Tl;dr no it isn’t, read on for details.

Christian here.

As you can see, I state and affirm my faith basically every time I post here. It may be a kind of costly signaling–i.e. it opens me up to abuse, usually from my fellow Christians–but it’s not very costly. Very, very few people think less of someone simply because they are Christian, but rather how they use that identity. What do they justify with their faith? What other, horrible positions do they defend with a cross-shaped shield?

If you say “I’m standing with God” but you really mean “I’m bigoted against LGBTQ people and no one should criticize me for it,” your standing with God means nothing. You are just a bigot appropriating a faith that does NOT support bigotry but in fact is PRIMARILY ABOUT ENDING BIGOTRY. We have seen a massive influx of bigots, abusers, and criminals claim Christianity in order to escape accountability, and we should all be getting exhausted of it by now.

Using Christian faith to justify bigotry isn’t just crass, cynical, or callous, but actively blasphemous, and all Christians should join together in condemning that practice.

Bigotry is cruel, hateful, and evil. It is the opposite of Christianity’s fundamental teachings.

And no, Christians are not oppressed. That’s baked into Christian identity from our earliest origins as a tiny cultic commune of weirdos who refused to be part of the state religion of Rome, and saw ourselves as being like Christ: a speaker of truth and thorn in the side of the powers that be.

Claiming to be part of Christianity does not make you a plucky underdog speaking truth to power or rising up against an unjust system. To be clear, there IS an unjust system and there ARE plucky underdogs, but WE CHRISTIANS are the ones in power, WE control the unjust system, and its our targets who are the plucky underdogs. Christianity has been in charge since Constantine, and that was over 1500 years ago.

Let’s not play the oppression Olympics, because we Christians–especially white Christians–won’t even qualify for the event.

An ideal Christian practices love, compassion, justice, and acceptance. They feed the hungry, give to the poor, heal the sick, welcome the stranger, and love their neighbors as themselves. That is the CORE of our faith.

Stop fawning over grifters appropriating our faith to increase their own standing in the right-wing griftoverse. Start doing the work.

Thanks.