And by no means, please, insist to them they are theologically wrong.
I see this constantly in conversations surrounding anti-LGBTQ bigotry — a significant subset of Christian nationalist belief systems.
I'm always astonished when liberal or progressive people argue to liberal Christians (usually mainline Protestants from large denominations like the UCC, the Episcopal Church, or the UMC) that the Bible demands homophobic bigotry, that they don't understand their own faith.
My jaw drops as I watch progressive people literally argue in favor of oppressive theology. My jaw drops every day, because I literally see this happen every day.
I mean, I guess some of it is just based on lack of knowledge about theological progress that has been in the works for close to a century. Another problem is that people raised in conservative Christianity often don't have any concept of how progressive Christians value religious texts like the Bible.
Because conservative Christians insist on literal interpretation, many people don't understand that Christians are not uniform in that respect.
Not only do many progressive Christians have very different interpretations from conservative Christians, progressive Christians often don't even try to take the Bible literally. Viewing the Bible as absolute revealed truth is something they often just don't value.
But whether progressive Christians publicly argue against conservative interpretations or whether they express their own anti-textualism theologies, they are sure to be met by progressive non-Christians who insist they're getting their own religion wrong.
Don't know what I mean? Here's a specific example. I once promoted a story on Twitter praising some progressive pastors in my area for leading LGBTQ-affirming congregations. One of the pastors identifies as a lesbian, and she's married to a woman.
That's a big deal around here, because this is Republican, Trump country. This is intensely religiously motivated anti-LGBTQ country. These pastors are brave people. They aren't at all unusual for their progressive denominations, but they're unusual around here.
Did my story get a bunch of praise on Twitter? Did lots of progressive people speak up in support of these pastors? Nope, exactly the opposite happened.
My thread got swarmed by progressive non-Christians "explaining" to the pastors that they don't understand their own religion, that their religion must be anti-LGBTQ, that no other possibility exists ... because the Bible says so.
In one subthread, somebody went on and on "mansplaining" the lesbian minister's own faith to her, despite the fact that she holds a PhD in theology from an ivy league university.
A gay man was literally arguing in favor of the theology of his own oppression. I don't understand that even a little bit.
