to use sarcasm, irony, etc to make a point. But did not MOCK people.) I said it’s not fair to generalize an entire community of people like that, especially a community that has been nothing but loving.
He then raised his voice at me a bit here and said, “nothing but loving?! Do you know the hate comments I’ve gotten from that ‘loving’ community of yours?!”
I said, “no one deserves hate, but again, you can’t generalize an entire community” (and I should have been more articulate in saying that he shouldn’t reciprocate hate with hate. Which is wild to think I’d have to explain that to a grown man, especially a pastor. But at this point, there were about 6 men (boys) near us nodding and cheering him on with “amens” and “yeahs” as he spoke so rudely to me. )
I told him I just wanted to ask him to focus more on love and Jesus instead of judgement of others, thanked him for his time, wished him a nice day, and left.
I need to note that I truly stayed so calm and humble. I did not accept his instigations for debate or argument as that is not what my purpose had been. I had not come to him to debate about LGBTQ, I had asked him to consider being more loving and open so that more people could come to know Jesus.
Jesus says “come as you are.” Not “come as long as you’re straight cis like me.” Wouldn’t you want EVERYONE to feel welcome at your church? So that more people can come to know Jesus?
