I agree. I'm a 70 year old, straight, white, agnostic, cisgender woman, and I hope that those "Christians" find out what Jesus really wanted! I don't think he would've approved of all that hatred.
I am very sorry that you were so abandoned by the people who were supposed to love you and help you feel God's love more deeply. They trespassed against you. Just know it was them who left you, not God. You were made perfectly in God's image and you are precious to God.
Anthony Hayes , God himself said that itis Abomination. Leviticus 18 :22 Now would you like to know what happens to these people ? Remember Anthony, this is what God himself says will happen .
@@towada1066 , Ha ha ha ha ha 😂 I guess you don't know ? As a matter of Fact ! I know that you don't know ! God isn't going to do anything , he has Given ALL Judgment to the SON, John 5:21&22 And by the way towada , God has a name and it is YHWH pronounced Yahweh in Hebrew and translated into English language is at Exodus 6:3 and Psalms 83:18 and many other places in the Bible. God's Son's name is Yeshua and translated into English language is Jesus
I was raised evangelical, southern Baptist, and to this day as a senior citizen, i still feel the cold, awful hate-filled memories. I must shake myself to stop that ugliness from overtaking me. Thank you. Beau.
When I was 12, I was at church camp when the preacher decided he would talk, in the most hateful and graphic way he could, about the 'evils' of homosexuality. We were all holding hands (because that's what you did at church camp) and I felt my best friend flinch harder than I'd ever felt anyone flinch. To this day, almost 40 years later, whenever people start their hateful religious talk about 'those people' I always think about that flinch, about how much pain it conveyed, and about the struggles my friend and so many of my other friends have gone through in coming to terms with being something other than what our churches were telling us was acceptable. Sometimes I don't think certain people realize how much damage they're doing when they weaponize religion as a means of hating others. Other times, I think they know exactly what they're doing and that, as Beau often says, the cruelty is the point.
It's mostly a political wedge to get republicans elected. Notice they tie the LGBTQ community to democrats when we know there are just as many republicans who are also from that community. This too shall pass. The question will be who's next
I am the father of a trans man. It is because of people like the one that sent you this message, that remind me that he is the bravest person that I have ever known. Thank you for this video.
The two trans women that I had the pleasure of knowing are both dead. One of them was murdered right after she completed the process. It can be deadly and it’s extremely dangerous to foment hatred upon the community.
“When you die, God isn't going to ask you about someone else. He won't ask you about the two men down the street who got married. He won't ask you about the girl who had an abortion. He won't ask you about the atheist that lives on the corner. He won't ask you about the woman who feels more comfortable as a man. He will ask you how you loved those people as He called you to do. And some of you didn't!”
I grew up knowing I was different, in absolute terror of being found out. I couldn't articulate 'transgender' or 'transsexual' to myself, but I knew 'if people find out who i really am they'll kill me." What kind of evil society makes a person who has done them no harm, feel this way?
I am so sorry for your anguish! This made me cry because it was probably people professing to be Christian that made you feel like this. I hope you find healing and community. You belong here!
My daughter is gay. She is the person I made, I raised and love to the end of the earth. When I look back and remember how sad, unhappy and depressed because she felt she had to hide the fact she is gay breaks my heart. Why are some people allowed to be themselves but others have to be watchful of who they love because they will be judged...not accepted. Breaks my heart. To be accepted as yourself is the greatest gift we can give each other. I am a proud mom of my amazing beautiful strong daughter.
It must be really hard right now too with these crazy people escalating things. I'm glad she has you. So many don't. She is strong because you are there and always have been. You should be proud of yourself too.
My kids are still under 10 years old, so they aren't at that age yet to even know whether they're LGBT. But I really, really hope when they do reach that age they won't hesitate to talk about it with us. Actually my true hope is that our community is accepting enough that they won't even feel like they need to talk about it.
@@methos-ey9nf Read them an age appropriate book with same sex parents in it, tell them that you will love them no matter who they love. Remove the guesswork, remove the fear.
Just like straight people we want something genuine. We want to love and be loved without hesitation nor conditions. "Trapping" straight guys won't get us what we want and need. ✌💙🏳️🌈
Whenever they whinge about people “forcing their views on us”, especially those of a religious bent, what they really mean is they’re upset at finally getting pushback on their bigotry.
Terry Pratchett stated, many times through the characters in his books, that all the worst evils begins with treating people as things. That seems like an excellent definition to me.
I came out trans to my parents a month ago. Today, they informed formed me that they're not going to celebrate my birthday, they don't want me to make my summer trip to see them, and implied the holidays may be off the table. I'm about to be 46 years old and the most my dad has ever written to me was a text about how hurt and depressed they are. I was pretty sure things would go this way, but always hoped my parents would somehow find a way to get past what they've immersed themselves into. I knew I'd be without my parents eventually, but I had hoped it wouldn't be because of this.
As of 2021 the percentage of Americans who identify as "christian" is 63%. Roughly 200 million Americans. As of 2022 the percentage of Americans who identify as "LGBTQ" is 7.1%. Roughly 21 million Americans. Only a m0r0n would believe a tiny fraction of 300,000,000 people can "push" anything on anyone. But that is the mental dysfunction of crazed fundamentalists. They create insurmountable foes in their feeble minds, because it comforts them in their quest to be the most bigoted they can possibly be.
My mother showed me this video, and I wanted to say thank you for your views. Last week was hard for me. I'm a Trans woman, and for the first time in like 12 years, I truly wanted to end it all. The only thing stopping me was my friends, family, and my love for God. I get attacked and called evil, told I'm just a man, told to kill myself, and told that I don't deserve the same rights as anyone else. I believe in a loving God, one that does not agree with these things, but that doesn't stop it from hurting. It doesn't change the fact that people who should be espousing the love of Jesus and avoiding judgment think it's okay to say these things. The truth is that the Bible was changed by man to be used as a weapon, and now that weapon is being pointed at the me and others like me. Making a weapon out of something that was meant to convey love, well, that's just downright demonic. I sure hope that these people who think I'm evil remember that God made me this way and loves me more for it. I'm tired of being a 2nd class citizen just cause radical extremists have taken over Jesus's message and perverted it. I love Jesus, and Jesus loves me. Again, thank you, Bo, for saying what you did.
I don't know you, but I'm glad you're still here. I know things are especially hard these days and I admire your courage and strength. I wish you support, community, and most of all, love.
Just read your comment and wanted to copy what I just wrote above: Sometimes I think we've got it wrong -- maybe the opposite of love is not hate; maybe the opposite of love is fear. And we all know how easy it is to sell fear. The hate tags along for the ride. The hate you have experienced, koraliekora, may be, in part, from fear. I'm sorry that so many people's fear results in hate. Keep your courage -- it's a fine adjunct to love!
@user-iw6bg5vw8b I'm doing a lot better right now thankfully. I agree 100% about it being fear. Hate is just fear in an outward pointed direction. Sadly fear is always pushed and they really do try to trigger aggressive behavior because they know that it sucks you down further into the fear
I am a Christian, but I try to show this in my life by how I treat people. I have a very hard time talking to most Christians I’ve met because of the mental gymnastics they perform so they can continue to hate others who they should be loving. I attended a fundamentalist Christian school for 8th grade and they would twist Jesus’ commandment to love their neighbor as themselves by saying that what he meant by “neighbor” was a fellow Christian. Since then I have followed Christ to the best of my ability by loving everyone I meet to the best of my ability. I think Jesus would be sickened by so many people covering themselves in self-righteousness just so they can hate in his name.
Jesus is appalled by the church! I tell people I’m a Satanist just so they will move on. I don’t talk to people about God. That’s not my place. If they ask me how I’ve overcome so much and can still laugh and rejoice, I tell them it’s all because of God and I leave it there. I can quote the Bible but I don’t. I can’t stand all the sanctimonious bs that comes from those that think quoting the Bible makes them holier than others. Now if they come for me, I serve them a plate full of quotes that usually shut them down. And when they tell me how I should be serving God, I tell them to get fucked. Only God tells me how to serve him. A personal walk is just that - personal!
What's sicker is that when you point out that as a Christian our highest calling is to love a lot of Christians twist that concept to mean I am showing love through attempted correction they think they're being loving by attempting to correct us and it's so so so gross
"what he meant by “neighbor” was a fellow Christian." Have they read the parable of the good Samaritan? The Samaritan was neither Christian nor Jew, but he was the neighbour.
I knew a boy who started attending my college just as I was graduating. He was black, raised in the projects on the South side of Chicago. He wanted out of there. He worked hard--but the school system had cheated him of a real education. They gave him a diploma and said he'd graduated; they didn't give him the education that should have been the real diploma, and nothing like what he needed to actually succeed in college. I helped him as I could--tutored, tried to guide him--but one day he just flatly said he didn't belong there, and someone who *could* succeed should have his seat in his classes. He dropped out--and joined the Air Force. He worked hard, was commended, and ended up a Master Sergeant. But this post isn't about that. It's about the fact that he'd realized he was gay. This was the early '80s--if you know anything about that time, you know how bad this could be. Certainly the Mil didn't want to know about it--neither did his family or his community (gays were _not_ welcomed). So he hid it. And, as was almost guaranteed at that time in the gay community, he caught AIDS. Eventually, he was mustered out for medical reasons. Honorable discharge, but still. And he never told me he was gay. I never asked--I *knew*, from a slew of indicators, both that he was gay, and he had AIDS. (Remember Kaposi's sarcoma? It shows.) But I remained his friend, as did my wife when I got married, and he was a part of our extended family. He went through bouts of greater and lesser illness, as they tried to find ways to fight AIDS, but eventually, in the very early '90s, he came to me and said, "I gotta tell you something." I replied, "You're gay." "You knew???" Sure. "Why didn't you say anything?" It's not my place to say anything. If you didn't tell me, you didn't need or want me to, so I didn't. This ends pretty much as you might expect. Eventually, the drugs stopped working. He died. Not before he made me the executor of his estate. His only mandate? "Take care of my momma." Not before his family--including his momma--were told by him he was gay, and to a person they disowned him (and said truly hateful and spiteful things about him, up to and beyond the day he died.) Not before the preacher they picked to eulogize at his funeral turned his speech to fire and brimstone, excoriating him as he lay in his coffin. (At this point, a huge shout out to the Masons--he'd become a member of the Scottish Rite, and they showed up at the funeral. To a man, black and white together, they stood up, displaced the so-called preacher, and THEY gave their eulogies praising him as a man and a Brother. My thanks to them are eternal.) And not before his family tried to get me, as executor, to give them what money he'd saved, and give them the insurance money from his military insurance policy. And when I told them NO, they started gossiping that I must have been his gay lover, and my wife was just my "beard". This continued after his momma developed Alzheimer's, and my wife was appointed as her medical power of attorney. We got all that money in an unbreakable trust for her (Illinois has a superb program for this.) And we--primarily my wife--made sure she lived her remaining days in clean, safe care facilities. This was their "Christian love". They made his last days hell, tried to make our lives hell, and all because he was black and gay--well, not all. Also because they wanted to profit from his work, service, and dedication, even to the point of cheating his mother. Over thirty years later, telling about this brings me to tears. Real Christians should be the bulwark against this hatred and vilification. In my weaker moments, I hope there is a hell--I know some people who should have reservations there. But that's wrong, too; it's not my place to judge them. But I can hope that, to whatever small level we could, we made his life better. I know he made ours better by being who he was.
And my family wonders why I "left the church".... Maybe if the "church" would practice love instead of hate, I'd be on the front pew. "Selective Christianity"... Love your neighbor; as long as they're white. And straight. And own guns. Oh, and drink the RIGHT kind of beer.
@@mortuos557 The answer here in the US is the right beer is the one that doesn't have a brand deal with a trans person in 2023, but it might be the brand that's been funding Pride parades since the 70s. Beer quality seems irrelevant. In the States, I sometimes fear our biggest enemy is logic.
Man, you nailed it. People have in the past asked me, "But how can you claim to be a liberal AND a Christian? They don't go together!" This /\. This right here.
This wonderful video had to be difficult for you, but your heartfelt message was great and direct. My "Christian" mother rejected my brother because he was gay. It broke his heart. If we loved God and loved our neighbor as Jesus instructed, the churches would be overflowing instead of declining because of their hypocrisy and messages of hate. This is about the 3rd time I've listened to you. You speak so sincerely from the heart. Thank you for your messages.
I was thinking this phrase through out the entire video. Beau here talks a good game about Love, but glosses over the fact that many christians have rebranded their hatred as love. I remember back when I was in my college age, a friend of mine was preparing for seminary. He wrote an entire essay about how rebuking the LGBT community, marginalizing them, making them feel hated and desperate was the true act of love because it would eventually cause them to reflect on their "sins" and repent. Even worse, this guy found a receptive audience to this message amongst the campus christians who tended to whole heartedly agree with him. Its wild.
@@deathguitarist12 The trouble is that the more hateful people there are claiming to be Christian, the more people think that's what a Christian is. They really need to find another name to go by. Jesus wouldn't treat people the way these folks do. I hate the idea that by saying I'm Christian I risk being associated with those creeps. They've lost the plot entirely, they're working against what they claim to believe... and they have their heads so far up their... well, y'know... that they're convinced they're saints. By our interpretation, they've let themselves start working for the other guy.
@@BeeWhistler I'm not christian, ran screaming decades ago, but I remember something about the sin of self-righteousness. These hypocrites are guilty as hell.
From one Deacon's grandkid to another Deacon's grandkid...let me tell you about one of the people that I love most. He is 36 years old and lives in New Orleans. He rescues unwanted and unloved animals, he has helped kids become acrobats and fly. He has made balloons into rainbows and wedding decorations, and he has festooned buildings with them. He has marched in Mardi Gras parades that ended with sprinking the ashes of loved one into the Mississippi River. He is outgoing and loving, and beyond all else, he is kind. He is preacher's kid, but his parents both cut him out of their lives when he was a teenager because he is gay. He had nowhere to go, so he ran away with the circus. He has found people who love and accept him, and they have become his family. That still doesn't make up for his family, and that is where my family comes in. Marcus' father is my husband's brother.Marcus and our daughter were born within weeks of each other. I have no need to pass judgment on Marcus... but his father is an entirely different matter. A man who turns his back on his son and leaves him to the streets is no christian... and no man. We have cut ties with my husband's brothers over this. As I've gotten older, I tend to see God in people's actions and hearts, not in a book. P.S. Marcus is also a beautiful Drag Queen named Marcia... She loves dogs too! Cheers, Donna
Oh my Lord thank you Beau!!!!!!!! As a Christian, I will say more Christians need to listen to this!!!! We cannot force our self chosen obligations into other people who with their free will said no to Jesus. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I grew up in Egypt, a place where most people are muslims and consider themself pious, virtuous, I saw kindness and love and I saw evil, I moved to the US, I’ve struggled financially and emotionally, I’ve found kindness and love and I witnessed evil, we are indeed before and after all human, be kind to each other regardless, it goes a long way 💚
Hey, there's parts of Texas where the people view themselves as pious and virtuous. What I have found out is they are also hypocrites. Valle con Dios, amigo.
Not all Christian denominations preach this hate nor hell fire and damnation. Most of the mainstream denominations such as the Episcopal Church, ELCA, and the Presbyterian Church (USA), accept and affirm the LGBTQ+ community. Then there is the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) whose primary focus and audience as the LGBTQ+ community. It was founded in 1968 by Rev Troy Perry, who was defrocked by Pentecostals for being gay. After he attempted suicide and failed, he renewed his faith and formed the church. They currently perform over 6000 same-sex marriages annually.
In the most Gentle Way you've actually help me to remember that loving others is the purpose of being here, I'm not a Christian but this Christian ideal has been important to me. I realized I've started to harbor a lot of hate for right wingers. I would definitely have to say you're one of my favorite CZcamsrs because when you speak its reasoned, intelligent, loving and gentle. Reminds me of what sanity is in the world that's no longer sane. Thank you for your humility and gentle observation.
After 39 years of very religious life, I finally had to admit the truth to myself that what I had been told was about the worst thing in the world was what I am- gay. Years afterwards looking back I ask myself “what exactly am I doing that is so incredibly heinous?” And the answer is “Nothing”. I’m just existing, being who I am and not lying to myself anymore. I’m not hurting anyone and it’s a much more wholesome life than alternately lying to myself and beating myself up for what I am.
I used to live with a Catholic brother who told me there were plenty of gays in the seminary when he was there; I wrote his letter to the Pope to get out of his vows.
I'm glad you came to grips with the realization there is nothing wrong with you for being gay. I can say that I'm not gay but I am just different from most. And it's hard to be that way, people can be so cruel.
Beau, I’m a 73 year old gay man. I’ve been trying to think of some way to tell the effect this video has had on me. I can only come up with 2 words. THANK YOU!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Being an African American woman, I can understand why you would feel this way. It does something to the Soul when who you are is constantly vilified. We’ve got a lot of work to do. ❤❤❤
At a family dinner, the topic of homosexuality came up. One of the family matriarchs spoke up, with her eyes firmly on me, "well, we all know what the Bible says." I said, "yes, and i know that the same thing is to happen to non-virgin brides and masturbators. But i dont think we have enough rocks." It got very silent.
As an LGBTQ trans person it nice to have some support, I know there are many folks who do support our community, soooo much hate and discriminate going on
Despite what "news" reporters claim there's a majority of people that care. The voting system is currently rigged against that majority but slow change is correcting that.
Don't think only in you community, internet exist, you are supported from all over the world. Every time you feel defeat think of us, we are with you, we do not judge you, we accept you. We are your definition, love and acceptance, not the hate. Hate is a form of fear, love is fearless, please say that always to yourself ❤💙💚💜
Recently I heard a person say,"peace is better than perfection" . One day at a time is easier said than done. Love , believe it or not is THE answer. Brothers and sisters unite.
Beau, this video randomly came up in my feed today and I recognized the phrase on your shirt and thought, "I know who this is!" my mom was a huge fan of yours and always said how much she appreciated your calm demeanor. She passed away in March and listening to this video made me feel like she was sitting in the living room with me again. I wanted you let know that she would have loved this video (and I did too) I'm a Christian but the way the most vocal "Christians" have been behaving these last few years makes me embarrassed to admit it. Thank you for this video and I'm glad I found your channel.
'You will know them by their fruits... A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit." is the one Bible quote that has never been more relevant than today. You see so many people who claim to be good Christians and fighting for what's right, and then turn around and embrace fascism, hate, intolerance, bigotry, and the like. They don't promote understanding, tolerance, kindness, compassion, and the like. They choose Trump over Christ and his teachings, and if there really is a judgement day, they're in for a big surprise.
I think everyday is Judgment Day. History is all about judging the Past and being judged by the Future. It is not God we will be judged by, it is our Descendants.
They literally built him a golden idol, and none of them were taken aback, not one was given pause. They claim to read hidden messages when obvious ones stare them in the face unrecognized.
My mom used to say that those types, who claim to be so pious while sowing hate and discord, would be the ones who'd "split hell wide-open" on judgement day.
_“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”_ -Steven Weinberg, 1979 Nobel Laureate in Physics
@@chrishemry7 _“I am an evil person doing good things because of Christianity.”_ … until your pastor says it's okay, he's got a *GET OUT OF JAIL, FREE!* card for you if you commit violent acts, he says is justified by your _Holy Book of Fables and Fairy Tales,_ against those infidels in the eyes of your _Anthropomorphic Deity Myth._ **NEWSFLASH** *Man* _created_ *God* _in his own_ *image.* Not the other way around.
@@JenSell1626 Not being a US _American_ (I'm a Canadian _American_ ), you might have to elaborate a little more. Despite searching for any reference, I couldn't find any confirmation to your specific claim-though there are certainly an awful lot of other sexual violent crimes against children reported in the US by religious leaders.
@@MelioraCogito There is a lot to unpack here because your second paragraph is completely inaccurate, but first I would like to address you original statement. You are looking to someone who won a Nobel Prize in PHYSICS for advice on RELIGION. There is literally no overlap between those two subjects, and you are quoting him like he is an expert in a subject that he has no knowledge of. You could not have found anyone worse to advise you. I am sorry if you were in a church that said violence is okay, but I serious doubt you were ever in a church. If you ever find a church that encourages violent acts against ANYONE, then it is time to find a different church. It is clear you are just parroting a far left liberal professor who realized that it is much easier to spout hateful inaccuracies about the Bible than actually read the 2000+ pages of extremely fine print to find out what the book actually says. Here is something that is actually in the Bible, that is relevant to your point, "What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (Romans 6:15 NRSV). Now, clearly you have decided to live your life in despair, hating God and the peace, happiness, and love that he/she brings, but maybe don't drag others into your personal hell.
@dinyhotmail Stop that. You don't get to talk about science and then say things like "close to proving the existence of god". That is absolute nonsense and you are suffering from a great deal of confirmation bias. If there is one thing that really boils my piss it is religious apologists trying to hijack science for their aims. And you are also a liar, because you are not "educated in physics", not any more than any average person with a passing interest in the subject. That much is clear.
Evil has no independent existence, such as a figurehead of Satan, but consists of rejecting God's teachings and allowing oneself to become immersed in selfish desires.
That's true and we need to understand that billionaires are horders with all the severe mental health issues that come along with the disease and thay fund a lot of different groups to keep people divided because every single time we all come away from the political confetti that is just to distract people we want to have equal rights and equal opportunity for all and that always leads to taxing the billionaires back into being just millionaires
When a political commentator delivers the best sermon I've ever heard. And my grandfather was a minister, and an administrator at the state level within our denomination's governing body. I was raised in the church, thats why i left it. I saw no love, only judgment, hypocrisy, condemnation, prejudice and hate.
To take it further, LGBTQ+ are not evil! My challenge to any christian about anyone in the LGBTQ+ group, if God created all things he also created these individuals, right? The majority of Christians say god created them as a test, to test his followers, right? Isn't it to test you in how you choose to show love for your neighbor? Why are you are you not showing them love? Why are you, instead, showing them hate?
The Bible clearly says they are. Well, the men anyway. How do you explain that the book supposedly written by their god clearly states they should be put to death?
@@dublea2 If you use that argument they will respond with FREE WILL!!!!!. They believe they choose to be LGBTQ+. My response is to say that if you have no say in how you are created (that falls solely under god's purview) then you don't have free will. So far that either stumps them completely, or their minds explode.
@@ohana8535 do you eat pork? Shellfish? Work on Sunday? Wear clothes made from mixed fabric? M***urbated? If you say yes to any of the above, then you’re just as big a sinner
@@Aarenby Or eat shellfish, or shave or cut a woman's hair, and that Unicorns, Giants, flat earth and men with Magic Hair exists. How can anyone take that book seriously?
I’m a pastor of a LGBTQ affirming church and I came into this worried and prepared to be in the comments saying “it’s not all of us”. I’m a new subscriber so I didn’t know I didn’t need to worry. What a beautiful and balanced response. What a lovely representation of the gospel. Thank you!❤
Just stop spreading the lies. If you understand the tenents of logic, reason, fact discovery, fact proof, its 100% obvious that you cannot, and mostly should not claim the existence of a god. Not only is it literal insanity, but you are pushing horrible ideals like "faith" (anti-logic, anti-reason, anti-fact) as 'virtuous'. Its literally evil, in the context of rational thought. In regards to the LGBTQ community, you are affixing a bandaid ontop of a community that is one of the greatest enemies of LGBTQ. Its like hitler creating 1 concentration camp that wasnt genociding people. Cool, theres 1 that doesnt do it, that doesnt forgive that the entire institution is a bad concept at best.
The place to say it isn't all of you, is never to LGBTQIA+ folks. We know about blanket statements. It's to your fellow believers. They are the ones who think groups of people can be classified as good or evil.
@@cathyharris4968 I understand your point, yes I need to check my defensiveness. It’s really the other Christians who give us a bad name I get angry at. And I do speak up when I can.
Many people that have turned away from organized religion did not do so because they are not people of Faith or because they do not believe in the actual teachings, they just found the organization they were part of to be not worth the trouble. Personally I myself have visited many many many churches and most of them are completely full of hate. Especially the ones that prey on teenagers
“Sin, he reflected, is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.” ~ Shusaku Endo
@@safe-keeper1042 - Definition of oblivious is “not aware of or *not concerned about* what is happening around one.” Intentional cruelty holds that lack of care so I don’t find the use of it at all “old fashioned.” Besides, I rather think purposed indifference and brutality has always been around. But even if you still disagree, perhaps it helps to know that the quote is from a 1966 book that is set in the 1600’s.
My fiancé lost his wife to cancer after a long, happy marriage. When he was going through her personal belongings after she passed, he found a handwritten note in her purse. It says, “You will never regret being kind!” ❤
Many times, expecting nothing, after being in service to others, expecting nothing in return, things have turned out bad. I remind myself things like "My kindness is not a weakness". With sincerity I ask, Why is that? Btw, I live in a low socioeconomic area. I agree w Beau 100%.
❤️ I would also like to thank that person for confirming that walking away from the church with all of its hatred and bigotry is one of the best decisions I ever made. I chose loving my neighbors instead and I have no regrets.
Couldn't agree more. I once heard a preacher say that other groups - some religious, some not - are "...brainwashing our children! That's why we have to do it first!!!" it puts thing into perspective. If you yourself call what you do brainwashing kids _and you are okay with it,_ it's time to do some actual soul searching. Because you clearly lost yours along the way somewhere. And the person that sent those messages definitely deserves a good old Southern "Bless your heart!"
There are plenty of faith communities that will welcome you. I grew up in the UCC, a Congregationalist, and it’s… different. They’re very liberal, to put it bluntly. I struggle with the current Presbyterian (PCUSA) church I attend, because they’re much more moderate in their politics, but I know that my being there is part of slowly bending them out of complacency.
And that's just it. Whether it's a preacher or a politician, some demagogue has sold that person on a message of "Us vs Them" and selected LGBTQ folks as a "Them." That's doing it wrong, as Beau eloquently pointed out.
Im a mom of a pansexual young adult and her partner is transitioning from F to M It’s an adjustment but dear Lord I love my child and want to be part of her life always. ❤I’m glad my previous life prepared me for this as I work in a very diverse organization and it’s been enlightening! Thx Beau for an Outstanding video. The evangelicals and others use their religion & force their views. Look at abortion and guns.
I grew up xtian with a Homophobic father, he wasn't intensely homophobic but he still was. I left the religion and joined another. When I came out as Trans my dad said "I'll always love you." He'd met a gay person earlier finally and realized that he was just ignorant and that gay people weren't bad. Now he's working constantly to try to get his denomination to accept queer people. I haven't talked about his theology in near a decade but the last I heard it was something to the effect of "God made queer people, and God doesn't make mistakes, so clearly God wants us to exist, why shouldn't queer people be accepted and included?" Honestly I'm so damn proud of him. I need to make sure that he hears that
That is so beautiful! Instead of continuing on with the homophobia he was taught be religious leaders, he chose to turn to the true teaching of Jesus and accept his child the way they truly are. And didn't Jesus want his followers to share his message with everyone they met? Well it sounds like your dad went from just accepted to full alliance. I wish all religious parents did this with their children instead of responding with bigotry and hatred. If you're an adult you can separate yourself from your family most of the time (I understand there are plenty of circumstances that you can't), but minors that come out to their parents and the reaction ends up being horror and disgust, well, they are now in an even worse situation than before coming out of the closet after having to hide for so long. They might not kick you out right away, but they are going to make damn sure you know how they feel every day. They may force you to dress and look like your biological sex. They may refuse to use correct pronouns or your chosen name. They may send you to a therapist with the same views to "cure" you. I'm not sure of the status of conversion therapy camps like the ones we used to have, I think I read a national fundamentalist group is working on getting one running again in a Midwestern state. You know parents like that are going to send their gay/trans kid there, saying it's in the name of God and their love. In this scenario, I hope they don't come out at a younger age, that's more tears of torment until being able to move out at 18. Or, what's even worse (maybe), is throwing them out of the house and completely disowning them. If the teen is lucky they have some good friends that come from good families that don't hate the LGBTQIA community and will allow them to couch crash. Some are not that lucky and end up completely homeless on the street, that's a very dangerous place for a kid to be no matter how they identify. Being beaten and robbed by other homeless people if they're in an encampment because of vulnerable they are. A large number of them end up being sex trafficked, tricked into thinking something is an opportunity to earn some money. Instead they become a slave. Or there's the ultimate end result, both at home with a family that hates you or out on the street - suicide. A choice that a whole lot of my community makes. If those were my two options for living, I can't say that I would want to.
Amazing!! The hardest part for me is to "love thy neighbor" when that neighbor is a person who is like how your father used to be. Ironically, I have a hard time tolerating people who cannot tolerate people simply based upon for their sexuality. I should do better and have more tolerance, I suppose.
@@B_Bodziak no you misunderstand, we shouldn't tolerate intolerance. My father did tolerate queer people to an extent but i was uncomfortable with us and thought queer people were sinning and thought he should avoid people like us. He wasn't spreading hate and frankly wasn't even as homophobic as the Sunday school teachers at the church i grew up at. We need to continue to speak out against transphobia and homophobia and to try to rehumanize queer folks in their eyes without compromising our queerness
@@orifox1629 I understand exactly what you're saying. I have had the same issue as you with my own father. Unfortunately, he did not have the same change of heart as your father did. My conundrum comes with "loving thy neighbor" even when I wholeheartedly disagree with them. When they are not practicing loving their neighbors, it's been very difficult for me to love them--very difficult for me to still "love thy neighbor" even though "they know what they know not what they do.". It's like the chicken and the egg. Should I be the first to love thy neighbor unconditionally or should I expect them to first love me unconditionally? Does what I'm saying make sense?
I'm a retired pastor, and this is among the best sermons I have heard! And delivered in a manner which I believe can be heard by people with different opinions. I am a straight woman, with several friends dealing with discrimination and hate for LBGTQ persons. Your analogy between baptism and coming out was powerful. I' m a fan since early in the pandemic, appreciating your logical, balanced discussions. Bless you!
I don't think it's a sermon but Beau has an incredible power to speak from his soul by tempering his feelings through his mind. I hope you and your friends are doing well. 🌞
That's because Beau is a self-aware individual. It is something that we must have in order to not automatically call others trying to live their best life as evil because one has a difficult understanding it. I have heard about the homosexual agenda all of my life, but I personally have never detected any recruitment. They try to offer help to others going through the same thing. It has always interested me that some feel it is something you can catch. Are there perverts and abusers in the community? You bet 'cha because perverts and abusers are in every community. Beau, I personally appreciate hearing what comes through your heart and soul. Your soliloquies have many times helped me check any hypocritical thoughts, which sometimes are not obvious to me at the moment. Self-awareness is a daily exercise and is always helpful.
@@dbentleyto95 Funny thing... I occasionally have encountered women who'd been raped by pedophiles while girls. HOWEVER, my wife and I have spent a great many hours (probably many days worth) listening to women re-live being raped BY THEIR PASTOR/PREACHER/MINISTER. The theme is almost always the same, the methods to manipulate and access the little girl the same, and the way they keep the child from talking the same. (Those that DO get help get punished severely.) You'd think that the proportions would be about the same, but in our experience they were NOT. You see, pedophiles and like ilk are attracted to 'positions' - like pastor of a church, because they know it will give them access to victims while at the same time providing a layer of protection from suspicion. In nearly every case where the woman (ages from the 30s to 70s, and the rapes happened while they were pre-teens or young teens) tried to talk about it, people refused to believe that "A man of GAAHD!" was an active pedophile predator. (That also includes law enforcement, politics, and other 'positions' of authority.) Funny thing we also learned over the years - the more liberal the church (or other place of worship), the far less likely that pedophilia would be a problem. Indeed, in the most liberal forms of religion I know, there are programs and training to prevent the monsters from gaining 'positions'. Conservative - very rare.
To be a "Christian" is to be a follower of Christ. Jesus never taught hate. Or that He was better than others. He taught, "Do not judge, lest you be judged." He taught love thy neighbor. Not love the neighbor that believes like you. Through the way He showed kindness, and gentleness towards those who didn't feel they were deserving, that's what drew people to Him. If Jesus came back, I am afraid He would be persecuted again because He might try and teach love and acceptance. Love, kindness, non-judgment, and peace. What a concept. Thank you for this beautiful video.
My algo just fed me this one. I had'nt seen it. I have to say this is one the BEST videos i have ever seen on this topic. THANK YOU!!!!!! I spent the first 18 yrs in a baptist church and never seen this coming probably due to ignorance of everything else (the wider word and culture) The last 15 yrs have astounded me especially 5 years ago went Trump forced me to face my preconceived notions and default beliefs from my "raisin'." Since then, shortly after achieving lasting sobriety" I have made it my mission to learn and read everything i can to try to get my family off the Maga dope. I never bought in on Trump but I couldn't vote in 2016 due to "life choices" in Appalachia (through the Oxy 80 and Perc 30 years) I can't say for sure that i wouldnt have voted for him though because i was not politically literate at the time and kept hearing Hilary's emails and Benghazi. You are a big reason I am not lost to the BS of the MAGA movement and have a balanced hear when listening to the everyone else. This will help in my journey of trying to de-radicalize my family like you so often do. You have really helped me get through to my mom and somewhat my dad and I will have love for you forever because of it. Thank you for doing what you do and they way you do it.
May God bless your work as a spiritual leader in a confused time, in which "the love of some men will grow cold." As an expat living in Germany who joined the mainstream Protestant church, I'm used to accepting LGBTQ people as brothers and sisters, which has been church policy for many years. That's not saying there is no prejudice, but I believe we're on the right track.
@@carolharris2401 I don't think it's worth it. There's soo much interpretation that there's going to be disagreements all over the place, from which a lot of people with disregard everything. He already covers "hot topics" which are pretty divisive, but often does so where facts can be evidenced, but scripture has too many contradictions,
@Peanut - INTP I doubt if Beau will do many more discussions of religion, although it's an important part of public life. Every important issue in US politics becomes a religious issue. Churches split over slavery and later Civil Rights, the Methodists are splitting over LGBTQ issues now. Both sides in the gun debate cite God. Scripture is contradictory indeed, which is one of several reasons why it should not be taken as a "paper pope" - a phrase I take from my German minister. Beau did a good job of pointing out the core and the highest message of Christian scriptures.
Beau, this is the only video of yours that has made me cry. It was way to personal to me. My trans brother's "agenda" and "hate" have included serving in the USAF for over 20 years, giving countless hours to charitable causes, giving rides, care and help to neighbors in every place he has lived, providing free child care to his nieces' kids while they attended college and worked, taking in our ailing mother and being her primary caregiver and so many other small acts of kindness and love. All of this he did before, during and after his transition and while battling nearly crippling depression caused from living a lie for so many years. I was the first one he told and I was with him as he told each family member. I propped him up with all the love and support I could because he was so afraid of the hate, no worse, the retraction of love he might face. He is one of the bravest and kindest souls I know, but he is haunted by the vitriol of fake christians who can't live Mark 12:28-34. No member of my family rejected him. Our family is so terribly flawed in so many ways, but they've got the love thing down. Thank God.
It's life stories like yours and your family's that are important. The bigots literally make it sound like being LGBTQ+ is easy. But it is not. Not even a little bit. Because of the hateful bigots, the LGBTQ+ community lives a life of depression when they repress their own life to satisfy a hateful world. Or the LGBTQ+ Americans live their lives, and are hated and vilified as "pedophile groomers". The societal dysfunction is NOT the LGBTQ+ Americans. The societal dysfunction is the bigots who obsess over other people's genitalia.
Years ago, my daughter attended daycare at a Baptist church. On graduation day in the church a song was sung about loving and accepting everyone. After, the preacher spoke about boycotting Ellen. One the good side, I recently attended a funeral at a church where a sign by the restrooms read, "Use whichever one you feel comfortable with."
Someone recently mentioned to me that their pastor and various church admin staff all had their pronouns in their email signatures, and it's such a small thing, but it was still nice to hear.
I first left the church when I was 10 and a church administrator stole my Grandmothers Bible. Age 22 I trusted the Seventh Day Adventists & returned to church. I left for the last time when they told me I should return to my ex-husband who was an alcoholic, physically, verbally, emotionally and sexually abusive & an adulterer. My relationship with Father God has never changed, but I’m now 57 and will not be attending any church.
"The fact that I exist is not dividing the nation. It's that you can't accept that I exist that is dividing the nation, and that you think your right to exist is greater than my right to exist."
What Christians like the person who sent those messages need to understand is: THEY are the reason non-Christians look at Christian’s the way we do. I’m 35 and I have NEVER in my life encountered hate, cruelty, and casual viscousness that can compare to Christian fundamentalists. It took me until WELL into my 20s to realize there were Christians who weren’t like that, because the ones that aren’t sit in silence and look away when the hatemongers speak for them. I have NEVER had a member of the LGBTQ community ask me for anything except the right to live in their own lives in safety. Meanwhile we are at 400 bills THIS YEAR SO FAR pushed by Christian conservatives to steal away the rights and livelihood of the queer community. Until y’all change your community the correct saying will remain “there is no hate like Christian love.”
Can't agree more. I was raised Christian but the hate and hypocrisy chased me out. Even as a straight white girl I felt it, because my father was an alcoholic and my mother eventually gave up and got a divorce. We were treated like black sheep because my mom wouldn't stay married to an abuser and a divorced woman in the church didn't live up to their conservative nuclear family fantasy. They don't care about people, they care about enforcing a lifestyle no matter what it does to the people who have to live it. It's as if they have this image in their head of the "perfect" life for everyone and force it on others at all costs, even people's lives. They would rather you be miserable and keep up the fantasy that makes them look good from the outside than walk away and find true happiness.
EVERY SUNDAY we heard it said. Love God, Love your neighbor. and then they said *"....On these two commandments hang ALL the Law and the Prophets."* without that, you are not Christian or any sort of moral human. Hate is a human emotion, but you should repent and be free.
My great Aunt is a catholic nun and a therapist and theologian (she has multiple graduate degrees). I was raised Jewish. Growing up, we often discussed religion. Her penultimate view is that all of humanities' issues arise because we do not love our neighbors, and we do not love our neighbors because we do not love ourselves. She often says, she has personal moral views, but practicing the faith means putting those aside and carrying for others WITHOUT JUDGEMENT OR STIPULATIONS. I am saddened and angered that so many people purport to be Christian but do not try to follow this core tenet. Not being Christian, my understanding of the religion is that loving others unconditionally was the whole point. I may not be correct in this, but as an outsider, I don't consider anyone that espouses hate towards a specific group a Christian at all, regardless of what they identify as.
you are so very fortunate do you have your great aunt and to have been raised in search an incredible sounding family. I believe you are correct in your views on loving everyone unconditionally. that our failure to love others and ourselves comes from fear
Many Evangelical and Fundamentalist "Christians" would claim that since your great aunt is Catholic, then she is not a Christian. For them, "being Christian" means hating and persecuting anyone that does not follow their particular brand of "Christianity". Wars have been fought in Europe over this centuries ago.
Ben Rosen I am a Christian and you are absolutely correct Loving others unconditionally is the whole point. I am sorry to say their are those who don't get it.
I remember years ago reading the famous book about the trials and adventures of the horse known as Black Beauty, by Anne Seawall. There's a quote that I never forgot, but I will paraphrase it here: The hostler (groom) of Beauty is talking about religion..."If [new religion] doesn't teach to be kind to each other and kindness to animals, it's a sham, and it won't stand when the trump sounds." Now please realize that "trump" here means the fanfare or trumpet that blasts the musical note that will herald the ending of the world on the last day . But that quote has stayed with me for a lifetime and I hope that I have lived it more often than not.
@@marieroberts5664 I too loved the book Black Beauty ...... and still have my copy some 60 years later. Anna Sewell was the author. Hard to believe it was first published in 1877.
Thank you form a cis gender loved of Jesus who has family members who have suffered from being judged by people who are too sure of what they think they know to be the truth.
This was a masterful presentation, I regret my error in the second sentence here. "Putting themselves, . . " You make it obvious here that what the world needs is more love, care and understanding.
I don't consider myself particularly religious anymore, but I was raised in the same denomination by two parents who went to seminary, so I ended up reading a good bit of the bible. How anyone could look at the combined parables and lessons of Jesus and come away with the hostility towards others that some of these other denominations preach is beyond me... unless I start considering ulterior motives. 'Easy to sell hate' indeed.
@@stardust86x Read LEVITICUS:DEUTERONOMY: EXUDUS 21: MATHEW 35: GENIUSES and about 250 Verses that approve Slavory and buying owning the Jews 7 years but any other and all the gentiles of all nations for Life. You can Beat any man Daily and sell them the woman or sisters of very young ages and do with them as you choose . you can beat them daily half to death as long as they don't die in 2 day's you will not be guilty because you own them as property. Moses Had his solders Kill off by slaying and cutting out babys millions mothers breast feeding . or if the Mothers Baby did not drink her milk then she must EAT HER BABY i'll never figure that sickness out. 250 more Verses i could put here but should i because people especially most to all Christians Don't even Read the Bible and simply know there Dishonesty in trust any one who sounds good to them as there God Jesus ways they dishonestly take. my family for instance will know they are dishonest right in fron of my face making me Vomit pratically because of what They do the high preist Do for Profit and Especially GET THEM WHEN THEY ARE VERY YOUNG is nothing but a Manipulating brain washing Scam any possible long life for many. i want a true Loving Honest Creater just like you but have an insane way of trying to find its true spirit of love. My Mother still today suffering for praying decon and sopport the church for 88 years giving giving and birth 9 Children . What she gets for this love of Jesus is nothing but a punishing like for life and crys out daily why she suffers for it. Turning her children instant atheist as God voids laughs even seems. Jesus had it made and lived 33 little years and suffered a death of stabings from solders but knowing he's going to heaven and now gets to be in AAAHHHH Voiding his promeses 2000 years ago. My loving true christian Mother who boar 9 Children and cared loved churched and gave deconed send bibles to other country's gets to SUFFER GRAVELY 89 YEARS and not have a Clue where shes going but get punished way more than 33 little years is nothing to simply Void. War coming on the very aspect and spiritual law that needs to be a tiny bit proven other wise Humans will eventually Grow sick and tired of it just because all it ever caused was suffering and the promisses Jesus said he comes fastly quickly for all to see and not this spirit made scam man made but the actuall Jesus him self and never Came after he said to the deciples never mind us.Ya every body read some of the Bible and keep out the evil gory stuff i could put down right now if you want but i know you don't.
I think he missed the MOST IMPORTANT part of that passage Verse 40: All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. The meaning is clear, if any law or proclamation by any prophet goes against theses commandments, they are false. A good christian MUST reject all such laws and views EVEN IF IT IS WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE
Thank you for this video. I’m a Christian. I’m also a senior, African American woman. I say this because when I was growing up I lived in a segregated community. Meaning we could not own or rent anywhere else in the city. All the black people, professionals like doctors and lawyers, teachers, factory workers and the like, lived in the space of several square blocks. So did the “gay” people. We were all outcasts. We were all “othered” by society. We all knew who was “gay” and who wasn’t. And I don’t remember it making a difference. Of course, that is from a child’s perspective. My hairdresser was gay. And my hair was always gorgeous. He taught me how to style my hair and how to make the styles last. I loved his salon. So did my mom and my sisters. It wasn’t until I went away to college and went into the workforce that I learned that if you were a person of color and gay, you were triply discriminated against because it was a double mark to be a person of color. Three strikes if you were also gay. I am too old to be able to conceptualize trans and the changing of the pronouns. Still, each individual has the right to live as they choose to live. Matthew 22 starting around verse 18, Jesus was talking to a group of “church folk”. He uses the emblem of Caesar on the coin and he says; “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” In other words, mind your own business. That’s not a direct translation but it is my take. If you are busy living your life according to the word of God, you won’t have time to judge others. There is another passage that says tend to the boulder in your eye before pointing out the splinter in someone else’s (paraphrase). And while you are doing that, love one another. What a different world this would be!
This is completely beautiful. I'm a white cisgender female who spent time in childhood wondering, WHAT was the deal about "those people" - black, gay, Hungarian- that I was supposed to look at funny. Finally trusted that my failure to see the "problem" was seeing true. God bless you! You said so true and real. 🌹
Lately I've been thinking about the commandments, and it seems to me that after loving God and honoring parents, they are mostly about minding our own business. It would make life better if we would do that. Hating is so toxic to everyone.
The 'groups' are the 'excluded' and I was in a white orphanage in the South and they all used the N word, but I never did, and I knew few Black people,but heard the N slurs and I just was not a part of that. I got a job with a balck contractor and full black crew who were suspicious of me,as I was the only white person who'd work there,and I directed job seekers to the Boss and my later mentor,they'd say, what a N word, and I'd say yes, why does it matter, and they rattle of why are you working against your own people, and I said that I wasn't, that we'd all become great friends. Black people were the first to ever show care and concern for me, and the exclusion I felt seemed a long time before for me to understand how much black people had been mistreated, just know it had to be a lot like how I was neglected by the white people who were my dysfunctional family and the staff at the orphanage who perpetrated the racism.
Thank you, Beau. I find myself listening to this post often. I don't know myself very well. But I was a keen and awed observer of my mother & sister. I always knew how lucky I was to be in my family. Dad and my half brothers were pretty normal people. They stubbornly went their own way... which was copying everyone else's beliefs they were with at that time. Mom and my sister, though, were the rock you could hold to save your sanity and soul. I mean "rock" as in they knew what was right and could not be moved by what was popular or "in" or thteatened by what the current hate was. If someone was being bullied, watch out for my tiny powerhouse mom! If someone popular cheated, my sister was not intimidated and would call it out! Both were my definition of Christians.
A Lutheran church near me often has some positive message on their sign out front. At one point recently, their message was something along the lines of "Loving LGBTQ is loving your neighbor."
@@BluePatriotWinner The Lutheran church is one of several denominations that are far more likely to follow the commandments Beau cited. In the fifties, our family was among the founders of the congregation in our small town, so I grew up in those teachings. Though I've long since left it behind, the life lessons have stayed with me. They are a far cry from the beliefs practiced by the Evangelical/Dominionist communities that are trying to claim their way should be law.
My aunt is a devout Lutheran and used to be an elected Republican, she has since switched parties and is now very liberal. The party took a hard right turn (especially with the culture wars) and that left a lot of Lutherans with no choice but to stop supporting Republicans, and I don't see her or them ever going back.
@@chezmoi42 Ditto for me with the Presbyterian Church (USA), or near enough. I think they all tend to be 'quieter' denominations, which I can't help but think may be because the respective leaders aren't trying to 'sell' anything like the Evangelical folks are.
@@LorberryDux I think there are a number of denominations that are doing the right thing. I see a few churches around here trying to promote unity and embrace diversity. Now I am generalizing (and I don't have significant data to back this up), but I've often found the more problematic views tend to come from the "born again" varieties - these churches can be run by people with little to no education too (which can be fine, but I know those leading other denominations have years of schooling and there seems to be some correlation between the educational background of the church leaders and their willingness to think more progressively).
I went for counseling with my pastor. I was young & didn't realize his hugs were too long. I felt like I was wrong. Took alot of time to understand what he was really doing. I now know. I love & follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
I remember when I was saved. It was the day my mother received a letter from the church that she was a member of and she said that they were sending her a get well soon card because she and we as a family had not attended services for a couple of weeks. I was about 8 years old when this happened. When she opened the letter there was no get well card inside there was a return envelope inside so she could send her tithe to the church that she had been unable to do because she was sick. That was the last time I have ever attended any church. Those cons don’t get any money from me anymore.
OMG, thank you for posting this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking of joining a church...and when my house burned to the ground and I had NOTHING...I called a local church and asked for help...and I was told that since I wasn't a church member they could not help me...
@@genevabecker8441 That is part of why I no longer identify as christian. If a person/group can't offer basic human decency to someone who has suffered a catastrophic loss just because that unfortunate individual is not a member of a certain little in-group, then said person/group is ignoring the most basic tenets of their faith. Jesus said, "love your enemies," but someone who is suffering such a catastrophic loss is not the enemy. Not. Even. Close. Jesus ministered to and hung out with those on the fringes of society - the poor, the outcast, the powerless, the sick, the ostracized - He had no use for the self-important religious leaders of His day, even going so far as to refer to them as "whited sepulchers." Someone who has been knocked to the ground by catastrophic circumstances is your neighbor, your fellow human being, a fellow member of the larger community who has suffered a devastating loss that few can understand unless they have actually lived through it. If you identify as christian, your faith should compel you to help them without an agenda simply because it is *the right thing to do," no questions asked, no agenda involved, and certainly no church membership required. To refuse to do so is the very definition of evil IMO.
I went to a Roman Catholic church growing up because that's what was expected of us. When my daughter was in kindergarten, she attended a Catholic school because her babysitter's children also went to school there. I attended a service where it was mentioned that basically, if you were divorced, which I was, that I was commiting adultery by being with another man. So much for that religion.
I'm bi and I was terrified that my parents would find out. I made Sims families where I'd have a happy family married to a woman, but I was always nervous that they'd see the game over my shoulder. I was in therapy for other reasons and I said that if I didn't come out, I was going to kill myself, because I couldn't do this anymore. I was so anxious and my depression was getting so much worse. I was afraid my mom, who'd frequently go on homophobic rants, would disown me. So I came out. My mom said that she could still love me because I was still her daughter. In the past she's said that homosexual marriage was the cause of the downfall of America and would lead to the legalization of pedophilia. She's very "love the sinner, hate the sin" about me. Dad is cool with it and I'm his go to person on the queer community now. We've talked about trans people, bi-sexuality and how MAPs are hated by the queer community. We haven't been able to go to a pride event yet due to COVID, he's recovering from beating stage 4 cancer, but he said he'd be 100% down to go and celebrate with me. Most of the time religious people are the worst, but sometimes there's my dad. :)
Finding love and acceptance when we expect rejection and hate can be one of the most liberating experiences one can have! I'm glad you found that in your dad! I'm a straight, cis, almost 60 year-old white guy, but having the privilege of knowing LGBQTIA+ folks, including in my family, has improved my life in countless ways.
Your last line is just beautiful: "Most of the time religious people are the worst, but sometimes there's my dad." That made me smile so much & that message of hope from you is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your story.
I am an unapologetic Christian and I must say: Very Well Said. Christ Never forced or told us to force anyone to follow Him. In live have I drawn thee.
As a gay person, I just want to say thank you for this video Beau. I’m actually sitting in my car in tears writing this comment. You see, I grew up Catholic in Florida and you’re right, the biggest fear in coming out was not being accepted and loved by the people important to me in my life. The amount of pain the church has caused people like myself will last our whole lives and it’s because we grow up in this state of fear and cognitive dissonance. We are taught one thing by Jesus, but hear the opposite by his followers. I ended up having to move from Florida because this hate has become law there in a way that makes it impossible to build a life there as a queer person. Maybe if more Christians followed what Jesus said, so many people wouldn’t live with this amount of pain every day. As the saying goes, “I like your Christ, but I don’t like your Christians.” They chose to be Christian… I didn’t choose to be gay, God made me this way. Thanks again Beau.
This is a question that should regularly be asked: If God *made* someone gay, what right do any of us have to hate or criticize what God made? I'm straight, but I fully understand it's not a matter of choice. You are who you are, and you deserve to be loved. ❤
Marv, I believe that saying is, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ." That was stated by Mohanas Gandhi.
I’m so sorry that you and people like you have been put through such trauma. As you said, it leads to laws and regulations and also violence. God said that everything that He, she or it made is good and perfect. Period. He made you and therefore you are perfect.
There is a documentary about how in the 40’s the word homosexual was added to the Bible. It WASN’T originally scripture. I think it’s called 1946 (1940 something. I may have got the date wrong). God made you, you. There is nothing wrong with you, or any other gay person. Being gay isn’t a sin. I’m sorry the church hurt you. You definitely don’t deserve it. God bless you. ❤
Beau, as an 86 year old, agnostic, straight, white guy, I feel this presentation is you at your best.
I second your well expressed view. The only difference is I'm a bit younger than you.
Likewise, I'm *only* 🙄 41 yrs old. Hehe.😉 But otherwise... I'll cosign that!
I agree. I'm a 70 year old, straight, white, agnostic, cisgender woman, and I hope that those "Christians" find out what Jesus really wanted! I don't think he would've approved of all that hatred.
Agree, this is one of Beaus best videos
Agreed! ❤
I didn't leave the church when I realized I was gay. The church left me when I tried to live authentically.
I am very sorry that you were so abandoned by the people who were supposed to love you and help you feel God's love more deeply. They trespassed against you. Just know it was them who left you, not God. You were made perfectly in God's image and you are precious to God.
Anthony Hayes ,
God himself said that itis Abomination.
Leviticus 18 :22
Now would you like to know what happens to these people ?
Remember Anthony, this is what God himself says will happen .
🙌Very true!!!
@@jimthomas1989 I wonder what God will do with you ...
@@towada1066 , Ha ha ha ha ha 😂
I guess you don't know ?
As a matter of Fact !
I know that you don't know !
God isn't going to do anything , he has Given ALL Judgment to the SON,
John 5:21&22
And by the way towada ,
God has a name and it is YHWH pronounced Yahweh in Hebrew and translated into English language is at Exodus 6:3 and Psalms 83:18 and many other places in the Bible.
God's Son's name is Yeshua and translated into English language is Jesus
"The silence of the good people is more dangerous than the brutality of the bad people" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Well said Beau.
I was raised evangelical, southern Baptist, and to this day as a senior citizen, i still feel the cold, awful hate-filled memories.
I must shake myself to stop that ugliness from overtaking me.
Thank you. Beau.
🫂
Me too! SBC is in my opinion a very bigoted organization! They don’t like a lot of things that so many people do!
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
@dinyhotmail In case you were never welcomed in from that cold, Welcome! And always welcome.
@@JGLy22086 So Bleepin Cold
When I was 12, I was at church camp when the preacher decided he would talk, in the most hateful and graphic way he could, about the 'evils' of homosexuality. We were all holding hands (because that's what you did at church camp) and I felt my best friend flinch harder than I'd ever felt anyone flinch. To this day, almost 40 years later, whenever people start their hateful religious talk about 'those people' I always think about that flinch, about how much pain it conveyed, and about the struggles my friend and so many of my other friends have gone through in coming to terms with being something other than what our churches were telling us was acceptable.
Sometimes I don't think certain people realize how much damage they're doing when they weaponize religion as a means of hating others. Other times, I think they know exactly what they're doing and that, as Beau often says, the cruelty is the point.
And it's those "churches" that are CHURNING out atheists every day, around the country.
The glimmer of hope would be you kept holding their hand, not for Jesus merely for your friend. 🤝
That makes me feel sad 😞
@@EH23831 Focus more on that they never mention letting go of the hand. Evil will always exist, the point is not facing it alone.
It's mostly a political wedge to get republicans elected. Notice they tie the LGBTQ community to democrats when we know there are just as many republicans who are also from that community. This too shall pass. The question will be who's next
I am the father of a trans man. It is because of people like the one that sent you this message, that remind me that he is the bravest person that I have ever known.
Thank you for this video.
You failed as a parent.
The two trans women that I had the pleasure of knowing are both dead. One of them was murdered right after she completed the process. It can be deadly and it’s extremely dangerous to foment hatred upon the community.
o7 i respect you so much dude - hope your kid grows up happy and flourishes
I am too, and I as well.
@@5paces164 LOL!!! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Hi Beau. I'm a pastor and I have to say you nailed this one.
It's much easier to SELL hate, it's much harder to spread love but that's what you're suppose to do. Well said, my friend. You are a true blessing.
“When you die, God isn't going to ask you about someone else. He won't ask you about the two men down the street who got married. He won't ask you about the girl who had an abortion. He won't ask you about the atheist that lives on the corner. He won't ask you about the woman who feels more comfortable as a man. He will ask you how you loved those people as He called you to do.
And some of you didn't!”
Thank you Vincent.
Amen. This is the sermon the Godists need to hear.
BOOM
You just brought tears, amen.
Dude .... I'm floored.
Rock on, Beau! I am a 70-year-old white Southern straight man (albeit liberal), and your passion was so strong I got tears in my eyes.
Ditto but female.
Third that, but from the NW.
Same but from the desert Southwest. 🏜 total lib even at this age.
Thanks for saying this friend. I completely agree with you and it's amazing to hear you say it ❤
I think I would call you a 70 year old "gentleman." Love and respect from Australia.
I’ve never seen “that community” protesting churches…..or trying to take straight peoples’ rights away. Double standard indeed. Thank you, Beau. ❤
I grew up knowing I was different, in absolute terror of being found out. I couldn't articulate 'transgender' or 'transsexual' to myself, but I knew 'if people find out who i really am they'll kill me." What kind of evil society makes a person who has done them no harm, feel this way?
I am so sorry for your anguish! This made me cry because it was probably people professing to be Christian that made you feel like this. I hope you find healing and community. You belong here!
Im so sorry our country is so sick and cruel. The majority of us all want to just live in peace. I truly believe that.
My daughter is gay. She is the person I made, I raised and love to the end of the earth. When I look back and remember how sad, unhappy and depressed because she felt she had to hide the fact she is gay breaks my heart. Why are some people allowed to be themselves but others have to be watchful of who they love because they will be judged...not accepted. Breaks my heart. To be accepted as yourself is the greatest gift we can give each other.
I am a proud mom of my amazing beautiful strong daughter.
It must be really hard right now too with these crazy people escalating things. I'm glad she has you. So many don't. She is strong because you are there and always have been. You should be proud of yourself too.
Right there with you sister. My daughter is the light of my life. She and her wife are awesome.
My kids are still under 10 years old, so they aren't at that age yet to even know whether they're LGBT. But I really, really hope when they do reach that age they won't hesitate to talk about it with us. Actually my true hope is that our community is accepting enough that they won't even feel like they need to talk about it.
@@methos-ey9nf Many kids that age already know. Some even earlier.
@@methos-ey9nf Read them an age appropriate book with same sex parents in it, tell them that you will love them no matter who they love. Remove the guesswork, remove the fear.
My gay son has never expected others to turn gay. Just because he exists doesn’t mean he forcing others to become like him.
EXACTLY 💯 TRUE ❤
💛
Just like straight people we want something genuine. We want to love and be loved without hesitation nor conditions. "Trapping" straight guys won't get us what we want and need.
✌💙🏳️🌈
It's not a thing you can force, you don't choose to be gay. And that's also why you can't 'pray it away', you'll only end up with broken people.
Whenever they whinge about people “forcing their views on us”, especially those of a religious bent, what they really mean is they’re upset at finally getting pushback on their bigotry.
Terry Pratchett stated, many times through the characters in his books, that all the worst evils begins with treating people as things. That seems like an excellent definition to me.
I came out trans to my parents a month ago. Today, they informed formed me that they're not going to celebrate my birthday, they don't want me to make my summer trip to see them, and implied the holidays may be off the table. I'm about to be 46 years old and the most my dad has ever written to me was a text about how hurt and depressed they are. I was pretty sure things would go this way, but always hoped my parents would somehow find a way to get past what they've immersed themselves into. I knew I'd be without my parents eventually, but I had hoped it wouldn't be because of this.
Wow, that must be really rough. They are making a big mistake and hurting themselves as well as hurting you. I hope they figure that out.
I’m sorry your parents can’t get past their entrenched views. I hope you can find or have a strong loving circle of support. ❤
Find surrogate parents.😔
That is not love. There are good people out there who will accept you.
This random internet stranger hopes that you’re doing well, living as yourself.
Most people don’t want their religion to tell them how to be a better person. They want it to tell them they are better than other people.
Ooof- that needs to be on a t-shirt! Sad but true
Very succinct, thank you.
My sister !
@@EH23831 It's a bit too long for a t-shirt.
(And the target audience is somewhat reading averse.)
Similar with their politics.
It's always amazing when a supposed christian says "Don't push your world view on me!" with a straight face.
Especially if they follow one of the many, many sects/denominations that considers it an _obligation_ to proselytize and “spread the good Word”.
Oh the IRONY of the christian view!!! 🥴
As of 2021 the percentage of Americans who identify as "christian" is 63%. Roughly 200 million Americans.
As of 2022 the percentage of Americans who identify as "LGBTQ" is 7.1%. Roughly 21 million Americans.
Only a m0r0n would believe a tiny fraction of 300,000,000 people can "push" anything on anyone. But that is the mental dysfunction of crazed fundamentalists. They create insurmountable foes in their feeble minds, because it comforts them in their quest to be the most bigoted they can possibly be.
Really? I find it sad, because it happens so much and because they're too ignorant to realize the irony of what they're saying.
♥️THIS♥️
My mother showed me this video, and I wanted to say thank you for your views. Last week was hard for me. I'm a Trans woman, and for the first time in like 12 years, I truly wanted to end it all. The only thing stopping me was my friends, family, and my love for God. I get attacked and called evil, told I'm just a man, told to kill myself, and told that I don't deserve the same rights as anyone else. I believe in a loving God, one that does not agree with these things, but that doesn't stop it from hurting. It doesn't change the fact that people who should be espousing the love of Jesus and avoiding judgment think it's okay to say these things. The truth is that the Bible was changed by man to be used as a weapon, and now that weapon is being pointed at the me and others like me. Making a weapon out of something that was meant to convey love, well, that's just downright demonic. I sure hope that these people who think I'm evil remember that God made me this way and loves me more for it. I'm tired of being a 2nd class citizen just cause radical extremists have taken over Jesus's message and perverted it. I love Jesus, and Jesus loves me. Again, thank you, Bo, for saying what you did.
I don't know you, but I'm glad you're still here. I know things are especially hard these days and I admire your courage and strength. I wish you support, community, and most of all, love.
Know that there are more people out there like Beau and that you are beautiful and valued for who you are.
Just read your comment and wanted to copy what I just wrote above:
Sometimes I think we've got it wrong -- maybe the opposite of love is not hate; maybe the opposite of love is fear. And we all know how easy it is to sell fear. The hate tags along for the ride.
The hate you have experienced, koraliekora, may be, in part, from fear. I'm sorry that so many people's fear results in hate. Keep your courage -- it's a fine adjunct to love!
@user-iw6bg5vw8b I'm doing a lot better right now thankfully. I agree 100% about it being fear. Hate is just fear in an outward pointed direction. Sadly fear is always pushed and they really do try to trigger aggressive behavior because they know that it sucks you down further into the fear
🙂@@koraliekora-leepalmer4024
I am a Christian, but I try to show this in my life by how I treat people. I have a very hard time talking to most Christians I’ve met because of the mental gymnastics they perform so they can continue to hate others who they should be loving. I attended a fundamentalist Christian school for 8th grade and they would twist Jesus’ commandment to love their neighbor as themselves by saying that what he meant by “neighbor” was a fellow Christian. Since then I have followed Christ to the best of my ability by loving everyone I meet to the best of my ability. I think Jesus would be sickened by so many people covering themselves in self-righteousness just so they can hate in his name.
Jesus is appalled by the church! I tell people I’m a Satanist just so they will move on. I don’t talk to people about God. That’s not my place. If they ask me how I’ve overcome so much and can still laugh and rejoice, I tell them it’s all because of God and I leave it there. I can quote the Bible but I don’t. I can’t stand all the sanctimonious bs that comes from those that think quoting the Bible makes them holier than others. Now if they come for me, I serve them a plate full of quotes that usually shut them down. And when they tell me how I should be serving God, I tell them to get fucked. Only God tells me how to serve him. A personal walk is just that - personal!
What's sicker is that when you point out that as a Christian our highest calling is to love a lot of Christians twist that concept to mean I am showing love through attempted correction they think they're being loving by attempting to correct us and it's so so so gross
"what he meant by “neighbor” was a fellow Christian."
Have they read the parable of the good Samaritan? The Samaritan was neither Christian nor Jew, but he was the neighbour.
@dinyhotmail Judgmental much?
That's how it always sounded to me, that they were saying love Christians but no others. I'm not Christian
I knew a boy who started attending my college just as I was graduating. He was black, raised in the projects on the South side of Chicago. He wanted out of there. He worked hard--but the school system had cheated him of a real education. They gave him a diploma and said he'd graduated; they didn't give him the education that should have been the real diploma, and nothing like what he needed to actually succeed in college.
I helped him as I could--tutored, tried to guide him--but one day he just flatly said he didn't belong there, and someone who *could* succeed should have his seat in his classes. He dropped out--and joined the Air Force.
He worked hard, was commended, and ended up a Master Sergeant.
But this post isn't about that. It's about the fact that he'd realized he was gay. This was the early '80s--if you know anything about that time, you know how bad this could be. Certainly the Mil didn't want to know about it--neither did his family or his community (gays were _not_ welcomed). So he hid it. And, as was almost guaranteed at that time in the gay community, he caught AIDS. Eventually, he was mustered out for medical reasons. Honorable discharge, but still.
And he never told me he was gay. I never asked--I *knew*, from a slew of indicators, both that he was gay, and he had AIDS. (Remember Kaposi's sarcoma? It shows.) But I remained his friend, as did my wife when I got married, and he was a part of our extended family. He went through bouts of greater and lesser illness, as they tried to find ways to fight AIDS, but eventually, in the very early '90s, he came to me and said, "I gotta tell you something." I replied, "You're gay." "You knew???" Sure. "Why didn't you say anything?" It's not my place to say anything. If you didn't tell me, you didn't need or want me to, so I didn't.
This ends pretty much as you might expect. Eventually, the drugs stopped working. He died. Not before he made me the executor of his estate. His only mandate? "Take care of my momma." Not before his family--including his momma--were told by him he was gay, and to a person they disowned him (and said truly hateful and spiteful things about him, up to and beyond the day he died.) Not before the preacher they picked to eulogize at his funeral turned his speech to fire and brimstone, excoriating him as he lay in his coffin. (At this point, a huge shout out to the Masons--he'd become a member of the Scottish Rite, and they showed up at the funeral. To a man, black and white together, they stood up, displaced the so-called preacher, and THEY gave their eulogies praising him as a man and a Brother. My thanks to them are eternal.)
And not before his family tried to get me, as executor, to give them what money he'd saved, and give them the insurance money from his military insurance policy. And when I told them NO, they started gossiping that I must have been his gay lover, and my wife was just my "beard". This continued after his momma developed Alzheimer's, and my wife was appointed as her medical power of attorney. We got all that money in an unbreakable trust for her (Illinois has a superb program for this.) And we--primarily my wife--made sure she lived her remaining days in clean, safe care facilities.
This was their "Christian love". They made his last days hell, tried to make our lives hell, and all because he was black and gay--well, not all. Also because they wanted to profit from his work, service, and dedication, even to the point of cheating his mother.
Over thirty years later, telling about this brings me to tears. Real Christians should be the bulwark against this hatred and vilification. In my weaker moments, I hope there is a hell--I know some people who should have reservations there. But that's wrong, too; it's not my place to judge them. But I can hope that, to whatever small level we could, we made his life better. I know he made ours better by being who he was.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this. Sending you a hug from Canada. 💕
I don’t know how the haters can live with themselves. Thank you for sharing this.
I think you brought us all to tears. God bless you and your wife.
Thank you for being the loving human and friend he needed
Thank you for sharing your story. You’re a good friend.
And my family wonders why I "left the church".... Maybe if the "church" would practice love instead of hate, I'd be on the front pew.
"Selective Christianity"... Love your neighbor; as long as they're white. And straight. And own guns. Oh, and drink the RIGHT kind of beer.
@@MyopiaInnersight I'll check out that website. I've wondered about Buddhism for many years.
how would they drink the right beer? you're in the US? 😜
love and greetings from Germany
Same reason I left the church.
@@mortuos557 The answer here in the US is the right beer is the one that doesn't have a brand deal with a trans person in 2023, but it might be the brand that's been funding Pride parades since the 70s. Beer quality seems irrelevant. In the States, I sometimes fear our biggest enemy is logic.
And rich. You forgot rich.
Man, you nailed it. People have in the past asked me, "But how can you claim to be a liberal AND a Christian? They don't go together!" This /\. This right here.
This wonderful video had to be difficult for you, but your heartfelt message was great and direct. My "Christian" mother rejected my brother because he was gay. It broke his heart. If we loved God and loved our neighbor as Jesus instructed, the churches would be overflowing instead of declining because of their hypocrisy and messages of hate. This is about the 3rd time I've listened to you. You speak so sincerely from the heart. Thank you for your messages.
"There is no hatred like Christian love."
So damned true.
I was thinking this phrase through out the entire video. Beau here talks a good game about Love, but glosses over the fact that many christians have rebranded their hatred as love. I remember back when I was in my college age, a friend of mine was preparing for seminary. He wrote an entire essay about how rebuking the LGBT community, marginalizing them, making them feel hated and desperate was the true act of love because it would eventually cause them to reflect on their "sins" and repent. Even worse, this guy found a receptive audience to this message amongst the campus christians who tended to whole heartedly agree with him. Its wild.
People are leaving Christianity because they are a hate group.
@@deathguitarist12 The trouble is that the more hateful people there are claiming to be Christian, the more people think that's what a Christian is. They really need to find another name to go by. Jesus wouldn't treat people the way these folks do. I hate the idea that by saying I'm Christian I risk being associated with those creeps. They've lost the plot entirely, they're working against what they claim to believe... and they have their heads so far up their... well, y'know... that they're convinced they're saints. By our interpretation, they've let themselves start working for the other guy.
@@BeeWhistler I'm not christian, ran screaming decades ago, but I remember something about the sin of self-righteousness. These hypocrites are guilty as hell.
From one Deacon's grandkid to another Deacon's grandkid...let me tell you about one of the people that I love most.
He is 36 years old and lives in New Orleans. He rescues unwanted and unloved animals, he has helped kids become acrobats and fly. He has made balloons into rainbows and wedding decorations, and he has festooned buildings with them. He has marched in Mardi Gras parades that ended with sprinking the ashes of loved one into the Mississippi River. He is outgoing and loving, and beyond all else, he is kind. He is preacher's kid, but his parents both cut him out of their lives when he was a teenager because he is gay. He had nowhere to go, so he ran away with the circus. He has found people who love and accept him, and they have become his family. That still doesn't make up for his family, and that is where my family comes in. Marcus' father is my husband's brother.Marcus and our daughter were born within weeks of each other. I have no need to pass judgment on Marcus... but his father is an entirely different matter. A man who turns his back on his son and leaves him to the streets is no christian... and no man.
We have cut ties with my husband's brothers over this. As I've gotten older, I tend to see God in people's actions and hearts, not in a book.
P.S. Marcus is also a beautiful Drag Queen named Marcia... She loves dogs too!
Cheers,
Donna
❤
Marcus/Marcia sounds like a wonderful person.
Great story, I grew up in Gentilly.
💗
would love to see Marcia's drag art..... is she on CZcams?
As an ex-Christian and a father I appreciate you so much.
Oh my Lord thank you Beau!!!!!!!! As a Christian, I will say more Christians need to listen to this!!!! We cannot force our self chosen obligations into other people who with their free will said no to Jesus. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I grew up in Egypt, a place where most people are muslims and consider themself pious, virtuous, I saw kindness and love and I saw evil, I moved to the US, I’ve struggled financially and emotionally, I’ve found kindness and love and I witnessed evil, we are indeed before and after all human, be kind to each other regardless, it goes a long way 💚
❤️🙏❤️
💜☮️💜
Very profound words. They confirmed belief.
Hey, there's parts of Texas where the people view themselves as pious and virtuous. What I have found out is they are also hypocrites.
Valle con Dios, amigo.
Insightful, timeless wisdom. Thank you for sharing. 💜♾️🫂🌎🌍🌏
As a Christian, thank you. A better and more loving sermon than all too many we hear on Sundays.
🙌
Seek Justice, love Mercy, and walk Humbky with your God... THAT is what is good and what the Lord Requires. (from Micah 6:8)
Not all Christian denominations preach this hate nor hell fire and damnation. Most of the mainstream denominations such as the Episcopal Church, ELCA, and the Presbyterian Church (USA), accept and affirm the LGBTQ+ community. Then there is the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) whose primary focus and audience as the LGBTQ+ community. It was founded in 1968 by Rev Troy Perry, who was defrocked by Pentecostals for being gay. After he attempted suicide and failed, he renewed his faith and formed the church. They currently perform over 6000 same-sex marriages annually.
Well put! 🙌🙌
“There’s no hate like Christian love.” This is one of your best videos Beau. You are truly a good human and I love this community!
In the most Gentle Way you've actually help me to remember that loving others is the purpose of being here, I'm not a Christian but this Christian ideal has been important to me. I realized I've started to harbor a lot of hate for right wingers. I would definitely have to say you're one of my favorite CZcamsrs because when you speak its reasoned, intelligent, loving and gentle. Reminds me of what sanity is in the world that's no longer sane. Thank you for your humility and gentle observation.
After 39 years of very religious life, I finally had to admit the truth to myself that what I had been told was about the worst thing in the world was what I am- gay. Years afterwards looking back I ask myself “what exactly am I doing that is so incredibly heinous?” And the answer is “Nothing”. I’m just existing, being who I am and not lying to myself anymore. I’m not hurting anyone and it’s a much more wholesome life than alternately lying to myself and beating myself up for what I am.
I used to live with a Catholic brother who told me there were plenty of gays in the seminary when he was there; I wrote his letter to the Pope to get out of his vows.
So true🏳️🌈❣
And that is exactly what we allies of the LGBTQ community want to eliminate from your lives; the guilt, internal struggle and feeling of abnormality.
I'm glad you came to grips with the realization there is nothing wrong with you for being gay. I can say that I'm not gay but I am just different from most. And it's hard to be that way, people can be so cruel.
I hope you find only kindness and people who accept and support you. Let go of the rest.
Beau, I’m a 73 year old gay man. I’ve been trying to think of some way to tell the effect this video has had on me. I can only come up with 2 words. THANK YOU!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
❤❤❤❤
70s also here. I agree
Your eternal hellfire awaits you soon.
Being an African American woman, I can understand why you would feel this way. It does something to the Soul when who you are is constantly vilified. We’ve got a lot of work to do. ❤❤❤
@@5paces164 How much are you actually vilified vs. you get constant reinforcement from others telling you that you're being vilified?
At a family dinner, the topic of homosexuality came up. One of the family matriarchs spoke up, with her eyes firmly on me, "well, we all know what the Bible says." I said, "yes, and i know that the same thing is to happen to non-virgin brides and masturbators. But i dont think we have enough rocks." It got very silent.
It is much harder to live. But so much more freeing. All it really takes is awareness and empathy.
"There's no hate like Christian love" is a phrase that resounds with me
So true
Omg..... that is so profound and accurate! I'm going to use that from now on if you don't mind!
That is both brilliant and really sad
Wow. That's a sadly profound and accurate description.
@@silverlakegirl9078 feel free, i cant take the credit but i have no idea where i picked it up from
As an LGBTQ trans person it nice to have some support, I know there are many folks who do support our community, soooo much hate and discriminate going on
If I dont stand up for you and your human rights who will stand with me when they come.
Edit: ⚧️ trans rights *are* human rights 🏳️⚧️
Despite what "news" reporters claim there's a majority of people that care. The voting system is currently rigged against that majority but slow change is correcting that.
you folks are the bravest people around.
if seen so since childhood.
You do you, be strong, wish you the best and hope for change in the world, if not it's their loss not yours✌️
Don't think only in you community, internet exist, you are supported from all over the world. Every time you feel defeat think of us, we are with you, we do not judge you, we accept you. We are your definition, love and acceptance, not the hate.
Hate is a form of fear, love is fearless, please say that always to yourself ❤💙💚💜
Recently I heard a person say,"peace is better than perfection" . One day at a time is easier said than done. Love , believe it or not is THE answer. Brothers and sisters unite.
Beau, this video randomly came up in my feed today and I recognized the phrase on your shirt and thought, "I know who this is!" my mom was a huge fan of yours and always said how much she appreciated your calm demeanor. She passed away in March and listening to this video made me feel like she was sitting in the living room with me again. I wanted you let know that she would have loved this video (and I did too) I'm a Christian but the way the most vocal "Christians" have been behaving these last few years makes me embarrassed to admit it. Thank you for this video and I'm glad I found your channel.
I've never had anyone tell me that I'd better be gay or I'd be tortured for eternity
'You will know them by their fruits... A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit." is the one Bible quote that has never been more relevant than today. You see so many people who claim to be good Christians and fighting for what's right, and then turn around and embrace fascism, hate, intolerance, bigotry, and the like. They don't promote understanding, tolerance, kindness, compassion, and the like. They choose Trump over Christ and his teachings, and if there really is a judgement day, they're in for a big surprise.
I think everyday is Judgment Day. History is all about judging the Past and being judged by the Future. It is not God we will be judged by, it is our Descendants.
They literally built him a golden idol, and none of them were taken aback, not one was given pause.
They claim to read hidden messages when obvious ones stare them in the face unrecognized.
All these "evangelicals" should keep that in mind, Trump will only bear bad fruit.
One absolutely cannot be a Christian and a Republican. Not even a little bit
My mom used to say that those types, who claim to be so pious while sowing hate and discord, would be the ones who'd "split hell wide-open" on judgement day.
One word: AMEN!
_“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”_ -Steven Weinberg, 1979 Nobel Laureate in Physics
I disagree. I am an evil person doing good things because of Christianity.
@@chrishemry7 _“I am an evil person doing good things because of Christianity.”_
… until your pastor says it's okay, he's got a *GET OUT OF JAIL, FREE!* card for you if you commit violent acts, he says is justified by your _Holy Book of Fables and Fairy Tales,_ against those infidels in the eyes of your _Anthropomorphic Deity Myth._
**NEWSFLASH**
*Man* _created_ *God* _in his own_ *image.* Not the other way around.
@@JenSell1626 Not being a US _American_ (I'm a Canadian _American_ ), you might have to elaborate a little more.
Despite searching for any reference, I couldn't find any confirmation to your specific claim-though there are certainly an awful lot of other sexual violent crimes against children reported in the US by religious leaders.
@@MelioraCogito There is a lot to unpack here because your second paragraph is completely inaccurate, but first I would like to address you original statement. You are looking to someone who won a Nobel Prize in PHYSICS for advice on RELIGION. There is literally no overlap between those two subjects, and you are quoting him like he is an expert in a subject that he has no knowledge of. You could not have found anyone worse to advise you.
I am sorry if you were in a church that said violence is okay, but I serious doubt you were ever in a church. If you ever find a church that encourages violent acts against ANYONE, then it is time to find a different church. It is clear you are just parroting a far left liberal professor who realized that it is much easier to spout hateful inaccuracies about the Bible than actually read the 2000+ pages of extremely fine print to find out what the book actually says. Here is something that is actually in the Bible, that is relevant to your point, "What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no
means!" (Romans 6:15 NRSV).
Now, clearly you have decided to live your life in despair, hating God and the peace, happiness, and love that he/she brings, but maybe don't drag others into your personal hell.
@dinyhotmail Stop that. You don't get to talk about science and then say things like "close to proving the existence of god". That is absolute nonsense and you are suffering from a great deal of confirmation bias. If there is one thing that really boils my piss it is religious apologists trying to hijack science for their aims. And you are also a liar, because you are not "educated in physics", not any more than any average person with a passing interest in the subject. That much is clear.
“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things” - Terry Pratchett
"Stand before your god, bow before your king, kneel before your man. That's a recipe for a happy life!"
-Nanny Ogg
@@NWPaul72 She may have had ulterior thoughts with that though.
Oh, who am i kidding. She definitely did. It's Nanny Ogg after all.
Evil has no independent existence, such as a figurehead of Satan, but consists of rejecting God's teachings and allowing oneself to become immersed in selfish desires.
@@jenniferdoney7189 I trust Granny Weatherwax more than I trust the average US Christian.
That's true and we need to understand that billionaires are horders with all the severe mental health issues that come along with the disease and thay fund a lot of different groups to keep people divided because every single time we all come away from the political confetti that is just to distract people we want to have equal rights and equal opportunity for all and that always leads to taxing the billionaires back into being just millionaires
This. This is what being an ally looks like. Thank you. From the bottom of my little gay heart.
Live your life with INTEGRITY.
🎯♥️🎯
You have many 🎉
Hugs, hope your life is filled with those who love and accept the real you.
When a political commentator delivers the best sermon I've ever heard. And my grandfather was a minister, and an administrator at the state level within our denomination's governing body. I was raised in the church, thats why i left it. I saw no love, only judgment, hypocrisy, condemnation, prejudice and hate.
I’m an ordinary human. A sinner. Thanks for putting into words so much of what I’ve seen from my fellow sinners, Christian & otherwise.
LGBT are not evil. The people saying they are; are the real evil in this world. Excellent analogy!!!
To take it further, LGBTQ+ are not evil! My challenge to any christian about anyone in the LGBTQ+ group, if God created all things he also created these individuals, right? The majority of Christians say god created them as a test, to test his followers, right? Isn't it to test you in how you choose to show love for your neighbor? Why are you are you not showing them love? Why are you, instead, showing them hate?
The Bible clearly says they are. Well, the men anyway. How do you explain that the book supposedly written by their god clearly states they should be put to death?
@@dublea2 If you use that argument they will respond with FREE WILL!!!!!. They believe they choose to be LGBTQ+. My response is to say that if you have no say in how you are created (that falls solely under god's purview) then you don't have free will. So far that either stumps them completely, or their minds explode.
@@ohana8535 do you eat pork? Shellfish? Work on Sunday? Wear clothes made from mixed fabric? M***urbated?
If you say yes to any of the above, then you’re just as big a sinner
@@Aarenby Or eat shellfish, or shave or cut a woman's hair, and that Unicorns, Giants, flat earth and men with Magic Hair exists. How can anyone take that book seriously?
I’m a pastor of a LGBTQ affirming church and I came into this worried and prepared to be in the comments saying “it’s not all of us”. I’m a new subscriber so I didn’t know I didn’t need to worry. What a beautiful and balanced response. What a lovely representation of the gospel. Thank you!❤
Just stop spreading the lies.
If you understand the tenents of logic, reason, fact discovery, fact proof, its 100% obvious that you cannot, and mostly should not claim the existence of a god.
Not only is it literal insanity, but you are pushing horrible ideals like "faith" (anti-logic, anti-reason, anti-fact) as 'virtuous'.
Its literally evil, in the context of rational thought.
In regards to the LGBTQ community, you are affixing a bandaid ontop of a community that is one of the greatest enemies of LGBTQ. Its like hitler creating 1 concentration camp that wasnt genociding people. Cool, theres 1 that doesnt do it, that doesnt forgive that the entire institution is a bad concept at best.
The place to say it isn't all of you, is never to LGBTQIA+ folks. We know about blanket statements. It's to your fellow believers. They are the ones who think groups of people can be classified as good or evil.
@@cathyharris4968 I understand your point, yes I need to check my defensiveness. It’s really the other Christians who give us a bad name I get angry at. And I do speak up when I can.
Many people that have turned away from organized religion did not do so because they are not people of Faith or because they do not believe in the actual teachings, they just found the organization they were part of to be not worth the trouble. Personally I myself have visited many many many churches and most of them are completely full of hate.
Especially the ones that prey on teenagers
Also I love you very much.
Extremely well done, Beau. One of your best.
I was open to getting educated about the LGBTQ community. I was wrong about them for way too many years.
I applaud your comments 👏👏👏
“Sin, he reflected, is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”
~ Shusaku Endo
That's a thought provoking quote.
💯 and generations of people have been taught that it's perfectly OK. 🤦♂️
Oblivious? So old-fashioned. Today it's all the rage to walk over the life of another because the cruelty is the point.
@@safe-keeper1042 _“Today it's all the rage to walk over the life of another because the cruelty is the point.”_
It's become a _fashion statement._
@@safe-keeper1042 - Definition of oblivious is “not aware of or *not concerned about* what is happening around one.”
Intentional cruelty holds that lack of care so I don’t find the use of it at all “old fashioned.” Besides, I rather think purposed indifference and brutality has always been around.
But even if you still disagree, perhaps it helps to know that the quote is from a 1966 book that is set in the 1600’s.
My fiancé lost his wife to cancer after a long, happy marriage. When he was going through her personal belongings after she passed, he found a handwritten note in her purse. It says, “You will never regret being kind!” ❤
Kind people never regret being kind.
Cruel people never regret being cruel.
Both for the same reason: they don't have the capacity.
Many times, expecting nothing, after being in service to others, expecting nothing in return, things have turned out bad. I remind myself things like "My kindness is not a weakness".
With sincerity I ask, Why is that?
Btw, I live in a low socioeconomic area.
I agree w Beau 100%.
Beau I'm so glad I stumbled on this channel..you have common sense, and you're inspiring, and you have COURAGE...thank you.
Every now and then there comes a video that I wish I could give more than one like. This is one of those videos.
❤️ I would also like to thank that person for confirming that walking away from the church with all of its hatred and bigotry is one of the best decisions I ever made. I chose loving my neighbors instead and I have no regrets.
Hear, hear❤☘️☘️🙏
Couldn't agree more.
I once heard a preacher say that other groups - some religious, some not - are "...brainwashing our children! That's why we have to do it first!!!" it puts thing into perspective. If you yourself call what you do brainwashing kids _and you are okay with it,_ it's time to do some actual soul searching. Because you clearly lost yours along the way somewhere.
And the person that sent those messages definitely deserves a good old Southern "Bless your heart!"
❤❤❤
There are plenty of faith communities that will welcome you.
I grew up in the UCC, a Congregationalist, and it’s… different. They’re very liberal, to put it bluntly.
I struggle with the current Presbyterian (PCUSA) church I attend, because they’re much more moderate in their politics, but I know that my being there is part of slowly bending them out of complacency.
My nephew had to leave his church. He's never been happier. It saved his life (that and the fact he knew he would be welcome with me. )
The irony of what this guy was saying was apparently lost on him.
And that's just it. Whether it's a preacher or a politician, some demagogue has sold that person on a message of "Us vs Them" and selected LGBTQ folks as a "Them." That's doing it wrong, as Beau eloquently pointed out.
Surprised to see you here man
As is commonly the case with hypocrites.
Beau is a hypocrite.
@@Bonzi_Buddy do explain.
Oh Beau, I love your thoughtfullness and your kindness. Judgementalness and hate are poison. Period.
Im a mom of a pansexual young adult and her partner is transitioning from F to M It’s an adjustment but dear Lord I love my child and want to be part of her life always. ❤I’m glad my previous life prepared me for this as I work in a very diverse organization and it’s been enlightening! Thx Beau for an Outstanding video. The evangelicals and others use their religion & force their views. Look at abortion and guns.
I grew up xtian with a Homophobic father, he wasn't intensely homophobic but he still was. I left the religion and joined another. When I came out as Trans my dad said "I'll always love you." He'd met a gay person earlier finally and realized that he was just ignorant and that gay people weren't bad. Now he's working constantly to try to get his denomination to accept queer people. I haven't talked about his theology in near a decade but the last I heard it was something to the effect of "God made queer people, and God doesn't make mistakes, so clearly God wants us to exist, why shouldn't queer people be accepted and included?" Honestly I'm so damn proud of him. I need to make sure that he hears that
That is so beautiful! Instead of continuing on with the homophobia he was taught be religious leaders, he chose to turn to the true teaching of Jesus and accept his child the way they truly are. And didn't Jesus want his followers to share his message with everyone they met? Well it sounds like your dad went from just accepted to full alliance. I wish all religious parents did this with their children instead of responding with bigotry and hatred. If you're an adult you can separate yourself from your family most of the time (I understand there are plenty of circumstances that you can't), but minors that come out to their parents and the reaction ends up being horror and disgust, well, they are now in an even worse situation than before coming out of the closet after having to hide for so long. They might not kick you out right away, but they are going to make damn sure you know how they feel every day. They may force you to dress and look like your biological sex. They may refuse to use correct pronouns or your chosen name. They may send you to a therapist with the same views to "cure" you. I'm not sure of the status of conversion therapy camps like the ones we used to have, I think I read a national fundamentalist group is working on getting one running again in a Midwestern state. You know parents like that are going to send their gay/trans kid there, saying it's in the name of God and their love. In this scenario, I hope they don't come out at a younger age, that's more tears of torment until being able to move out at 18. Or, what's even worse (maybe), is throwing them out of the house and completely disowning them. If the teen is lucky they have some good friends that come from good families that don't hate the LGBTQIA community and will allow them to couch crash. Some are not that lucky and end up completely homeless on the street, that's a very dangerous place for a kid to be no matter how they identify. Being beaten and robbed by other homeless people if they're in an encampment because of vulnerable they are. A large number of them end up being sex trafficked, tricked into thinking something is an opportunity to earn some money. Instead they become a slave. Or there's the ultimate end result, both at home with a family that hates you or out on the street - suicide. A choice that a whole lot of my community makes. If those were my two options for living, I can't say that I would want to.
Amazing!! The hardest part for me is to "love thy neighbor" when that neighbor is a person who is like how your father used to be. Ironically, I have a hard time tolerating people who cannot tolerate people simply based upon for their sexuality. I should do better and have more tolerance, I suppose.
@@B_Bodziak no you misunderstand, we shouldn't tolerate intolerance. My father did tolerate queer people to an extent but i was uncomfortable with us and thought queer people were sinning and thought he should avoid people like us. He wasn't spreading hate and frankly wasn't even as homophobic as the Sunday school teachers at the church i grew up at. We need to continue to speak out against transphobia and homophobia and to try to rehumanize queer folks in their eyes without compromising our queerness
Now THAT'S genuine repentance, i.e. change of mind. That's a saint.
@@orifox1629 I understand exactly what you're saying. I have had the same issue as you with my own father. Unfortunately, he did not have the same change of heart as your father did. My conundrum comes with "loving thy neighbor" even when I wholeheartedly disagree with them. When they are not practicing loving their neighbors, it's been very difficult for me to love them--very difficult for me to still "love thy neighbor" even though "they know what they know not what they do.". It's like the chicken and the egg. Should I be the first to love thy neighbor unconditionally or should I expect them to first love me unconditionally? Does what I'm saying make sense?
I'm a retired pastor, and this is among the best sermons I have heard! And delivered in a manner which I believe can be heard by people with different opinions. I am a straight woman, with several friends dealing with discrimination and hate for LBGTQ persons. Your analogy between baptism and coming out was powerful. I' m a fan since early in the pandemic, appreciating your logical, balanced discussions.
Bless you!
I don't think it's a sermon but Beau has an incredible power to speak from his soul by tempering his feelings through his mind.
I hope you and your friends are doing well. 🌞
That's because Beau is a self-aware individual. It is something that we must have in order to not automatically call others trying to live their best life as evil because one has a difficult understanding it. I have heard about the homosexual agenda all of my life, but I personally have never detected any recruitment. They try to offer help to others going through the same thing. It has always interested me that some feel it is something you can catch. Are there perverts and abusers in the community? You bet 'cha because perverts and abusers are in every community.
Beau, I personally appreciate hearing what comes through your heart and soul. Your soliloquies have many times helped me check any hypocritical thoughts, which sometimes are not obvious to me at the moment. Self-awareness is a daily exercise and is always helpful.
@@dbentleyto95 Funny thing... I occasionally have encountered women who'd been raped by pedophiles while girls. HOWEVER, my wife and I have spent a great many hours (probably many days worth) listening to women re-live being raped BY THEIR PASTOR/PREACHER/MINISTER. The theme is almost always the same, the methods to manipulate and access the little girl the same, and the way they keep the child from talking the same. (Those that DO get help get punished severely.) You'd think that the proportions would be about the same, but in our experience they were NOT.
You see, pedophiles and like ilk are attracted to 'positions' - like pastor of a church, because they know it will give them access to victims while at the same time providing a layer of protection from suspicion. In nearly every case where the woman (ages from the 30s to 70s, and the rapes happened while they were pre-teens or young teens) tried to talk about it, people refused to believe that "A man of GAAHD!" was an active pedophile predator. (That also includes law enforcement, politics, and other 'positions' of authority.)
Funny thing we also learned over the years - the more liberal the church (or other place of worship), the far less likely that pedophilia would be a problem. Indeed, in the most liberal forms of religion I know, there are programs and training to prevent the monsters from gaining 'positions'. Conservative - very rare.
@Jessica Massie both Christ and anti-christ teachings ARE in the Bible, free will probably. Only Christ became God
To be a "Christian" is to be a follower of Christ. Jesus never taught hate. Or that He was better than others. He taught, "Do not judge, lest you be judged." He taught love thy neighbor. Not love the neighbor that believes like you. Through the way He showed kindness, and gentleness towards those who didn't feel they were deserving, that's what drew people to Him. If Jesus came back, I am afraid He would be persecuted again because He might try and teach love and acceptance. Love, kindness, non-judgment, and peace. What a concept. Thank you for this beautiful video.
Beau, you're awesome.
My algo just fed me this one. I had'nt seen it. I have to say this is one the BEST videos i have ever seen on this topic. THANK YOU!!!!!! I spent the first 18 yrs in a baptist church and never seen this coming probably due to ignorance of everything else (the wider word and culture) The last 15 yrs have astounded me especially 5 years ago went Trump forced me to face my preconceived notions and default beliefs from my "raisin'." Since then, shortly after achieving lasting sobriety" I have made it my mission to learn and read everything i can to try to get my family off the Maga dope. I never bought in on Trump but I couldn't vote in 2016 due to "life choices" in Appalachia (through the Oxy 80 and Perc 30 years) I can't say for sure that i wouldnt have voted for him though because i was not politically literate at the time and kept hearing Hilary's emails and Benghazi. You are a big reason I am not lost to the BS of the MAGA movement and have a balanced hear when listening to the everyone else. This will help in my journey of trying to de-radicalize my family like you so often do. You have really helped me get through to my mom and somewhat my dad and I will have love for you forever because of it. Thank you for doing what you do and they way you do it.
As a Pastor that has subscribed to your channel since 2019, I can say without any hesitation "you're thoughts are spot on & not evil.
⭐🙏🙂
May God bless your work as a spiritual leader in a confused time, in which "the love of some men will grow cold." As an expat living in Germany who joined the mainstream Protestant church, I'm used to accepting LGBTQ people as brothers and sisters, which has been church policy for many years. That's not saying there is no prejudice, but I believe we're on the right track.
And he shouldn't be afraid to discuss religion on his channel
@@carolharris2401 I don't think it's worth it. There's soo much interpretation that there's going to be disagreements all over the place, from which a lot of people with disregard everything. He already covers "hot topics" which are pretty divisive, but often does so where facts can be evidenced, but scripture has too many contradictions,
@Peanut - INTP I doubt if Beau will do many more discussions of religion, although it's an important part of public life. Every important issue in US politics becomes a religious issue. Churches split over slavery and later Civil Rights, the Methodists are splitting over LGBTQ issues now. Both sides in the gun debate cite God. Scripture is contradictory indeed, which is one of several reasons why it should not be taken as a "paper pope" - a phrase I take from my German minister. Beau did a good job of pointing out the core and the highest message of Christian scriptures.
Beau, this is the only video of yours that has made me cry. It was way to personal to me. My trans brother's "agenda" and "hate" have included serving in the USAF for over 20 years, giving countless hours to charitable causes, giving rides, care and help to neighbors in every place he has lived, providing free child care to his nieces' kids while they attended college and worked, taking in our ailing mother and being her primary caregiver and so many other small acts of kindness and love. All of this he did before, during and after his transition and while battling nearly crippling depression caused from living a lie for so many years. I was the first one he told and I was with him as he told each family member. I propped him up with all the love and support I could because he was so afraid of the hate, no worse, the retraction of love he might face. He is one of the bravest and kindest souls I know, but he is haunted by the vitriol of fake christians who can't live Mark 12:28-34. No member of my family rejected him. Our family is so terribly flawed in so many ways, but they've got the love thing down. Thank God.
Thank you for sharing your personal experiences. All the best to you and your brother♥️♥️♥️
Blessings to you all
❤
It's life stories like yours and your family's that are important. The bigots literally make it sound like being LGBTQ+ is easy. But it is not. Not even a little bit. Because of the hateful bigots, the LGBTQ+ community lives a life of depression when they repress their own life to satisfy a hateful world. Or the LGBTQ+ Americans live their lives, and are hated and vilified as "pedophile groomers".
The societal dysfunction is NOT the LGBTQ+ Americans. The societal dysfunction is the bigots who obsess over other people's genitalia.
❤
One of your very finest Beau, thank you.
I have shared it with many❤️
As usual, Beau shines lite on what is wrong with our tribalism.
"It is easy to hate. It's much harder to love" This is the way
Absolutely true
Maybe I’m weird, but it seems to me that love is instinctual and hate requires distortion and effort.
Hate flows primarily from fear. So what are these people so afraid of?
"This is the way."
@@susanelizabeth2222 They're afraid of being wrong. Wrong about the world, wrong about other people, and wrong about themselves.
Years ago, my daughter attended daycare at a Baptist church. On graduation day in the church a song was sung about loving and accepting everyone. After, the preacher spoke about boycotting Ellen.
One the good side, I recently attended a funeral at a church where a sign by the restrooms read, "Use whichever one you feel comfortable with."
Someone recently mentioned to me that their pastor and various church admin staff all had their pronouns in their email signatures, and it's such a small thing, but it was still nice to hear.
I first left the church when I was 10 and a church administrator stole my Grandmothers Bible. Age 22 I trusted the Seventh Day Adventists & returned to church. I left for the last time when they told me I should return to my ex-husband who was an alcoholic, physically, verbally, emotionally and sexually abusive & an adulterer. My relationship with Father God has never changed, but I’m now 57 and will not be attending any church.
Thank you
"The fact that I exist is not dividing the nation. It's that you can't accept that I exist that is dividing the nation, and that you think your right to exist is greater than my right to exist."
What Christians like the person who sent those messages need to understand is: THEY are the reason non-Christians look at Christian’s the way we do. I’m 35 and I have NEVER in my life encountered hate, cruelty, and casual viscousness that can compare to Christian fundamentalists. It took me until WELL into my 20s to realize there were Christians who weren’t like that, because the ones that aren’t sit in silence and look away when the hatemongers speak for them.
I have NEVER had a member of the LGBTQ community ask me for anything except the right to live in their own lives in safety. Meanwhile we are at 400 bills THIS YEAR SO FAR pushed by Christian conservatives to steal away the rights and livelihood of the queer community. Until y’all change your community the correct saying will remain “there is no hate like Christian love.”
Can't agree more. I was raised Christian but the hate and hypocrisy chased me out. Even as a straight white girl I felt it, because my father was an alcoholic and my mother eventually gave up and got a divorce. We were treated like black sheep because my mom wouldn't stay married to an abuser and a divorced woman in the church didn't live up to their conservative nuclear family fantasy. They don't care about people, they care about enforcing a lifestyle no matter what it does to the people who have to live it. It's as if they have this image in their head of the "perfect" life for everyone and force it on others at all costs, even people's lives. They would rather you be miserable and keep up the fantasy that makes them look good from the outside than walk away and find true happiness.
EVERY SUNDAY we heard it said. Love God, Love your neighbor.
and then they said
*"....On these two commandments hang ALL the Law and the Prophets."*
without that, you are not Christian or any sort of moral human. Hate is a human emotion, but you should repent and be free.
Beau I know this is an old video, but as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community I just wanted to thank you for this. You are a true ally to the community.
"... it's pretty clear it's hate"
Damn right Beau!
It's also undiluted projection from the person who wrote the letter.
I have never yet answered my door to someone who is trying to persuade me to be gay.
😂
But, but I had to see a person I thought was gay, and that's the exact same thing as them forcing their views on me! /s
YOU ARE CORRECT SIR.
You are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.
Thank you. Thank you. And thank you. ❤
Beau peeps, you are an amazing, loving community. Thank you.
My great Aunt is a catholic nun and a therapist and theologian (she has multiple graduate degrees). I was raised Jewish. Growing up, we often discussed religion. Her penultimate view is that all of humanities' issues arise because we do not love our neighbors, and we do not love our neighbors because we do not love ourselves. She often says, she has personal moral views, but practicing the faith means putting those aside and carrying for others WITHOUT JUDGEMENT OR STIPULATIONS.
I am saddened and angered that so many people purport to be Christian but do not try to follow this core tenet. Not being Christian, my understanding of the religion is that loving others unconditionally was the whole point. I may not be correct in this, but as an outsider, I don't consider anyone that espouses hate towards a specific group a Christian at all, regardless of what they identify as.
you are so very fortunate do you have your great aunt and to have been raised in search an incredible sounding family. I believe you are correct in your views on loving everyone unconditionally.
that our failure to love others and ourselves comes from fear
Many Evangelical and Fundamentalist "Christians" would claim that since your great aunt is Catholic, then she is not a Christian. For them, "being Christian" means hating and persecuting anyone that does not follow their particular brand of "Christianity". Wars have been fought in Europe over this centuries ago.
Ben Rosen
No True Scotsman Fallacy. They ID as, professing belief in, therefore they are.
I am so glad you had such a light in your life. Keep passing that on!
Ben Rosen I am a Christian and you are absolutely correct Loving others unconditionally is the whole point. I am sorry to say their are those who don't get it.
“I believe that the only true religion consists of having a good heart.” - Dalai Lama
Isn't the Dalai Lama a confirmed child molester at this point after the incident with the little boy in India?
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
If only that were the case ♥️
I remember years ago reading the famous book about the trials and adventures of the horse known as Black Beauty, by Anne Seawall.
There's a quote that I never forgot, but I will paraphrase it here:
The hostler (groom) of Beauty is talking about religion..."If [new religion] doesn't teach to be kind to each other and kindness to animals, it's a sham, and it won't stand when the trump sounds."
Now please realize that "trump" here means the fanfare or trumpet that blasts the musical note that will herald the ending of the world on the last day .
But that quote has stayed with me for a lifetime and I hope that I have lived it more often than not.
@@marieroberts5664 I too loved the book Black Beauty ...... and still have my copy some 60 years later. Anna Sewell was the author. Hard to believe it was first published in 1877.
Thank you form a cis gender loved of Jesus who has family members who have suffered from being judged by people who are too sure of what they think they know to be the truth.
It's like hating someone because you discovered they have arms and hands. It is actually how their brains are made. From birth I might add.
"There's no hate like christain love"
This was a masterful presentation, I regret my error in the second sentence here. "Putting themselves, . . " You make it obvious here that what the world needs is more love, care and understanding.
This is absolutely a top 3 Beau video
As the pastor of an lgbtqia affirming PC(USA) church, I applaud your excellent sermon! Matthew 22:36-40.
I don't consider myself particularly religious anymore, but I was raised in the same denomination by two parents who went to seminary, so I ended up reading a good bit of the bible. How anyone could look at the combined parables and lessons of Jesus and come away with the hostility towards others that some of these other denominations preach is beyond me... unless I start considering ulterior motives. 'Easy to sell hate' indeed.
@@stardust86x Read LEVITICUS:DEUTERONOMY: EXUDUS 21: MATHEW 35: GENIUSES and about 250 Verses that approve Slavory and buying owning the Jews 7 years but any other and all the gentiles of all nations for Life. You can Beat any man Daily and sell them the woman or sisters of very young ages and do with them as you choose . you can beat them daily half to death as long as they don't die in 2 day's you will not be guilty because you own them as property. Moses Had his solders Kill off by slaying and cutting out babys millions mothers breast feeding . or if the Mothers Baby did not drink her milk then she must EAT HER BABY i'll never figure that sickness out. 250 more Verses i could put here but should i because people especially most to all Christians Don't even Read the Bible and simply know there Dishonesty in trust any one who sounds good to them as there God Jesus ways they dishonestly take. my family for instance will know they are dishonest right in fron of my face making me Vomit pratically because of what They do the high preist Do for Profit and Especially GET THEM WHEN THEY ARE VERY YOUNG is nothing but a Manipulating brain washing Scam any possible long life for many. i want a true Loving Honest Creater just like you but have an insane way of trying to find its true spirit of love. My Mother still today suffering for praying decon and sopport the church for 88 years giving giving and birth 9 Children . What she gets for this love of Jesus is nothing but a punishing like for life and crys out daily why she suffers for it. Turning her children instant atheist as God voids laughs even seems. Jesus had it made and lived 33 little years and suffered a death of stabings from solders but knowing he's going to heaven and now gets to be in AAAHHHH Voiding his promeses 2000 years ago. My loving true christian Mother who boar 9 Children and cared loved churched and gave deconed send bibles to other country's gets to SUFFER GRAVELY 89 YEARS and not have a Clue where shes going but get punished way more than 33 little years is nothing to simply Void. War coming on the very aspect and spiritual law that needs to be a tiny bit proven other wise Humans will eventually Grow sick and tired of it just because all it ever caused was suffering and the promisses Jesus said he comes fastly quickly for all to see and not this spirit made scam man made but the actuall Jesus him self and never Came after he said to the deciples never mind us.Ya every body read some of the Bible and keep out the evil gory stuff i could put down right now if you want but i know you don't.
I think he missed the MOST IMPORTANT part of that passage
Verse 40: All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
The meaning is clear, if any law or proclamation by any prophet goes against theses commandments, they are false. A good christian MUST reject all such laws and views EVEN IF IT IS WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE
🙏thank you for your needed service to our species 🏳️🌈👭🙌
Amen!
Thank you for this video. I’m a Christian. I’m also a senior, African American woman. I say this because when I was growing up I lived in a segregated community. Meaning we could not own or rent anywhere else in the city. All the black people, professionals like doctors and lawyers, teachers, factory workers and the like, lived in the space of several square blocks. So did the “gay” people. We were all outcasts. We were all “othered” by society. We all knew who was “gay” and who wasn’t. And I don’t remember it making a difference. Of course, that is from a child’s perspective. My hairdresser was gay. And my hair was always gorgeous. He taught me how to style my hair and how to make the styles last. I loved his salon. So did my mom and my sisters. It wasn’t until I went away to college and went into the workforce that I learned that if you were a person of color and gay, you were triply discriminated against because it was a double mark to be a person of color. Three strikes if you were also gay. I am too old to be able to conceptualize trans and the changing of the pronouns. Still, each individual has the right to live as they choose to live. Matthew 22 starting around verse 18, Jesus was talking to a group of “church folk”. He uses the emblem of Caesar on the coin and he says; “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” In other words, mind your own business. That’s not a direct translation but it is my take. If you are busy living your life according to the word of God, you won’t have time to judge others. There is another passage that says tend to the boulder in your eye before pointing out the splinter in someone else’s (paraphrase). And while you are doing that, love one another. What a different world this would be!
This is completely beautiful. I'm a white cisgender female who spent time in childhood wondering, WHAT was the deal about "those people" - black, gay, Hungarian- that I was supposed to look at funny. Finally trusted that my failure to see the "problem" was seeing true. God bless you! You said so true and real. 🌹
AMEN, Sister Meeks! 🙏♥️
Lately I've been thinking about the commandments, and it seems to me that after loving God and honoring parents, they are mostly about minding our own business. It would make life better if we would do that. Hating is so toxic to everyone.
The 'groups' are the 'excluded' and I was in a white orphanage in the South and they all used the N word, but I never did, and I knew few Black people,but heard the N slurs and I just was not a part of that. I got a job with a balck contractor and full black crew who were suspicious of me,as I was the only white person who'd work there,and I directed job seekers to the Boss and my later mentor,they'd say, what a N word, and I'd say yes, why does it matter, and they rattle of why are you working against your own people, and I said that I wasn't, that we'd all become great friends. Black people were the first to ever show care and concern for me, and the exclusion I felt seemed a long time before for me to understand how much black people had been mistreated, just know it had to be a lot like how I was neglected by the white people who were my dysfunctional family and the staff at the orphanage who perpetrated the racism.
Thank you, Beau. I find myself listening to this post often. I don't know myself very well. But I was a keen and awed observer of my mother & sister.
I always knew how lucky I was to be in my family. Dad and my half brothers were pretty normal people. They stubbornly went their own way... which was copying everyone else's beliefs they were with at that time. Mom and my sister, though, were the rock you could hold to save your sanity and soul. I mean "rock" as in they knew what was right and could not be moved by what was popular or "in" or thteatened by what the current hate was. If someone was being bullied, watch out for my tiny powerhouse mom! If someone popular cheated, my sister was not intimidated and would call it out! Both were my definition of Christians.
So many comments on this video. I’m amazed. Maybe we will finally get down to the core of America’s problems at last. Thank you.
Holy Crap! You have summarized my opinion much better than I could myself!
Oh crap, this one is over ten minutes. I'm gonna go get me a sandwich real quick because Beau doesn't do that unless it's about to get real.
It got really real!
Realest video Beau has ever posted, out of what? THOUSANDS of videos?
My thoughts exactly!
Good observation 😂
😁I went and got a bowl of cereal before sitting down to get ready to quietly eat and learn.
A Lutheran church near me often has some positive message on their sign out front. At one point recently, their message was something along the lines of "Loving LGBTQ is loving your neighbor."
That's definitely progress!
@@BluePatriotWinner The Lutheran church is one of several denominations that are far more likely to follow the commandments Beau cited. In the fifties, our family was among the founders of the congregation in our small town, so I grew up in those teachings. Though I've long since left it behind, the life lessons have stayed with me. They are a far cry from the beliefs practiced by the Evangelical/Dominionist communities that are trying to claim their way should be law.
My aunt is a devout Lutheran and used to be an elected Republican, she has since switched parties and is now very liberal. The party took a hard right turn (especially with the culture wars) and that left a lot of Lutherans with no choice but to stop supporting Republicans, and I don't see her or them ever going back.
@@chezmoi42 Ditto for me with the Presbyterian Church (USA), or near enough. I think they all tend to be 'quieter' denominations, which I can't help but think may be because the respective leaders aren't trying to 'sell' anything like the Evangelical folks are.
@@LorberryDux I think there are a number of denominations that are doing the right thing. I see a few churches around here trying to promote unity and embrace diversity. Now I am generalizing (and I don't have significant data to back this up), but I've often found the more problematic views tend to come from the "born again" varieties - these churches can be run by people with little to no education too (which can be fine, but I know those leading other denominations have years of schooling and there seems to be some correlation between the educational background of the church leaders and their willingness to think more progressively).
If Christians acted Christ-like we’d have so fewer problems. The constitution allows me freedom of religion. And that means freedom FROM religion.
I went for counseling with my pastor. I was young & didn't realize his hugs were too long. I felt like I was wrong. Took alot of time to understand what he was really doing. I now know. I love & follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
I remember when I was saved. It was the day my mother received a letter from the church that she was a member of and she said that they were sending her a get well soon card because she and we as a family had not attended services for a couple of weeks. I was about 8 years old when this happened. When she opened the letter there was no get well card inside there was a return envelope inside so she could send her tithe to the church that she had been unable to do because she was sick. That was the last time I have ever attended any church. Those cons don’t get any money from me anymore.
Exactly. Being a good human being is more important than being in a particular building on a particular day.
OMG, thank you for posting this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking of joining a church...and when my house burned to the ground and I had NOTHING...I called a local church and asked for help...and I was told that since I wasn't a church member they could not help me...
@@genevabecker8441 You will know them by their fruit...it's either good, or it's rotten.
@@genevabecker8441 That is part of why I no longer identify as christian. If a person/group can't offer basic human decency to someone who has suffered a catastrophic loss just because that unfortunate individual is not a member of a certain little in-group, then said person/group is ignoring the most basic tenets of their faith. Jesus said, "love your enemies," but someone who is suffering such a catastrophic loss is not the enemy. Not. Even. Close. Jesus ministered to and hung out with those on the fringes of society - the poor, the outcast, the powerless, the sick, the ostracized - He had no use for the self-important religious leaders of His day, even going so far as to refer to them as "whited sepulchers."
Someone who has been knocked to the ground by catastrophic circumstances is your neighbor, your fellow human being, a fellow member of the larger community who has suffered a devastating loss that few can understand unless they have actually lived through it. If you identify as christian, your faith should compel you to help them without an agenda simply because it is *the right thing to do," no questions asked, no agenda involved, and certainly no church membership required. To refuse to do so is the very definition of evil IMO.
I went to a Roman Catholic church growing up because that's what was expected of us. When my daughter was in kindergarten, she attended a Catholic school because her babysitter's children also went to school there. I attended a service where it was mentioned that basically, if you were divorced, which I was, that I was commiting adultery by being with another man. So much for that religion.
I'm bi and I was terrified that my parents would find out. I made Sims families where I'd have a happy family married to a woman, but I was always nervous that they'd see the game over my shoulder. I was in therapy for other reasons and I said that if I didn't come out, I was going to kill myself, because I couldn't do this anymore. I was so anxious and my depression was getting so much worse. I was afraid my mom, who'd frequently go on homophobic rants, would disown me.
So I came out. My mom said that she could still love me because I was still her daughter. In the past she's said that homosexual marriage was the cause of the downfall of America and would lead to the legalization of pedophilia. She's very "love the sinner, hate the sin" about me.
Dad is cool with it and I'm his go to person on the queer community now.
We've talked about trans people, bi-sexuality and how MAPs are hated by the queer community. We haven't been able to go to a pride event yet due to COVID, he's recovering from beating stage 4 cancer, but he said he'd be 100% down to go and celebrate with me.
Most of the time religious people are the worst, but sometimes there's my dad. :)
Finding love and acceptance when we expect rejection and hate can be one of the most liberating experiences one can have! I'm glad you found that in your dad!
I'm a straight, cis, almost 60 year-old white guy, but having the privilege of knowing LGBQTIA+ folks, including in my family, has improved my life in countless ways.
Much love to you and your Dad 👌❣️
... and even your Mom, which at least still loves you 🙏
Your last line is just beautiful: "Most of the time religious people are the worst, but sometimes there's my dad."
That made me smile so much & that message of hope from you is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your story.
Love your story of hope. Help me understand please, what are MAPs? Hope your dad's health is always improving too.
I am an unapologetic Christian and I must say: Very Well Said. Christ Never forced or told us to force anyone to follow Him.
In live have I drawn thee.
This might be my favorite vid that you've ever put out
As a gay person, I just want to say thank you for this video Beau. I’m actually sitting in my car in tears writing this comment. You see, I grew up Catholic in Florida and you’re right, the biggest fear in coming out was not being accepted and loved by the people important to me in my life. The amount of pain the church has caused people like myself will last our whole lives and it’s because we grow up in this state of fear and cognitive dissonance. We are taught one thing by Jesus, but hear the opposite by his followers. I ended up having to move from Florida because this hate has become law there in a way that makes it impossible to build a life there as a queer person. Maybe if more Christians followed what Jesus said, so many people wouldn’t live with this amount of pain every day. As the saying goes, “I like your Christ, but I don’t like your Christians.” They chose to be Christian… I didn’t choose to be gay, God made me this way. Thanks again Beau.
This is a question that should regularly be asked: If God *made* someone gay, what right do any of us have to hate or criticize what God made? I'm straight, but I fully understand it's not a matter of choice. You are who you are, and you deserve to be loved. ❤
Marv, I believe that saying is, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ." That was stated by Mohanas Gandhi.
Sorry you had to go through this. Sadly too many people choose to be cruel.
I’m so sorry that you and people like you have been put through such trauma. As you said, it leads to laws and regulations and also violence. God said that everything that He, she or it made is good and perfect. Period. He made you and therefore you are perfect.
There is a documentary about how in the 40’s the word homosexual was added to the Bible. It WASN’T originally scripture. I think it’s called 1946 (1940 something. I may have got the date wrong). God made you, you. There is nothing wrong with you, or any other gay person. Being gay isn’t a sin. I’m sorry the church hurt you. You definitely don’t deserve it. God bless you. ❤