To recap my last article: God created everything; He did it for us, and we need to be thankful for and respectful of Hid gifts. This does not end with animals and trees, but also includes our neighbors. How can we be so ignorant as not to see what God has given us? We are so ignorant that we feel we are better than others, but God did not create you as more important than your neighbor or your cat or even the dandelions in your yard. God created each and every thing on Earth and in the Universe as a special task, and destroying His creations is an abomination. But so too is not treasuring each of His creations.
White people, black people, Hispanics, Asians, Middle Easterners are all the same in God'd eyes. They are all created in His image- how can you worship God and then show contempt for someone created in His image? How can we claim to be better than any other person if we are all children of God?
Up until the later parts of the New Testament, our entire religious history takes place right in the middle of what some deem today as "terrorist nations" and so-called "shithole countries" as the current so-called leader claims them to be. Abraham, Moses, David, and even Jesus himself came from a "shithole country." And if we view the story of Adam and Eve as completely factual and non-allegorical, they came from the jungles of Africa.
Just like other races, we are no better than other genders. And this does not stop at just men and women, but also our trans siblings- those who have grown up in a body contrary to what society deems their behavior should be, and those who fall into neither category, such as myself. On top of race and gender lies sexuality and religion and education levels and professions and every other arbitrary category we as humans have created to separate people into "us" and "them."
Like that of someone who does not care about the Earth and God’s creations, if you so much as think of any single person on this planet as lesser than yourself, you cannot consider yourself a Christian. Whether it be a drug dealer, an abortion recipient, a sex worker, a dictator- they are all God’s children, as hard as it may be to consider them so.
If you are racist, you are not a Christian. If you are sexist, you are not a Christian. If you are heterosexist, you are not a Christian. If you are xenophobic or transphobic, you are not a Christian. If you do not love every single one of your neighbors as yourself, you are failing the greatest commandment, making every other thing you do in the name of faith irrelevant, and you cannot consider yourself a Christian. Christ preached love and acceptance and hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors rather than the highest church leaders- be like Christ.
