The liberal religious leaders are not the "good guys."
Hah. Well, they are not making money sending out fundraising letters to millions that encourage hatred of me, they are not agitating against laws that protect me from discrimination, and they are not generally saying bad things about me and the people i care about. So they may not be the good guys per se, i have my share of qualms with them, but i much prefer them to the conservatives.
I think the answer lies not in finding the Christians who share your ideology.
I have had an extremely hard time finding Christians who don't share my ideology who are willing to dialogue with me in a compassionate and respectful way. For the most part, i have not found such people to be willing to listen to even the most basic points. My experience of conservative Christians has mainly been them shouting at me for one reason or another. It's not particularly inviting. After years of extending the olive branch to have it mostly batted away, i've finally given up entirely on meaningful dialogue with Christians who don't share my ideology. My discussions with you are one of the very few significant exceptions to that.
If you only appeal to "liberal" Christianity, "conservative" Christianity will just find it all the easier to denounce you ..
How could it be any easier for them to denounce me? It doesn't matter what i do or say, most such people are not going to like me. I see something in the news every day about one Christian leader or another complaining about gay people, and at least once a week i hear it about transsexuals. The best i can do really is to offer the witness of the bravery of just living my life.
But any true support you will get from Christians is going to come from the Christ, not a remade Christ. And it is going to come to you as a person, not your ideology.
This sounds rather like the belief/faith distinction i've drawn in recent posts (correct me if i'm wrong).
Sadly, at the moment i don't have much hope or faith that what you are saying will come to pass. Most Christians i encounter do not seem willing to come out to the wilderness where i am to meet me, nor even to meet me halfway; they insist that i do all the sacrificing, all the compromising, and come to them. I just want to know that my story and those like mine are at least being heard, but i don't even see much indication of that. Voices like mine have just not been much welcomed within Christianity.
Re: I swear to God this is an honest question, not sarcasm
Hah. Well, they are not making money sending out fundraising letters to millions that encourage hatred of me, they are not agitating against laws that protect me from discrimination, and they are not generally saying bad things about me and the people i care about. So they may not be the good guys per se, i have my share of qualms with them, but i much prefer them to the conservatives.
I think the answer lies not in finding the Christians who share your ideology.
I have had an extremely hard time finding Christians who don't share my ideology who are willing to dialogue with me in a compassionate and respectful way. For the most part, i have not found such people to be willing to listen to even the most basic points. My experience of conservative Christians has mainly been them shouting at me for one reason or another. It's not particularly inviting. After years of extending the olive branch to have it mostly batted away, i've finally given up entirely on meaningful dialogue with Christians who don't share my ideology. My discussions with you are one of the very few significant exceptions to that.
If you only appeal to "liberal" Christianity, "conservative" Christianity will just find it all the easier to denounce you ..
How could it be any easier for them to denounce me? It doesn't matter what i do or say, most such people are not going to like me. I see something in the news every day about one Christian leader or another complaining about gay people, and at least once a week i hear it about transsexuals. The best i can do really is to offer the witness of the bravery of just living my life.
But any true support you will get from Christians is going to come from the Christ, not a remade Christ. And it is going to come to you as a person, not your ideology.
This sounds rather like the belief/faith distinction i've drawn in recent posts (correct me if i'm wrong).
Sadly, at the moment i don't have much hope or faith that what you are saying will come to pass. Most Christians i encounter do not seem willing to come out to the wilderness where i am to meet me, nor even to meet me halfway; they insist that i do all the sacrificing, all the compromising, and come to them. I just want to know that my story and those like mine are at least being heard, but i don't even see much indication of that. Voices like mine have just not been much welcomed within Christianity.