Anti-LGBT activists appear to be filming themselves terrorizing Target stores while yelling at the store and its customers to “repent” — in one case leading to 911 calls about an active shooter. In at least three instances this week, protesters — who identify themselves as Christians — are seen screaming throughout the aisles of the store about the retailer’s policy on transgender-friendly restrooms. In [one video], purportedly shot in Portland, a man is seen abruptly clapping his hands in the back of a store before bellowing: “Target, this is your wake-up call!”…. He goes on to decry “transvestites” as defying God’s will…. “You’re not a true Christian, you’re an asshole,” says one of many shoppers heard expressing disgust in his behavior. A security guard escorts the man out and is heard warning him that if he comes back he will be arrested for trespassing.
It would be easy to ridicule these unbalanced, intolerant reprobates as “assholes” or worse…and such a characterization wouldn’t approach being inaccurate. Still, name-calling is hardly a recipe for a meeting of the minds, especially since those willing to engage in such egregiously offensive and very public displays of overwrought hyper-religiosity don’t much care. They don’t care what others think of them or what they do; for them the only reward they care about is to be found in the Heaven they so fervently believe awaits them. Thus, their conviction that they have the absolute right to attempt to force their religious beliefs on anyone within shouting range.
It’s What Jesus Would Do ©, don’tchaknow??
That their theology isn’t grounded in reality should be self-evident. There’s nothing in their words or actions revealing them to be followers of the teachings of Jesus Christ. The person who said, “You’re not a true Christian, you’re an asshole” was spot on. True Christians don’t harass and degrade others. They don’t place themselves above those they’ve deemed without justification to be “less than.” They DO most certainly treat others as they themselves would wish to be treated.
True Christians don’t “test” businesses by sending men into women’s restrooms…which is something so far beyond creepy and sick I can’t even begin to explain how that reflects the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you believe- and even worse, preach- that LGBT rights are leading to God’s judgment and the End Times, you’re not a Christian. You, like Ted Cruz, Pat Robertson, Bryan Fischer, Franklin Graham, and so many others in the American Taliban, use your faith as a club with which to bludgeon those who think, believe, live, and/or love in a manner you find repulsive. You have no right to claim the imprimatur of the Almighty- because your agenda has nothing to do with a benevolent God. It has everything to do with forcing your narrow, hateful moral/theological/ideological framework on those you consider not enlightened enough to share your narrow, fear- and hatred-based belief system. You’re also a damned poor ambassador for your faith, in that you make it crystal clear you respect only those teachings which support your fear and prejudice. That’s not Christianity; that’s a recipe for tyranny.
