Love Should Do No Harm: When Belief Trumps Love In Christianity
This past week, a friend shared this quote on socials:
“A major problem in evangelicalism is that the question is never asked, ‘does this theology cause harm?’ but rather they ask, ‘is it true?’ Once an evangelical has determined a belief to be ‘true’, harm caused is irrelevant & can be blamed on moral shortcomings of the victim rather than blamed on the harmful theology itself.” @deconstruct_everything
I shared it on my own socials and it was quickly liked and shared by many others, just as it had on my friend’s wall. It’s not hard to see why it resonates with so many. For many people who swim deeply in evangelical waters, the experience of having “right belief” used as a blunt instrument for “encouraging faithfulness” (aka “coercing obedience”) is all too familiar.
For those of us who identify as LGBTQ+ and have interactions within or tangential to evangelicalism, this is a very common…