Just yesterday, I tweeted about some social injustice. I don’t even remember what it was about now. But I remember the follow-up vividly.

Some very well meaning progressive Christian tweeted back in support of me. They backed my position, and then with respect to LGBTQ people, they added that Christ came to forgive us our sins, and so Christians should not judge people in gender and sexual minorities.

I sighed, and my shoulders slumped.

I don’t know if people truly understand how toxic a statement like that is, and how insulting it feels. I had to decide whether to say something or not.

I tweeted back very simply, “I wish you wouldn’t say things like that. We LGBT people are not asking for forgiveness. We haven’t done anything to be forgiven for.”

And, predictably, my interlocutor took umbrage. It felt like he wanted me to be grateful that he doesn’t judge me.

But the absence of judgement implies that something exists to be judged for.

And I don’t know how to break that paradigm. I don’t know how to explain to people that the fact that they FEEL liberal when they forgive me is a false virtue. That their forgiveness is toxic and part of the problem.

I know that if they actually understood, they wouldn’t be able to support a church that discriminates.

But this is part of the reason why communicating with progressive people can be much harder than communicating with conservative people.

Jim