This post was originally made on my fediverse account (post here), but I later realized it would fit well here having a more permanent place on my blog.

When talking about religion and critiquing Christianity you might catch onto a consistent trend I try to follow where I don’t simply generalize Christians and instead when I refer to bigotry and hateful behavior I will say “conservative christians” or “american conservative christians” or something of that type. I have pretty good reasons for doing this.

Christianity is still a middle eastern religion. And middle eastern Christians exist. They may be pushed aside, but they are still real people that are alive today. Many aspects of the most hateful parts of Christianity that we witness today are distinctly related to colonialist adoption and whitewashing of Christianity. Not all of it, but quite a bit of it.

I recognize and understand the harm and pain that Christianity has been used to cultivate against many, many people throughout history and today as well. I am a gay jewish man, I have lived it and my ancestors have as well. But when it comes to the way that actual Christians who desire to bring kindness to the world behave versus how bigoted conservative Christianity is, it's not an exaggeration to say they might as well be nearly two different religions entirely.

Every religion has their fanatics and their flaws, and I have met and know Christians who recognize the flaws of their fellow Christians and actively commit to fighting up against it.

I don't judge people for expressing their pain due to being harmed by conservative Christian institutions, but when talking about Christianity I think it's worth at least trying to make an effort to recognize the communities that exist that are fighting with us and or experiencing actual oppression as well (like middle eastern Christians)

This also goes without saying that queer Christians exist. Queer religious people exist. They are real and will continue to be real.

I say none of this to invalidate peoples religious trauma, but this is why I personally choose to refer carefully in this way when talking about this stuff when I can.

Tags: #Religion

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