Recently, my Facebook page had someone – a dear relative of mine – tag me for a certain video about the end time. The video – of course – talked about President Obama and also Pope Francis, and not in a positive way, but went on about certain things happening in the world, such as ISIS in the Middle East and how this was the end times. There was talk about gun rights and how the government was after the guns of law-abiding citizens. No real facts, just the same old right-wing fear-mongering.
Being raised in a Pentecostal church, I have heard all my life that this was the end times and I always had it pointed out to me that there were certain things happening that was fulfilling Bible prophecy concerning the end of days for us on the earth. It was always frightening to listen to and always made me try harder to be a good Christian, so I’d be ready when the time came. That was when I was a young boy.
So, here I am almost 60 and now there are more stories about the end time and how we are drawing close. Perhaps we are, I don’t know. I do know that for the last century and even during the time when the Apostles of Jesus were walking the earth carrying out his ministry preaching the Gospel, even they believed the end would come in their lifetime. Certain things Jesus said made them believe that, but it didn’t happen. When Hitler was in power, many believed that he was the Antichrist and the end was near but then, it didn’t happen then either.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m a firm believer in the Gospel of Jesus and I also believe the end is coming, and perhaps things that are happening now are a sign of the end. I must also admit that there are times that I pray that it is the end, and God will rapture His people. When I see atrocities happening to innocent people, like beheadings and bombings, and when innocent children are the victims of these things, I can’t help but cry and pray that God would do something about it and perhaps end the evil world we live in and bring about a new world where there would be no more atrocities and no more reasons to cry helplessly over the loss of such precious lives to the violent extreme elements of religious zealots.
Just recently I cried uncontrollably, as many good people did around the world, when I saw the photo of that young 3 year-old boy's body washed up on the beach, thanks to the horrendous things going on in the Middle East and the continent of Africa that has made so many people escape their homelands. As a Christian, I couldn’t help but say a prayer to God that Jesus comes quickly.
However, during this recent posting that a relative of mine decided to tag me for this video, I had the pleasure of doing a back and forth with comments to a woman who is also a friend and relative of my relative, who said that the end is coming because of all these happenings around the world. Thing is, I got this impression by some of things she was saying that she assumed that I was just a sinner and when the end came, I would be facing judgment.
Now she didn’t particularly indicate me but some of the things she said after my comments made me believe so. I quoted several Bible verses to her to show her how wrong she was in some of her statements but I don’t think she really was paying attention. She kept commenting in a way that gave me the impression she was trying to send me a message that she disapproved of me. I assume she knows I am gay and for a lot of these kinds of Christians, they cannot see beyond Sodom and Gomorrah when it comes to gay people. And, it really doesn’t even matter that I haven’t had a sex life in many years, just the fact that I’m gay is enough to her and her kind in their minds to reserve a place for me in Hell, if it was theirs to reserve.
Of course, this is something I’ve dealt with all my life. After years of struggling to change into the heterosexual person that these right-wing people expect me to be, in order for me to go to Heaven, I finally came to the conclusion that my being gay was not going to miraculously change into me being a woman-craving straight man. I had two choices; either I could accept that I had a reserved spot for me in Hell, or I could be the best Gay Christian man that I could be.
And, for my atheist friends out there; no I did not have the option of just stop believing in what they believe to be a fairy tale. I’d be lying to myself because deep in my heart of hearts, I believe in a living God. I also now believe that He loves me deeply and He did not create Hell for me or any other sinner to go to.
Still, I cannot help being bothered by the fact that this woman and those like her just assume that just because I’m gay, Heaven is not for me, and when the church is raptured – as my religion and my faith teaches me to believe in – I will be left behind, unwelcome and unable to join my loved ones in the afterlife.
The most recent news about Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky and how she refused to issue marriage license to same-sex couples and then how the judge ordered her to spend time in jail for contempt, have brought this issue to the forefront, not only in the political world but also in my mind. I realize that there are literally millions of like-minded people who believe that when the end of the world comes or the rapture of the Christians, all LGBT people will be left behind or be sent to a burning Hell to burn forever and ever, just because they are the way they are.
It won’t only be LGBT people that these right-wing Christians believe will be left behind but anyone who even supports us, like the many churches which have welcomed LGBT people into their congregations with open arms. In the minds of fundamentalist Christians like Kim Davis and Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who was there supporting her when she was released from jail – obviously to try gaining traction in the presidential race - we’re all going to Hell and people like them are all going to be in Heaven with Jesus enjoying an eternity of happiness.
It actually amazes me that they can even really consider the life of Jesus and what he stood for and to then believe that it will be them who will be welcomed with open arms into Heaven, by Jesus himself. These are the same people who belong to the party of the wealthy and those who want to load up 11 million undocumented immigrants and ship them back to where they come from. And it doesn’t matter if they’re small children or that the place they escaped from in the first place is a place of extreme poverty and hunger, just as long as they aren’t here taking any of the rightful things that these right-wing Christians believe belongs to them.
These are the same people who want to end social programs for the needy and get rid of Obamacare because it means there isn’t as much health care for them and it’s more expensive, never mind that it has finally provided health care for millions of the working poor who never had it before. These are the same people who want us to cut off aid to third world countries where people, especially children, are starving to death or dying of disease by the tens of thousands every day, and even more will starve and do without much needed vaccines.
Yes, they believe it will be them Jesus comes back and takes to Heaven because they’re the good Christians who turned away those evil same-sex couples who wanted a marriage license. The rest of us will just have to suffer the consequences of being left behind, because Heaven is only for those who believe in the notion that to be Christian, you got to do a lot of hating first for all those who don’t believe the same as you do.
Just one wild idea here: Wouldn’t it be a big surprise to them if Jesus did come back but instead of rapturing all these right-wing Christians up to Heaven, he instead took all the hungry children, all the homeless, all the undocumented immigrants with no place to go, all the outcast of society and all the poor, and all the struggling just to feed their families and survive. Include all the LGBT people who have been turned away from their right-wing Christian families, condemned because of who they are, and all the gay, lesbian and transgender teens that have considered or even attempted suicide just because they’ve been made to feel guilty for being gay by their right-wing churches and families.
Couldn’t you just see the look on their judgmental faces as they all got left behind instead and all those they cannot tolerate in their perfect Christian world got caught away into Heaven? Wouldn’t that just be a really big surprise? What a wild idea that would be? Then perhaps, it would not be so wild an idea after all.