On 13 June 2016, 7:51PM, Rachel Held Evans posted on Facebook a commentary about the Orlando murders committed by a Muslim. The following in blue is her commentary, with my comments below each section.
Orlando. There isn’t a tweet, a prayer, a sentiment in the world that can adequately express the heartache so many of us feel today. As the names and pictures of the victims begin to emerge, we find ourselves oscillating between sadness and anger, between calls to prayerfully grieve and calls to get busy enacting change.
Homophobia,
“Homophobia” is a word made up by homosexualists* to marginalize the debate against homosexual behavior. Etymologically the word simply means a fear of sameness, which really makes the application to homosexuals inane. I’ve never known anyone, nor have I read about anyone, who is afraid of homosexuality. However, the point of the word is to attack people who say that homosexual behavior is wrong, perverted, against God, and that we should not be forced to give it sanction in any way. Yet here is a woman who claims to be a Christian using the word which was designed to attack Christian beliefs.
religious extremism,
Another nebulous term. How can one be “extreme” in their religion? I’m an “extremist” Christian in that I fully believe what the Bible says and strongly adhere to the Christian faith. What Evans and her ilk attempt to do here is to claim the attacks such as the one in Orlando are perpetrated by only “extremists” of the Muslim faith, but in reality these people are only “extreme” in the sense that they choose to live by the real teachings of Islam.
unfettered access to weapons of war,
Like the majority of liberals, Evans seems to consider anything other than a hunting shotgun as a weapon of war. What the Orlando shooter used was not a “weapon of war” — it was simply a rifle which was used to murder. This incident has led to attacks on the whole idea of civilians owning weapons like the AR-15 (which was not, contrary to media claims, used in this attack), which is the most popular rifle in America. You might say it is the replacement of the old Winchester lever-action rifle of the old days as far as popularity and utility of purpose. It is used for hunting, target shooting, and self-defense. It may look like a “weapon of war,” but looks don’t make it so.
and perhaps some untreated anger and mental health challenges all appear to have contributed to the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history,
This false narrative has been developed by the media and the politicians so as to blame everything but the murderer’s motive — killing in the name of Islam. And Evans propagates the lie.
and I believe it is right and good to name those things even as we pause to “weep with those who weep” and even as we caution against simplistic answers that only serve to further ostracize already marginalized groups, like our Muslim neighbors or those who struggle with mental illness.
She speaks against “simplistic answers” all the while promoting her own! No one is ostracizing anyone in regard to this attack. But making people “victims” of evil Christians is the LEFTIST narrative, which is promoted by Evans.
That said, I want to try to articulate something I’ve been hearing from my LGBT friends
As a “Christian” Evans should know there is no such thing as “LGBT.” People are NOT their sexual behaviors; they are people who practice sexual behaviors. Sexual desires are not a person’s identity and the reason they became so was to promote the idea of “minority rights.” Looking at the individual letters gives more clarification:
L = Lesbian, G = Gay. Both these mean the same thing - persons who practice homosexual behavior. God calls it an abomination.
B = Bisexual, meaning persons who have sexual relations with either sex. Since sexual relations with an opposite sex partner is normal biologically (yet outside of marriage it is a sin), these people should really be in the homosexual behavior group but want the societal recognition by riding the coat-tails as a distinct identity.
T = “Transgender.” This made-up term is for people who “feel” like they are members of the opposite sex. No amount of self-mutilation or hormones will change what the person really is — what they were born as. The use of this term only enables such people in their psychologically unhealthy self-delusion.
Christians should not use any of these terms, but rather identify the practitioners simply as people who are sinning grievously.
as they’ve been processing the responses of Christian leaders over the last 24-hours: Many of these leaders have publicly grieved the massacre and called for Christians to “simply love” the LGBT community in this hour of need…which is good; that’s the right thing to do.
The “love” to be extended is just the love of God for humanity in general. Nothing more, nothing less.
But what I’m hearing from my Christian LGBT friends in particular is that these calls to grieve and love ring a bit hollow when coming from pastors and church leaders who have never spoken out about hate and violence directed against LGBT people before or who have spent years perpetuating the very misinformation, stereotypes, and theology that hurt LGBT people every day.
What Evans seeks here is that to have real “love” for people practicing self-destructive lifestyles is to not mention that they are living in abject sin and rebellion against God. Christian leaders speak out against “hate and violence” directed at ALL people, so there is no need to single out one group just because of their sexual behaviors. I’ve yet to meet or read any Christian who perpetuates “misinformation, stereotypes” about such practitioners, rather they speak the truth about what the lifestyle does to them physically, medically, emotionally and spiritually. And the theology preached against such behavior is the truth of God. If “LGBT” people are “hurt” by the truth, then that is their problem and not the problem of the theology. Evans’ idea of theology is to sanction homosexual behavior and the self-delusion of sexual “identity.”
Oh, and she has no “Christian LGBT” friends. They may claim to be Christian, but their actions show otherwise. Scripture say that those who love Christ will obey his commands and not self-justify behaving in a way which God calls an abomination. These people worship another Jesus and not the one of the Bible.
At first blush, this may seem like harsh response, but I think I get it. For years and years, LGBT people have been suffering—from disproportionately high suicide and homelessness rates
Their suffering in such matters is self-inflicted by their rebellion against God in their self-destructive behaviors.
made worse by religious leaders who stigmatize same-sex orientation and non-binary gender identities
As well they should, as should ALL people. We “stigmatize” pedophiles, prostitutes, adulterers, zoophiles, and others who practice immoral sexual behaviors, so why shouldn’t we stigmatize those who abuse the human body sexually for perverse gratifications? Evans knows that God “stigmatizes” such people and yet she thinks religious leaders should not preach God’s Word! Also, “non-binary identities” is a fraud and delusion — i.e., LIES — yet Evans would have us sanction lies rather than “stigmatize” them!
and encourage parents to disassociate with their LGBT kids,
There my be some who teach this, but if the children claim to be Christian, then by Biblical commands the parents MUST disassociate with them until they repent!
from laws at home that protect the right to discriminate against LGBT people
To discriminate is not necessarily wrong. The word merely means to distinguish right from wrong, etc, and act on such. We discriminate against murderers by putting them in prison, e.g.
What Evans means here, as with all homosexualists, is that Christians should not have the right to refuse to provide services for activities promoting and giving tacit sanction to a particular lifestyle. In other words, force Christians to provide services for fake weddings or force them to treat men as if they are women just because they feel like women. Yet she claims to be a Christian!
and laws abroad that lead to their imprisonment and murder,
Americans can’t do anything about laws in other countries, and Christians in those countries also have to obey the laws.
from incessant bullying that’s often accepted when done from a pulpit by a preacher who’s “a little rough around the edges,”
Notice she just makes a blanket statement without evidence.
from ministries devoted to reparative therapy shown to do far more harm than good,
Oh, so if someone wants to help people leave a sinful lifestyle, according to Evans that is wrong?!? And, no, they don’t do more harm than good and there is no real evidence to suggest otherwise.
and from national freak-outs over bathroom policies that appeal to fear and misinformation to demonize a small minority.
So now it’s a “freak out” when people don’t want men using women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and/or shower facilities? Men/boys who say they “feel” like they are female should have access to the privacy of such facilities? There is no “misinformation” about such people — the “misinformation” is the propaganda spewed by the likes of Evans. This “small minority” by many studies is about .03% and yet Evans would have the other 99.97% bow to them and let them invade their privacy! Notice the inflammatory word Evans uses: “demonize.” Of course no one has ever “demonized” such people, rather they are rejecting their self-delusions and the delusion of their supporters.
If you wanted to love the LGBT community by “weeping with those who weep,” then there have been plenty of opportunities before Sunday to do so.
And there is Evans’ problem. She suggests that Christians should have a continuous “weeping” for violence against those who practice perverse sexual behaviors rather than for people in general, again putting such people in a special class. This particular situation should never even have been a matter of “weeping” for a special class of people, rather it should be “weeping” for just people in general, which is what most Christians do daily — “weeping” for the violence and hate against all people.
One Christian leader (who last week said those who support LGBT justice/inclusion are “cowardly”)
I don’t know who she is referring to, but he is correct in this assessment. There should never be special “rights” or “justice” (hate crime?!?!) for anyone, and no one should “include” people practicing deviant and perverse sexual behavior as part of a normal culture.
tweeted that Christians should be the first in line to donate blood for Orlando’s victims. He’s right about that. But Christians should also be the first in line to protest the antiquated and prejudicial guidelines that forbid gay and bisexual men from donating blood themselves.
This shows Evans ignorance of the topic. Those who practice homosexual behavior are very high risks for HIV and other STDs, and that was the reason to forbid their donations of blood. Evans apparently thinks it’s okay to spread their diseases through blood donations.
Another pastor, hours after the shooting, tweeted the importance of loving your LGBT neighbor as yourself. But this same pastor wrote a piece in 2013 encouraging Christians to indulge their “gag reflex” in response to gay people. One can understand how his words might not seem sincere.
I’d have to see the actual citation and context. But we should all have a “gag reflex” against homosexual behavior and condemn it as sin.
I’m a big believer in grace, and I hope this post doesn’t stray from it. My prayer is that, for those congregations lagging behind, this week marks the beginning of more consistent love and concern for their LGBT neighbors
Evans is a “big believer” in twisting Scripture to suit her agenda and ideology, as has been proven many times in the past by solid theologians. Every Christian should have the same love and concern for ALL unbelievers as they seek to evangelize them so as to see them saved from eternal damnation; there should be no new “beginning.”
(many of whom are themselves Christians, of course).
See comment above in regards to “Christian LGBT.”
Just understand why some LGBT folks don’t fall all over themselves with gratitude when a Christian leader who has consistently demeaned and ostracized them suddenly calls for empathy.
I only see real Christian leaders demean the BEHAVIOR and LIFESTYLE and not the people themselves. As for ostracizing, if this culture did more of that we would not have such rampant sexual immorality. Adulterers used to be ostracized, prostitutes and those who used them used to be ostracized. There is nothing wrong with ostracizing people who are corrupting society.
There was a body count before Sunday. It’s far easier to weep over a shocking massacre committed by a person claiming another faith than to weep over the millions of small cruelties committed by those in your own community.
By “small cruelties” Evans means the teaching of the Word of God in regards to sexual activities outside of marriage, be they homosexual or heterosexual, and the teaching that “transgender” is a self-delusion.
We can do better. Let’s start today.
Evans can do better today by preaching the Word of God as it is written and not rewrite it to suit her ideology. She can also practice REAL love by calling homosexual behavior a sin as does God; by telling people that such behavior is medically, emotionally and spiritually dangerous; and by ceasing to enable “transgender” people in their delusions.
One could spend time on Evans’ Facebook and see all sorts of false teachings and distortion of Scripture, but it would only waste one’s time. Evans is a blatant false teacher and certainly doesn’t appear to be saved — based on her stated theology.
I recommend the excellent article, “Courage and Compassion,” for your perusal in regards to proper Christian attitude towards homosexuality. H/T to Elizabeth Prata for pointing out this article, and Evans' post, in her blog.
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*”Homosexualists” — This term was coined by an author of a book I read a few years ago (I don’t remember the book or author) to group those practicing homosexual behavior together with those who support and help them in their activism.
