Tag: christianity

After Stacy had slapped Pastor Mark, Chad was concerned, not about Mark but about the kids who had to watch this unfortunate conflict. Nonetheless, he asked his friend John to read the final Bible verses from the book of John.

“We have only one more section from the Bible to read today, and then I will explain the entire purpose of all these verses we have read from Matthew, Luke, and John. John, I’d like you to proceed with John chapter 1, verses 1 to 18,” said Chad.

John 1:1-18 from NET Bible

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1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. 2 The Word was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.

6 A man came, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who have received him—those who believe in his name—he has given the right to become God’s children— 13 children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.

14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. 15 John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’” 16 For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

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After John had finished reading, Chad explained the reason he chose these verses from the gospels and how they are all connected.

"It may surprise you, but I noticed something for the first time in my life as I was reading through the four gospels. Although they start at different places in the story of Jesus, they all have a theme about being born differently. Matthew and Luke cover the unusual story of how Jesus was born of the virgin named Mary. The specific issue of Jesus not having a biological father because God was his father instead is most unusual.

Another unusual thing is that John the Baptist’s birth was unusual because Zechariah and Elizabeth were old and could not have children for many years. The books of Mark and John don’t talk about the birth of Jesus or John but start with what they did as adults. In any case, it is clear that John knew who Jesus was and told everyone to be ready for him. John also knew that Jesus existed before him, even though he was conceived by Elizabeth six months prior to the angel visiting Mary and telling her she was going to be the mother of Jesus.

Someone has to read all four gospels even to get a coherent picture of everything that happened because they start in different places and tell different details. But most importantly, I realized that the Bible is not the Word of God, but that Jesus is the Word who was with God and was also fully God. The Word became flesh, which means Jesus took a human form when he was conceived by his mother Mary after the visit from the angel.

I can see that humans were all trying to write down the story of Jesus from their perspectives. It also appears they made an error when including the genealogy of Jesus because he was not created by human parents but, just as John said, he existed before John the Baptist did and was with God in the beginning of all things before anything was created.

But the most amazing thing to me is that the book of John explains in verses 12 and 13 that we can become children of God by the decision of God, and it doesn’t matter who your biological parents were or when they decided to have you.

And I wanted everyone to know that I think it is important for people to read the Bible and understand these stories, not because the Bible is God’s Word, but because it covers the life and teachings of Jesus, who is the actual Word of God. I live my life always pondering the question: “What would Jesus do?” and I thought understanding this could be the most important thing I tell you since I was asked to be part of this ministry," said Chad.

After the children and their parents ate watermelon, Chad wanted to explain the purpose behind the Bible verses he and his friends were sharing.

“In the first chapter of Luke, we discovered that the mother of Jesus was a virgin named Mary. In case anyone is still wondering about the virgin part. It is clear that Mary became pregnant by the power of the holy Spirit instead of through the regular way all of you were created by your parents.”

“But how did our parents create us?” asked Simon.

“I wish I could tell you, but if I were to try, your parents would probably get angry at me for telling you something they should have told you themselves already. For now, just keep in mind that you are biologically related to your parents and look like a combination of them because you received half your DNA from your mother and father,” said Chad.

“What is a DNA?” asked Sally.

"Honestly, Sally, I ain’t got a clue. It is one of those fancy things biologists talk about, but I don’t know how it works. But more importantly, I would like Matthew to begin reading from the first chapter of the book of Matthew so we can compare it to the story in Luke.

Matt then began to read from the book of Matthew:

Matthew Chapter 1 from NET Bible

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Matthew 1:1 This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah (by Tamar), Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 Salmon the father of Boaz (by Rahab), Boaz the father of Obed (by Ruth), Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.

David was the father of Solomon (by the wife of Uriah), 7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, 8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, 15 Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, fourteen generations.

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately. 20 When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: 23 “Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He took his wife, 25 but did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named Jesus.

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Before Matt had finished reading from chapter 1 of the book of Matthew, some children were so bored they fell asleep.

“This doesn’t make any sense! Why should we care who was the father of some guy who was the father of another dude who was the father of some other brother from another mother?” asked Trevor.

"Glad you asked, Trevor! I don’t care any more than you do. I don’t know the names of my ancestors from thousands of years ago, and I don’t care. I am who I am regardless of how I came to this world. Similarly, I don’t care about the people mentioned in these verses because who Jesus was had nothing to do with these people. Also, the genealogy was clearly an error because it was the ancestors of Joseph, who was not the biological father of Jesus. God was the father of Jesus, and Mary was his mother. Jesus was conceived by the holy Spirit and not through the bloodline of the 42 generations of ancestors mentioned in the book of Matthew.

“Why were these people included in the book if they don’t matter?” asked Trevor.

Whoever was writing these books died thousands of years ago, and so we can’t ask them, but if I had to guess, they saw Jesus as being the legal son of Joseph because Mary became his wife, and in those days, women were seen more as property than people. You may have noticed that the genealogy lists mostly men and only a few women, despite the fact that every one of them had a mother. The writer probably didn’t like women or perhaps excluded them so he didn’t have to write so many of those long names," said Chad.

“Come on, Chad, that is just guessing. You have no clue what you are talking about,” said Luke.

“Yes, I did say I was guessing, but it doesn’t miss the larger point that the Holy Spirit was the reason that Mary became pregnant with Jesus without needing a man. I guess you could say that the Spirit is thicker than blood in this case,” said Chad.

At this point, Stacy decided to speak, despite generally being shy in crowds.

“Chad, sorry to interrupt, but I think I understand. The writers tried to frame everything in terms of their culture and ancestry because it was important to them, but it was not important to God. The conception and birth of Jesus completely contradict everything else in the society. Patriarchy and a man’s permission were ignored because God sent the angel directly to Mary before Joseph knew anything. It also opposed the genealogy because Jesus was not a biological descendant of Joseph’s bloodline,” said Stacy.

“Thanks for your input, Stacy! Yes, I do think that the writers tried to include extra things that were not important to understanding the life of Jesus. It is one of the mistakes in the New Testament, but we can still learn a lot from the gospels about who Jesus is and what he taught,” said Chad.

“Excuse me, Chad, but did you really say there are mistakes in the Bible?” said Pastor Mark.

“Of course, Mark. All writings have mistakes due to human error and personal or political bias. Seeing which parts are true and which are just the opinions of humans is the hardest part,” said Chad.

“But the Bible is the infallible word of God!” I can’t let you speak such heresy to these children," said Mark.

“And I won’t let you lie to them and say that there are no mistakes in the Bible when clearly there are contradictions between the intentions of the writers and what God was intending to teach people through the life of Jesus,” said Chad.

“Chad, you’re fired. No one talks back to me. I am the pastor of this church, and I say what happens here,” said Mark

SLAP

Stacy slapped her father hard in the face and interrupted him.

“Shut up, Dad. You think you are the boss, but you are not God, and you are not a man of God either. You care only about your reputation and money rather than whether these kids hear the truth. I think Chad has a point here, and I want the kids to hear it,” said Stacy.

"Thanks, Stacy. We are almost done here for today. Pastor, we will talk about this later, but for the record, you can’t fire me because I am a volunteer!

Pastor Mark did not say anything else because his daughter, Stacy, might slap him again. She was in a mood today that he had never seen before.

Chad was concerned about what the young boy Simon had said to Luke regarding the flood in Genesis. Sure, he knew about the story, but when Luke told the children about God killing all the animals with a flood, something in him broke. How could he know what stories were true or not? He decided to focus more on the teachings of Jesus and began reading the Bible more and also doing other research.

Meanwhile, Stacy had also become concerned. She took a break for several weeks and did not join Chad and Luke for the soccer and Bible stories because she felt like she had nothing to contribute and didn’t want to be around Luke because he was so rude to Chad. Oddly enough, Stacy met Chad at the library one day when they both went to look at children’s books.

“Stacy! What brings you to the library?” asked Chad.

“Oh, hi Chad. I wanted to find some books with Bible stories for children. I liked the way you explained the story of Daniel and his friends in a language they could understand.”, said Stacy.

“That is sort of why I am here too. I need inspiration because I know a lot of stories, but some of them are not relatable to children or can traumatize them. I also haven’t seen your for awhile, are you okay?”, said Chad.

“Yeah, I am okay…I guess. I just didn’t really want to be on the spot and have the responsibility of children looking up to me as an example when I am really not sure what I am doing with my life.”, said Stacy.

“You know, it’s funny because I think the same thing about myself. Like, am I teaching these kids the truth about God or am I cherry picking the Bible verses I agree with and ignoring those I don’t? Maybe I am not cut out for teaching anything but soccer and board games. They have consistent rules I can follow, but am I really a good Christian?” said Chad.

“What are you talking about, Chad? You are the best Christian in the town. None of us has all the answers, but you explained everything to Gabby when she interviewed you at the animal shelter. What you do for the animals, you are doing for Jesus.”, said Stacy.

“Yeah, you’re probably right, but living for Jesus and teaching other people are two different things. Besides, Luke makes me doubt what is true about God.”, said Chad.

“Did something happen with Luke?” asked Stacy.

“Every week something happens with Luke. He tells the children Bible stories from the Old Testament, where God tells the Israelites to kill people in war. It all started when he told the flood story of Genesis 6 about God drowning all life on the planet except for those on the ark.”, said Chad.

“Oh, I see. No wonder you seem so down. I am not so sure what to think about those stories either. They seem rather different than the teachings of Jesus. What are you going to do about soccer Sundays with the kids?” asked Stacy.

"I was thinking of quitting. I don’t want to disappoint the kids, but I just can’t watch their faces as Luke tells them horror stories from the book that we are told is God’s word. I need some time to pray and think about it.

“I understand completely, Chad. That is why I have been absent too. Just because I am a pastor’s daughter doesn’t mean I am a good Christian.”, said Stacy.

“Nonsense, Stacy. You serve animals, and you haven’t been around humans the whole time I have known you to have possibly sinned anyway. You’re probably second in righteousness only to Jesus.”, said Chad.

“Yeah, not quite. I also have a tattoo of a butterfly on my butt, and that is a violation of Leviticus 19:28.”, said Stacy.

“Stacy, I am not here to judge!” said Chad

“But do you still think I am a good Christian even though I have mutilated my butt and fallen short of the glory of God?”, said Stacy.

“We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but I have to ask, why a butterfly?” asked Chad.

“A butterfly starts as a caterpillar. Everyone expects it just to be what it was born as, but then it surprises everyone when it hides away for awhile and is then reborn as a new creature. It is like becoming a Christian by being born again.”, said Stacy.

“I never really thought about it that way. I will remember that. So are you saying you committed an Old Testament as a sign that you became something new?” said Chad.

"Exactly, Chad, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says:

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

So I believe that we should follow the new testament whenever there is a conflict between the old and the new. ", said Stacy.

“Somehow, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Stacy. I think I know what I need to do about Luke and the kids.”

The Question Hook

“Have you ever been told that you have to choose between your soul and your self? For years, I was warned that my identity and my faith could never occupy the same room. But what if the gap between scripture and advocacy isn’t a canyon we fall into, but a bridge we build?”

The idea that I had to choose between being a Christian and admitting that I was transgender was strange to me, but it is what other humans seemed to imply. I am too smart to think that other people or God can be fooled by dishonesty. A person who is of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum has the choice about whether to LIE about their feelings, but they can’t change them. Those who come out of the closet are just being honest with themselves and others, which, in my opinion, is always less sinful than the alternative of coming up with new lies.

Although some claim that their faith caused a change in their gender identity or sexual orientation. I think these are not something the individual does but is forced to undergo over time. Either they are pleasing people and trying to conform to what their church teaches them, or perhaps being gay or transgender doesn’t seem to matter as much when they learn their purpose in life is better served as a single person who can do with fewer friends to influence them in the wrong direction.

The Universal Code

“In computing, a binary system uses ones and zeros to build infinite worlds, yet we treat the gender binary as a cage. What if God’s mind isn’t a simple ‘either-or,’ but a complex digital landscape? Understanding this logic didn’t just save my faith—it revealed how my advocacy is the ultimate prayer.”

There have been moments when I almost feel I see something supernatural and beyond anything I was taught about God or the power of the soul. When I am deep into math algorithms used in my computer programs, I sometimes am shocked by the idea that math is a Universal Language, which is at least partially represented by programming languages and the traditional math notation used by physicists and other mathematicians. Humans may have invented the symbols used, but they never could have created numbers, colors, or geometric primitive because these things must exist before anything else can exist.

Many religions cannot agree on how many gods there are or whether the one Christian God is split into 3 parts. Others like me tend to believe in a dualistic bi-theism where good and evil can only be defined when both exist. Otherwise, the statement that God is good and the devil is bad makes no sense.

But beyond that, it is important to see that the binary numeral system is the closest way of representing this duality in computers. Perhaps this is why it is the checkerboard or the yin-yang of everything, I believe.

The Provocative Question

“What if respecting the identity of the LGBTQIA+ community is precisely what Jesus would have done if he walked the earth in 2026? Most assume faith and advocacy are at war, but I’m deconstructing that myth. Let’s reconcile tradition with authenticity to prove these worlds are beautifully and inherently compatible.”

When looking at the character of Jesus. He spent a lot of time around the sinners and was often criticized by religious leaders for it. I like to think that Jesus might actually be a better example for people like me than he was for mainstream heterosexual and cisgender people.

After all, if Jesus is God, and humans, both male AND female, are made in the image of God. Then clearly God is not simply a man or a woman. Even if he presented as a man two thousand years ago, this says very little about what he truly was before he came to inhabit a human body. The pronoun he is only a convenience and tradition, but I would not call it a reality, especially when I don’t identify with my birth sex because it never felt right.

Of course, much of this is speculation, but I think it is fair to make connections to modern topics that were not discussed in ancient times but are relevant today. In fact, none of the things in the Bible match our modern society. There were no cars, airplanes, or computers in the ancient Middle East. The English language didn’t even exist back then.

But there is no doubt that gay, transgender, and intersex people would have existed during Jesus’ time. The closest mention of it is what he said about eunuchs.

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"9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.

11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." – Matthew 19:9-12

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Clearly, some of us were born different. I would argue that the LGBTQIA+ people were what Jesus was referring to, although the language we use today didn’t exist back then. Even if it had, we can assume most of Jesus’ audience were cisgender and heterosexual people. Those of us who are not like the majority must find our own path.

And the final question that I think about every day is: Am I a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven’s sake? I am not sure what it means, but I can’t help but feel it is relevant in some way that I don’t have the education to understand.