A few weeks ago I had the chance of attending Panic! At the Disco's "Pray For the Wicked" US Tour, arguably the largest scale and most ambitious stage show to come from the Las Vegas-born pop-rock act. But what struck me most about that night wasn't the confetti or pyrotechnics (or the flying piano). Rather, the moment that haunts me occurred before I even stepped foot into the arena.

I was standing close to the front of the line, but throughout my wait, until doors opened, I kept hearing a commotion coming from the street about half a football field's length away. I had no idea what was going on until the people behind me returned from adventuring off to see what was causing all the noise.

"It's protesters," one of the fans behind me said to some of the others in line. *Cue a slight argument between a couple in line behind me.* They couldn't have been any older than 15 or 16 years old and were debating on whether to go find the protesters or not.

"One of my life goals is to fight a protester. It'd be an honor to be punched by one" snaps one of the teens. After some more back-and-forth, I heard another person chime in, explaining what they saw written on one of the protester's signs. It was a Bible verse, Matthew 7:14:14 (KJV):

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

From what I could gather during the rest of the conversation, the protesters intended to spread an anti-LGBTQ+ message, highlighting the word "strait," using the words of Jesus quoted above to insinuate that someone who identifies differently than heterosexual is not living "the way which leadeth unto life."

Moments later, the doors to the venue opened and everyone funneled inside to enjoy the concert as if nothing had happened. But I still couldn't shake everything I had just heard.

I wouldn't call this an "open letter," but I do think it is important to use this example to highlight some issues that strike me with both "sides" (in this case, the protesters and the teenagers behind me).

Firstly, to the protesters: I understand your eagerness and respect your boldness in trying to spread the Gospel of Jesus. I know it isn't the easiest thing to live in a society with such a wide and contrasting spread of differing views and opinions sexuality and to publicly champion what you believe in takes a certain amount of courage.

However, I have plenty of problems with your misrepresenting of the Gospel. First of all, taking Scripture out of context and warping its wording to fit your own narrative shows clear signs of biblical illiteracy.

While there is a conversation to be had about the role our sexuality and expression of sexual desire has in being a follower of Jesus and His Way of Life, the verse being used here is Jesus speaking to His own disciples, who are already following Him, as words of encouragement, not of condemnation.

If you truly wanted to replicate the Jesus' way of calling out others' sins, you would do as Jesus would and confront the religious hypocrites of your time. There are (sadly) plenty of pastors, priests, and people in other positions of power within the church committing vile acts of sexual abuse and harassment. To me, that seems like the more pressing issue to raise crucial awareness about, and one that I know makes Jesus weep as much as it makes me.

To the teenagers behind me in line: I totally understand your frustration (I mean, just read the paragraphs above this one)! The King I follow (and the King I assume these protesters follow, too) went to house parties and drank wine with prostitutes: Jesus was far from the type of person to go out of His way to try to openly hurt and disrupt those who already didn't follow Him (Jesus actually spent a majority of His time radically challenging those who already claimed to follow the God of Israel).

At the same time: anger and violence will not solve this (or any) of these disagreements. There are protests nearly every day in the United States let alone all over the world, how many do you think end up seeing some form of aggressive adversity and end with punches being thrown? Quite a few.

Showing anger and hate towards these protesters may feel good initially, but in the long run, will not solve anything.

What do we do in these type of situations? I would argue, for the one, that most probably don't wish to take: the Way of Jesus, AKA "the narrow gate" that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 7. What does it look like? It looks like forgiveness (Matthew 5:43-46, NIV), forbearance (Galatians 5:22, NIV), and turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-42, NIV). Yes, we live in the United States of America, and everyone has their rights to free speech and to engage however they want: it's not a crime to express anger towards those you disagree with.

But that's the thing about following Jesus that most people struggle to understand: sometimes we lay down our quote-unquote "rights" and "entitlements" to follow His Way. It might not make total sense to respond this way to people who seem so hurtful and hypocritical. Ultimately, it is the Way that truly brings peace to the situation and deescalates it. That's why the gate that enters into the Way that leads to Life is narrow, and those who find it are few.