The Huffington Post: Christians Turn Love into a Four-Letter Word

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece called Jesus: the First Transgender Man. It was a satirical look at how fundamentalist Christians point to the creation of Adam and Eve as definitions of what being male and female means, when arguing against the rights of transgender individuals. The backlash to the post was huge. Numerous conservative and Christian news outlets wrote about it, YouTubers with hundreds of thousands of followers lambasted it, and radio talk show hosts discussed it on air. The satire was missed by many, and the outpouring of vitriol was staggering. [...]

What I didn’t expect was the degree and volume of absolute hatred that was projectile vomited all over the internet. Vomited by Christians; self-proclaimed followers of He who is love. [...]

Wake up, moderate Christians! Wake up and realize that not all who claim to walk in The Way are gentle. Or kind. Or moderate. Next time you are in conversation with a gay or trans person, don’t just proclaim that you are confronting them with the truth of their sin as you understand it. First remember the ugliness which I captured from numerous people in numerous places around the internet. The screenshots above are just a handful of examples. Remember that this is a tiny reflection of a very large world. Then start your conversation by apologizing for the ugliness, violence, and hate that gay and trans people really do receive from the Christian community.

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Public Radio International: They said, 'You can't win.' He did, and he's now part of a new wave of indie politicians in Mexico.

Mexico has mid-term elections this Sunday, and a political shift is testing the country’s long, entrenched party system: A crop of independent candidates determined to shake things up and win by tapping public frustration with politics as usual. [...]

But there’s worry here about independent candidates, too. “We have no certainty as to whether an independent candidate is going to be better than a party candidate or not,” says Rios, who is quick to call Kumamoto “fresh and refreshing.” But, she offers an overall warning about independent candidates who, she says, can be “more dangerous than party candidates.”

She adds: “Because with parties you have some form of transparency, accountability. At least the party is there after the person is left, so there is some form of punishment that the electorate can give them. However, an independent person is just himself, after he’s done, he’s done. Many authoritarian regimes in Latin American have emerged from supposedly independent candidates.”

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