Who Are the Real Sinners?

Rabbah Rona Matlow

I frequently hear trans and other queer people expressing frustration, pain, histories of trauma, etc., from their experiences with their churches. They often feel there is something wrong with themselves, because of the continuous hateful messages that the church leaders provide about LGBTQ+ people, minorities, women and other marginalized people. But I thought a tweet I saw on Sunday was brilliant. The person wrote something to the effect that they had come to the conclusion that they were not sinning, their church was!

So, let’s unpack that a bit. You’ve seen me mention before “Matthew’s Greatest hits.” What Jesus called the Greatest Commandment, (Mat 22:37-9) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. . . and. . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (NRSV) The other famous quote is (Matt. 7:1-3) “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. . . Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?” (NRSV)

The church people who are so critical of us never seem to remember these very important commandments. Then there is what their Lord and Savior Jesus did himself. Three times, it is recorded in Christian Scripture, that Jesus encountered a leper. At that time, lepers were understood to be people receiving divine punishment for slander — the worst thing you could do short of murdering them. When Jesus encountered the lepers, he humbled himself by getting on the ground and washing their feet. He then healed, anointed and blessed them, and baptized them and welcomed them into the congregation. If Jesus could do this for people who committed such grievous sins, how can church leaders of today be so critical? After all the three Pauline verses that seem to address the issue of gay sex, do not even address being queer directly — they address certain sexual acts only, and these were likely cultic Pagan acts. Queer identities were not directly known back then!

So, let’s explore what’s going on today. The Methodist Synod is undergoing a breakup over the issues surrounding queer people. The Southern Baptist Conference recently passed a resolution that “Critical Race Theory (CRT)” would not be taught in any of their seminaries. The reason they see CRT as a threat, of course, is that it means that they must repent from their White Supremacist ways. And in reality, White supremacy means that the only people with privilege or power are white, cis-het-binary, Anglo Saxon Protestant (and maybe ultra-conservative Catholic), non-disabled, upper middle class or above MEN! They marginalize women, Jews, Muslims, other religions, queer people, disabled people, BIPOC and everyone else in their so-called theology.

After the Dobbs decision overthrowing Roe v. Wade was released, Politico reported that a Political Action Committee (PAC) from an Evangelical organization had been putting huge pressure and influence on some of the most conservative Justices on the Supreme Court. This included Thomas, Alito and the late Justice Scalia. This kind of influence peddling should be illegal, and certainly violates the intent of the First Amendment separation clause, yet it happens all the time in Washington and elsewhere around the country. Every government and both major parties in the U.S. are completely corrupted.

As we can see, the right-wing churches in the U.S. are very involved in pushing their political agenda in Federal and State governments. And they are out to “take back the country.” That is, they want to make America WHITE again. Of course, that shows great ignorance on their part, since this is not and never has been a white country, even if a majority of her citizens since 1776 are white. Sadly, though, the framers of the Declaration of Independence felt the same way as the modern church leaders, when they wrote the famous line “All men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence.

So, more than ever, as I’ve said in previous posts, it is absolutely crucial that every marginalized person in the U.S. get out the vote this November. This midterm election is incredibly crucial — the Senate is one seat away from a GOP majority, and we cannot have that — it would give the GOP control over future justices on the Court, which will only make the situation worse, if a liberal justice dies or retires. So please, vote, and help others to as well. Our lives literally depend on it.

Peace out, Rona

Tags: featured, opinion, spirituality, Transgender

Category: Transgender Opinion