God doesn’t hate gay people.

Or at least, I don’t think that He does.

I don’t care what religion you are a part of, or what your beliefs are. I don’t care whether you believe in Allah or Yahweh or maybe multiple gods/goddesses. Maybe you don’t believe in a God. Maybe you’re atheist.

But honestly, there is no major world religion that I know of that preaches a message of hate.

A lot of you reading this right now are probably disagreeing with me in your heads. Maybe you think that there are religions or philosophies that are full of scorn and contempt. To be honest, I don’t blame you. Look at the news. Look at all of these radical hate groups and terrorist organizations that say that they’re doing what they’re doing “in the name of God.” I mean, how can you not, right?

There are always people who take things to the extreme, though. Muslims in terrorist groups represent 0.01% of Muslims. I mean, I made that number up, but I don’t doubt that I’m not far off from the real statistics. Not everyone who is Muslim is a terrorist, obviously. If you go down beneath the surface, Islam teaches tolerance and righteousness. Not hate or violence. I don’t know exactly why and how people interpret it like that, but those who do shame a very, very decent belief and group of people.

Same goes for all of those people who claim to be Christian and hold up signs that say, “God Hates Fags!”

I am Christian.

True, I am not particularly conservative. I am not that religious. But I do believe in God. And I believe that God loves all of his children. I don’t think that loving people who are the same gender as you, or that identifying with a different gender than the one you were assigned to at birth, brings you any further from God. To be honest, I think that it’s the people who have such hate in their hearts as to tell anybody that they are going to Hell, who are the farthest from God.

The heart of Christianity is love. I’m not an expert on other religions, but I know this about Christianity, or at least the way I interpret it. It says in the Bible, “...Love your neighbor as yourself...” (Mark 12:31)*. Doesn’t “neighbor” include people who are white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Hispanic, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual, to name a few? Doesn’t “neighbor” mean everyone? I think it does. Maybe it doesn’t, to you, and that’s unfortunate. But there’s also this: "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44-43)*. If that’s not a message of love, I don’t know what is.

Even if you think that God condemns homosexuality, I may disagree with you, but I’m not going to try to change your mind. However, don’t let the Bible (or any other holy text) justify saying, “God hates fags!” The Bible clearly does not justify that, and I don’t think any other holy text does, either. There is a difference between “I don’t agree with some of your actions,” and “Go to Hell.”

And even if you don’t believe in God, I think that “Love your neighbor,” is something that we should all try to live by.

*NIV.