Spend any time swimming in the septic tank called Evangelical Christianity and you will likely come in contact with hateful bigots. Why are so many Evangelicals so nasty? While the reasons are many, one major reason for their hatefulness is that they believe that being a Christian is all about BELIEVING the right things, not DOING the right things. Let me illustrate this point with a few comments from Megyn Kelly’s Facebook page —The Kelly File. Last Friday, Montel Williams appeared on Kelly’s show and had this to say about Evangelical outrage over Transgender bathroom laws:
“What is the basic premise of every religion on this planet? You get judged by what you do for the least of us when you pass on. How dare you try to judge them now… and claim to be a Christian.”
Here’s how some of Kelly’s followers responded:
As you can clearly see, these Evangelicals see no connection between Christian salvation and good works. And this is the reason why many Americans now consider Evangelicals hateful bigots. Evidently, these verses are missing from the bibles Evangelicals dust off and carry to church on Sunday:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)
If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:8-26)
Self-righteous Evangelicals will say that these verses don’t mention Transgenders, so there! Other Evangelicals will say these verses only apply to their treatment of fellow believers, so there! Fine, I say. Please share how and to what degree you are helping fellow Evangelicals who are in need. *silence* That’s what I thought. You see, what the Transgender bathroom issue reveals is Evangelical hatred for anyone who doesn’t bow to their moral (and political) demands. Transgenders are just the latest in a long line of people Evangelicals hate: liberals, mainline Christians, atheists, secularists, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, undocumented workers, Barack Obama, abortion doctors, and gays, to name a few. Evangelicals need to stop preaching love, joy, and peace, when all people can see is hatred and bigotry.
If you have your hip waders on, I encourage you to check out the comments on The Kelly File’s Montel Williams segment (April 29, 2016). Be prepared to be sickened by what Evangelicals say in the name of their God. Even if I believed in the existence of the Christian God, there’s no way in heaven or hell that I would ever want to go to church with people who think like many of Kelly’s Evangelical followers. Their words betray who and what they really are.
they just suck and they are just oblivious.
The ones on the radio here are just smug pricks. One of the local Christian stations has a host who has been calling Obama “wicked” almost weekly since the election, is a “birther”, and says that we are in “the end times”. There are days when I decide it’s better for my blood pressure to listen to something else. My personal nickname for them is “The Muslims, Gays, Commies and Obama is going to get them” station.
In Karen Armstrong’s “A History of God”, she makes the point that Christianity has historically been more about orthodoxy (right belief), where as Judaism and Islam have been more about orthopraxy (right behavior). But even so, these Christians seem to take orthodoxy to a new high. What I want to know is, if you are an authentic follower of Jesus, how can you NOT care about people in need? How can you NOT challenge yourself to love your enemy, much less your neighbor? And how can you NOT translate that care into action? If you truly accept Jesus as your Lord, why are you not following his example? Maybe he did it so you don’t have to? REALLY?
The “hate the sin, love the sinner” line comes slickly off Christians’ tongues, but a lot of them are really good about expressing the hate and really crappy about expressing the love. And then there are others who do love; I’ve known, or known about, a lot of loving Christians. I don’t mean to paint with too broad a brush here. But boy, the folks who have the hate part down and are still working on the love part do seem to be enthusiastic about the skill they’ve mastered.
Hi Bruce,
Some of this hate, often masquerading as love, comes from the bible itself and how it is interpreted by those Evangelicals who use hateful words against others. Belief in inerrancy of the bible in the so-called (now missing originals), its supreme authority and its sufficiency all contribute to the problem.
For example, many Evangelicals will quote passages in the bible that say that homosexuality is an abomination. This gives those who try to gain status by negating others an opportunity to express their venom by claiming that they are not saying this,but God is.
They use these hate passages as a pretext for saying they are loving others by telling them “THE TRUTH”, when they seem to be oblivious both to the hate messages they are sending and the fact that there are different points of view in the bible on most topics. Many of hem seem to be either unaware of many different interpretations of the bible on a host of topics in the bible, or blithely ignore them in favour of their own, or their pastor’s ,or their favourite theological author’s view.
Shalom,
John Arthur
Hello, Mr. Gerencser.
Just had to write after the awful school board meeting that happened here in Horry County, SC (think Myrtle Beach) that relates to this article.
A transgender student (Female to Male) has been using the male bathroom since 7th grade (now a senior) with full knowledge and agreement of the school admin. No problem for 6 years, until this January when a teacher (with an agenda – NO! /sarc) followed him into the restroom, hauled him out and insisted the school suspend him. Yes, this really, really happened. The kid and his folks threatened sue under Title IX and the school backed off. Well, word got out and it became the cause celebre for the local fundie community. They packed a school board meeting on Monday and insisted this poor kid only be allowed to use the nurse’s bathroom. When a woman in the audience tried to speak up for the kid, she was shouted down with “is Christ your Savior?” and “do you even live around here?” Finally, they just started singing “Jesus Loves me” to stop her from speaking. Jesus Love Me, but not some transgender kid, evidently……….. The irony was thick.
BTW – discovered your blog after tripping over NLQ’s blog. Lots of good insight to many questions I have
I read about that, too. Look, I also know a handful of loving christians. What I suspect, though, is that they’d be the good people they are even if they were of some other religion or atheists or agnostics or humanists or whatever.
The rest of what I’ve observed in my 50 years on this planet is that many, many people who brand themselves ‘fundamentalist’ christians are, without a doubt, some of the foulest, vilest, most unkind people I’ve ever come across. I’ll not ever have anyone associating me with the likes of them.
yeah, well, I’ve lived in SC since 1984 and was shocked when I first came here about how pushy some of these fundie folks are. Some co-workers even had the nerve to keep repeatedly inviting me to their church. When they found out I was going to the local RC church, they redoubled their efforts and finally just let me know I was in an “apostate” church and just stopped talking to me unless it had to do with work. Over the years, I learned to just tune them out, then the teabag movement in 2010 just emboldened them. I don’t shut up anymore. I don’t go out of my way with these whack-a-doodles, but I won’t let any comments slide either.
At the end of the day if God really cared about people he wouldn’t make it so hard to believe in him. If you are gay or transgender are you really going to believe in a God that made you fancy the same sex but then hates you for doing it.
I know people say ‘fallen world’ but christians believe in heaven no one will sin and we will all still have free will. So why not make the world like this originally?
The people who are commenting are not telling the entire story about becoming a born-again Christian. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my Commandments.” When you except Jesus as your Savior you are to follow what he taught which includes to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. If all Christians would do what Jesus said there would be no bigotry, no hate, but only the love of God shown to others. Anyone who thinks he’s a Christian but shows prejudice against others should read 1 John 2:9-11. “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother lives in darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light.” Hate/loves are not expressed here as emotion but as attitudes expressed in actions. If we are truly Christian, we obey Jesus’ commands and we do not live a life characterized by sin but by doing what is right. See 1 John 3:7-10. Many call themselves “Christian” but do not follow Christ. This is why the world is confused about what an evangelical is. Don’t let a few vocal voices speak for the majority of true believers who are living as Jesus said, doing good but not publicly announcing it as Jesus taught (don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does, do your good deeds in secret and your Heavenly Father will reward you). Be assured, God is still in control and still at work in this world but the devil is also in the world stirring up controversy, skepticism, hate, bigotry, anything to get people away from God and religion.
I am sure you mean well, but surely you can see that this is just your opinion about what the Bible says. Thanks to the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer, every Evangelical is his own “final authority.” For example, based on what you have written here, I would conclude that salvation is by works. Yet, every official statement of Evangelical doctrine says that salvation is by grace, not works. Personally, if I was still a Christian I would agree with you. Don’t tell me what you believe, show me. That said, every Evangelical church I’ve attended (or pastored) preaches the gospel of right belief.
Do you really believe that the majority of Evangelicals are living by what you have stated in your comment? Your view is hard to square with the fact that the majority of Evangelicals plan on voting for Donald Trump, and the majority of Evangelicals vehemently oppose (or simply don’t care or are indifferent) same-sex marriage, helping the poor, sheltering strangers (immigrants), and caring for widows and orphans.These same people are pro-life, yet they inexplicably support the American war machine and capital punishment. American exceptionalism, nationalism, and capitalism is the triune God I see worshiped by many Evangelicals. So I ask you, who and where are these Evangelicals who, with singleness of mind, literally obey the commands of Christ and walk in his steps? Forget Paul’s writings, where are the Christians who take seriously the Sermon on the Mount? Can any Cristian really say that they are explicitly and completely obeying the commands o Jesus? And if they aren’t, how can they, by your standard, be “true” Evangelicals?
Of course, as an atheist I don’t think God is at work in the world, and neither is Satan. Giving God credit and Satan blame allows people to escape accountability (and reward) for their behavior. I am all for giving credit to whom credit is due.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Sorry, not trying to stir the hornet’s nest here but…just wanted to point out about the “explicitly and completely obeying the commands of Jesus” – do you remember that parable of the rich man, and when he addresses Jesus as “good teacher” – do you remember his response – “why do you call me good, no one on Earth is good?” I have my own suspicions….my thought process is that while the Bible mostly portrays the truth, probably we’re also reincarnating here (I know, I’ll be flamed by fundamentalists for this) – and Jesus admitted that at the point in time he was asked – he himself wasn’t perfectly good, or he would have ascended right then and there; he became perfectly good when he gave the ultimate sacrifice of his life for the salvation of others. Anyway, I know, not a Biblical interpretation. But, by this logic, everyone here kind of deserves to be here, and obviously isn’t perfect – but should “try” to be so. Belief is a precursor to action, therefore it’s hammered because, when you really, passionately believe something, you tend to act on it – it just follows from it. A person who actually holds fully right belief, fully passionately – will make noticeable effort – even if they, being human, will fail. The problem, as I see it is, we live in darkness, isolated from God. Because of the hate corrupting Jesus’ message (and intrinsic to much of the Old Testament) – how can a stereotypical church goer model what they’ve never felt – truly inclusive love, true acceptance, everlasting reward; I would surmise most of them can’t even conjure up an imagination of this thing, which itself must be some kind of blessing. If you put an animal in a cage, and deprive it of food – it might display rabid, untrusting behavior; it might just model the hurt it itself feels, knowing nothing else. Everyday I am hurt by Evangelical Christians, but I recognize I have failed myself somehow to be here, and I try to be cognizant of all the ways I fail because that is the ONLY way to stop judging others. I question the logic of doing works for salvation – I think the evangelicals are right in that, the works should flow from the overwhelming love a person feels for others which can only come from right belief, right faith, and an experience of God. Otherwise you get people doing the veneer of right works, which crumbles easily, because the heart is not there – just a fear of failure. In order to remove that fear of failure, a person must accept what at first might seem unfair – everyone, from the person that arrives to work in the field first, to last – gets forgiven, completely, because God is perfect love. God forgives that bigot. God forgives whatever sins the gay person has. God forgives absolutely everyone. But I think you keep getting sent back here until you’re able to prioritize what God priorities, as best you can in your actions; this ultimately, would have to mean, dying for your beliefs, because living is inherently selfish and destructive. It probably takes many lifetimes to get to the point where you actually care so little for the things of this world – including loved ones – that you are able to “die” to the world. It would be ideal, of course, to do this in one lifetime; who knows, maybe we don’t get reincarnated but, it doesn’t align with a loving God as far as I can see either forgiving people who have learned nothing or, alternately, forgiving almost no one. I suspect, perhaps, this growth can be achieved after death, painstakingly reviewing one’s life for all their failures and departures from perfect belief. But I suppose that would go back to the faith argument – God could probably “fix” the sin in a person who wants to be fixed – but a person who thinks they need no fixing – that would probably be “harder” – maybe? impossible. But God said all things are possible – well, with belief in me. Anyway, my own life is personally hell since we moved to the South where the fundamentalists live. We don’t believe the Bible is inerrant – and even though we are, by lifestyle, conservative, though pacifists of sorts – you wouldn’t believe the ostracism we face – simply over that. I homeschool our children and we are too poor to pay our way into the Episcopal church, who won’t even let our kids socialize with theirs for 1/2 an hour a week unless we also enroll them full time in the school (at 8K a kid) – regardless of whether or not we can afford that. The homeschooling groups around here will not let us part-take because we won’t sign off on Biblical inerrancy. People give me dirty looks for breastfeeding my child. Moms here don’t even say hello to each other at play areas – so you can imagine how many of these would probably be reliable in emergency situations. Truthfully our neighbors are the only nice people we’ve met here. But I’ve come to accept that God put me here to see how hideous my own areas of intolerance are. It’s really hard to live alone. I think a Christian who really tries to follow Christ WILL wind up being sidelined, marginalized, and overall treated way WORSE than gay people even. You probably wouldn’t notice them, because they probably pray in closets as instructed. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
“When you except Jesus” oh bless your heart. when you genuinely live and love sweet baby jesus’ lifestyle, you automatically agree to despise all anti-human bigots: racists, misogynists, xenophobes, homophobes, etc.; basically all the haters.
if you don’t, you’re a hypocrite and will burn in hell for eternity 😉
I believe Abrahamic religions have a strong potential to attract and create sociopaths/psychopaths. So many evangelicals love to vilify and even advocate the killing of gay people.
I’m not saying it, GOD is! God hates homosexuals according to his holy Word. People hate Christians because they shout out the holy word of God almighty!
As long as you can vilify the object of your hatred using God, you can never be wrong. Look at Steven Anderson’s church where apparently 300 people attend on Sunday! Give me good hate and you have my offering in your hate-plate!
WOW! With hateful KKKreesteeyans like these, who needs Demons? If there is a Satan it’s been recruiting most intensely – and successfully – in the Evangelist churches, which goes to show that Religion, Hate and Evil are their own, mutual manure and fertilisers, each feeding the others…
Christian means Christ Like. We are all anything but that. To strive to be Christ like means to lay aside our own foolish pride. Set aside our own differences. We are alike in that we all want to go to the heaven we have all heard of. Going against the word of God is like pushing the tides of the ocean; futile. We need to focus on the things at hand. I do not wish ill of any person, but neither am I likely to follow just anyone.
I believe in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I believe that he died and was raised from death on the third day. Not only because of my faith but also logic. Romans had every chance to debunk this as they searched high and low for the man that miraculously disappeared. Pontius Pilate had every reason to find the man that he never could. The most powerful man in the region was in dire straights trying find Jesus after his death, but never could even at the amount of men at his disposal searching.
I do not try to hate nor do I try to condemn. it is not my place to say where each one will go at the end of his time. I can say though that Jesus dealt with love not with hate. He loved the prostitute as much as the disciple, and was seen cleaning the feet from the apostles. He was a servant not acting as a worldly king, but as a divine king of the most high.
It is so easy being among others saying that you do not believe. However in the dark of night being alone, how confident are you of your own mortality? We all contemplate those times when by ourselves we wonder what will happen. If you feel that going into the abyss of darkness at the end of your life then what are you living for? IF there is no rhyme or reason to life then what is the purpose?
God wants to hear from you, and wants you not to rely on yourself but Him. Remember that being a Christian is not going to be easy, nor is it going to be without sacrifice. We all give up something to gain something more. We have to keep moving forward and keep his commandments. Loving one another is the greatest of all commandments.
We live by example, we show others the way to live and love not hate. Nobody in the Bible is without sin other than Jesus. Even when we stumble he is there to pick us up. We have only to ask. Knock and the door will be opened.
I will answer your comment in an upcoming post.
Let me reply to this: “It is so easy being among others saying that you do not believe.” I hope you will think about statement and realize how wrong it is.
Are you not in the majority — those who believe in the existence of God? It is easy to believe in God, especially in the United States. Nothing is required of you. Your faith costs you nothing except an hour or two on Sundays and the shekels you toss in the offering plate.
People gather at sites like this because they are a small, often marginalized community. Try walking in atheists’ shoes before suggesting that in the still of the night we believe differently in the night than we do the day. Besides, even if what you said is true, do not Christians do the same? What do Christians ponder in the dark of night? Where’s God? Why is God silent? Why, why, why? Existential questions are part of the fabric of human existence.
More to come later this week. I’ll send you a link after I respond.
I responded to your comment here:
http://brucegerencser.net/2021/04/my-response-to-matt-an-evangelical-christian/
FWIW on reading the posts in the article I would say that they are leaving out the part of the Gospel where we accept we are guilty sinners (and that’s why we need saving), just accepting Jesus died for you without knowing why doesn’t really cut it… Also a Christian will still be judged by their deeds… Bible says this affects how many rewards you get in Heaven. And how can people know the difference in being a Christian if they don’t see your good works? (Bible again)…. Anyway this just shows that not even evangelicals can agree on the gospel or what it means to live as a Christian.
Matt: “It is so easy being among others saying that you do not believe.”
Zoe: It is so easy being among others saying that you do believe.
Absolutely. 😂😂
If your god wants to hear from us, mortal, then it bloody well needs to come talk to us in person instead of sending human messenger boys like you.
And what are we living for? Simply put, we are living for real life in the here-and-now, rather than some unproven mythological Better Place. The poet Pindar puts it very well: “O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.” There is no extra meaning in eternal life — in fact, eternity negates meaning rather than creating it.
I used part of your comment in one of my posts today. ❤️❤️
I am generally agnostic. Many people have many different views of who/what GOD is and I think it would be hard to prove which is correct. We just need to learn to get along with each other. I have been told by “good Christians” that my physical disabilities epilepsy, carpal tunnel where caused by my lack of belief in God. This can still hurt emotionally even if I know intellectually they are saying this because I am not part of their “group”.
Thank you
I think we (meaning not just you and me), but all people need to read all religious texts (Bible, Koran, Talmud, Torah, Bhavad Gita, etcetera) and examine the history from inception to now to see what they have done over time. I don’t know if there is any religion or cult (which from religions were before they grew in popularity to become religions) that is totally innocent in the mistreatment of people, whether within their own set of beliefs, or people who don’t share that belief system, whether it is a religion or cult. Evangelicals are rotten for sure, but I’m sure that occurs in fundamentalist types in the other Abrahamic faiths besides Christianity. Zioinism and Islamic extremism are just as dangerous as Christian fundamentalism. India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine are ongoing conflicts not just because of territorial disputes, but because of religious affiliation differences as well. I’m guessing the world was a better place before the invention of cults and religions. Ethics predates the existence of religion.
I’m still a believer but Christians are driving me to hate this debacle of a religion! I’m really at the end of my rope with so called ‘Christians’. I see nothing good in any of them or their screwed up divisive religion. Christianity has caused more stress in my life than anything else. I wish I knew what Bruce did to ‘disconnect’. Ken Humphries and James MacDonald make more sense than educated idiots like John MacArthur and the like. I can admit – I hate John MacArthur more than any man on earth.
You are not alone my friend!
Thank you for using LOGIC and REASON! I have no problems with Christians (I was one until recently) I just don’t like all of the HATE and ELITIST nonsense that comes out of them. Do they really think Christ would approve? He came to preach to the SICK, those they’d lock away or execute. The gangsters, prostitutes, pimps, killers, etc.