We’ve got to get rid of the “us vs. them” mentality that pervades so much of evangelicalism. How can we love “them” if we’re so focused on how “them” is against “us?”

I’ve been listening to stories of people who have left the Church or left their faith entirely, and so often it comes down to a point where they just wanted to be loved, but we couldn’t love them because...

... they asked the wrong question or doubted the wrong tenet of our faith or reconsidered their own gender or sexual identity and for us, it was a bridge too far. This child of God...

... was no longer “us.” They were now “them.” And because they were “them,” we now denied they were ever TRULY “us.” Because how could “us” become “them?”

And that idea...

... that one of “us” could become one of “them” is so threatening, that we cannot love. We can only oppose. For fear that others of “us” could become “them” if we don’t take a stand against the “them-ness” of the one that was once “us.”

Sorry for the ramble. Not saying doctrine doesn’t matter. Just saying love over all.

These stories hurt my heart.