“If Jesus Were Alive Today, He’d Chill With Us”

While reviewing several books on faith and sexuality, Briallen Hopper ponders It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living, edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller. How religion can both torment and console young gays:

The stories in It Gets Better show Christianity’s ability to devastate and kill. They remind us that every day churches give sanctuary to bullies and bigots while driving gay children to despair. But they also testify to the truth of [Mark] Jordan’s claim [in
Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk About Homosexuality] that “Christianity remains a repository for archaic, transgressive characters of desire and gender. They are inscribed into its scriptures, especially in the person of its founder.” Or, as Gabrielle Rivera puts it in her “It Gets Better” story, entitled “Getting Stronger and Staying Alive”:

First of all, it doesn’t get better but what happens is this: you get stronger … As for me and God, I view our relationship as hella strong. God made all of us so God made me. Therefore, in my mind, God is cool with being gay. And if Jesus were alive today, he’d chill with us because everybody else hates us.

I’m with Gabrielle. Christ isn’t a poster-child for normalcy, and he didn’t come to earth to give a stamp of approval to presidential candidates. He came to be a savior to people who need saving.