Christian Culture: Full of Hypocrisy?

I’ve been thinking about the tension between Christianity’s ideals and the culture built around them. Christianity preaches love beyond understanding and a place of safety; yet too often, its culture emits judgment, hatred, and arrogance — quite the opposite of the love and acceptance its members preach. I would like to think it is not so much the teachings themselves, rather its members that pervert the meaning of the teachings. After all, how many different subsections of Christianity are there? There are countless interpretations, from quiet messages of love and peace to aggressive threats of damnation. At its heart, Christianity calls for love and non-judgment — but how often do Christians — or supposed Christians-live up to that ideal?

Christianity is built on love and basic universal rules. Its definition of love is, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:3–5). Christians are to live their life built on love and embody what Jesus would do. It explores in many parts of the Bible what love means and what it looks like, to ourselves and to others. It speaks of doing good to those who hurt us (Matthew 5:44), it talks about loving others as we do ourselves (Leviticus 19:18), it talks about loving as Jesus would (John 13:34–35), and much more acts and themes of love. These teachings emphasize love, no matter who the person may be. Hell, Jesus himself ate with prostitutes and “sinners”. He treated them as equals and did not judge them, but he did judge the Pharisees that reeked of hypocrisy.

It makes me wonder what Jesus would think of today’s so-called Christians.

I see examples of Christians advocating for MAGA, celebrating deportation, demonizing LGBTQ+ members, encouraging woman to be second class and more. It is always ironic when I see certain Christians judging others for what they deem to be “sins”, such as pre-marital sex, homosexuality, cussing and more and then go to their weekly buffet after church and overly gorge themselves like gluttony isn’t sin. I have seen more love and mercy from a mosquito than these so-called Christians. Christian culture is about giving love only to those who blindly follow their rules and unspoken agreements.

For example, I was raised in a religious household. In fact, my dad is now a preacher and social media influencer. When I was within the religion, I was accepted and loved on the condition that I parroted hate speech against the sinners (the gays, the sluts, the druggies, etc.), that I preached that the only way for peace was through God, that I preached that the only way you were going to be loved and accepted is through God, that I essentially preached you are nothing without God. I was taught that there is no room for any other group of people, belief or action and anything against God was an abomination. For the time I was in this, I had community. However, when pointing out the hypocrisy and the hate of Christians, I became ostracized. When I came out as bisexual, I was going to hell.

It did not matter that I was living my life with the principles of Christ; I was set for damnation because of my “sin”.

The same people who have “sin” threw stones at me and declared I bought myself a first-class ticket ride to hell. Then it made me think, how often does this happen? Too often. I have heard countless stories of Christians damning people for “sins” they deem too great. However, last time I checked, sin is equal in God’s eyes (James 2:10). So in God’s eyes, a white lie is equal to raging gay sex (if that is even a “sin”). But, Christians seem to disregard that and pretend that their shit don’t stink. The group is praised for their “hard” decisions of disowning their children for their sins — or at least what they declare as one- and cry and whine about how righteous they are. They have become the judge and executioner all in one. And, I am not saying all Christians, but it is the culture that is known at this point.

I would not say writing this is to condemn Christianity and the texts within, as it is a beautiful religion on its own, like other religions. I will say, the people within it have become hypocrites and the opposite of what the Bible says, all the while quoting it. They scream the scripture, cry the scripture and meditate on it but miss the theme of love. It is time to question if Christians are willing to live by the word that they preach. It is time to question if Christians can humble themselves. It is time to question if Christians can embody Jesus.