Church Sign Spreads Messages of Inclusivity

"(This) to me is what Christianity is all about."  This pastor is using his church's sign to take a stand against intolerance. ️

Transcript

00:00Part of the issue for me is that I'm a white, heterosexual, cisgender male, right?

00:17I've been told that I am loved my whole life.

00:20And once I reached about the age 30, I realized, wow, not everybody has had this experience,

00:25right?

00:26Our transgender siblings have not had that experience.

00:29I've received like 800 messages from people throughout the world, many of them from transgender

00:36folks who say, my family abandoned me.

00:40My church said that I'm no longer able to go there.

00:43So thank you for this message coming from a church that says that even I am loved and

00:49have a place here.

00:50So that to me is what Christianity is all about.

00:59We stand with our Muslim siblings and work to end Islamophobia.

01:13National emergency, 553,700 people are homeless.

01:18Jesus calls us to love all of our neighbors.

01:20He doesn't say, oh, except for these neighbors here.

01:23You know, Jesus doesn't say, love your neighbor, except for the ones who are undocumented immigrants.

01:28He doesn't draw those lines.

01:37When I was 10, my mom got cancer and she had it for 10 years.

01:45And about halfway through, I asked my mom if she was ever afraid of dying.

01:52And she said no, because she knew that her Jesus would save her.

01:58And it blew me away because my mom was not religious.

02:01She was not spiritual.

02:04She had the mouth of a sailor.

02:06She was not someone that I would think, oh yeah, Jesus would of course save this person.

02:12But it was just like a moment where I realized that God's love includes all people.

02:19And it doesn't matter whether we deserve this love.

02:21It doesn't matter whether we've earned this love.

02:24It's just who God is.

02:26My mom ended up dying five years later when I was 20.

02:31And I just saw Jesus walk with her the whole time.

02:36And I was able to walk with her too through that.

02:39And that's where I really learned about the inclusive love of God.

02:50I had no idea how much these messages would resonate with the online community and with

02:56people throughout the world.

02:58And that's been one of the most touching things for me, getting these messages from people

03:02who have been marginalized, unfortunately, by religion.

03:07And trying to be part of a bigger movement that is telling people, don't listen to religion

03:14when it tries to ostracize you or marginalize you, because that is not what God is doing

03:18in the world.

03:19We need to get away with these kinds of distinctions between us and them and get to the point where

03:24we are all on this journey together of trying to love one another and care for one another

03:29as best we can.