I was born and raised Catholic. For 17 years, give or take, I went to church every Sunday. I went to retreats, summer camps, and religious education. I went to confession regularly. I could have been considered a good catholic, until I began to understand for myself that some doctrines of my faith just didn’t seem right. I did not believe that my homosexual friends were evil or sinners or destined for hell. I did not think pre-marital sex was wrong. I learned that even though I may never want an abortion, it’s a woman’s right to make that choice for themselves. I decided I was no longer going to live my life in fear of sin and planned to step away from Catholicism when I went away to college.

And so far, I haven't looked back. I now get to experience Christianity from the outside looking in, and it has been a truly eye opening experience. Everyone seems to be concerned about the condition of my eternal soul and how my personal life choices need to be aligned with Christian morality lest I suffer on the day of Christ’s reckoning, or worse, infringe upon their own religious freedoms. I have been called many names by people who claim to be servants of Christ (who never called anyone names, by the way) and heard about all the ways my sinful companions and I will be punished for our behavior. I’m chastised for believing in marriage equality (because it goes against the bible) and for engaging in pre-marital sex (because it goes against the bible and I should be keeping my whore legs closed) and for advocating pro-choice legislation (because it goes against the bible and baby murder is wrong and life is precious except for the lives of gays and whores and Jews and Muslims and Atheists and the impoverished and… the list goes on). Let me say that I know this is not all Christians, but a toxic, vocal minority that spoil the reputation of real Christians. It’s these people who have desecrated what it means to be a loving follower of Christ and have not only pushed me further away from ever returning to a religious life, but have made me ashamed to have even lived one. They have ruined Christianity for me and countless others.

These types of Christians are hypocrites. They seem to pick and choose which parts of the bible they want to follow while seemingly missing the most important message of all. To be Christian means to be a follower and believer of Christ. He says many times that he who is without sin may cast the first stone and that we should remove the plank from our own eye before removing the speck from another’s. So what do they do? Condemn everyone else’s sins. He tells us to love one another, in the way that he loves us (unconditionally, which means without ANY conditions). So what do they do? Spew fear and hatred at anyone who disagrees with them or lives their own lives in ways that don’t fit their Christian ideal. Christ says not to be like the Pharisees, always talking about how great they are and how often they pray, but to instead go into your room, shut the door, and pray in secret. So what do they do? Talk about how great they are and take every opportunity to publicly denounce non-Christians and assert their moral superiority. “HOMOSEXUALITY IS WRONG!” they type fervently, seemingly forgetting that in accordance to the scripture, so is divorce (Christians have a 30-42% divorce rate), adultery and viewing pornography (79% of Christian men between 18 and 30 view porn at least monthly), getting tattoos, allowing women to speak in church or wear their hair uncovered (no, that’s not the old testament, it’s Corinithians!), dressing up and wearing jewelry (Peter!), lying, coveting goods and women, dishonoring your parents… And the other 1,000 rules of the new testament.

These types of Christians believe they are being persecuted. That’s pretty rich, coming from a religion that, once in the seat of power, spent all their time persecuting everyone else for not being just like them. Recall the crusades and holy wars, the expulsion of Jews from Spain and the thousands of deaths brought on by the Inqiusitions, the forced conversion of pagan tribes, the Christian terrorism of bombing abortion facilities, the centuries of antisemitism that laid roots for the holocaust, the hate groups, the historical blemish known as the Dark Ages… They maintain the belief that they are better than everyone else and deserve special rights and privileges, and complain about being oppressed when those rights and privileges become available for all. They believe that America is God’s favorite country and that his word is our national law (in reality, it’s the constitution) and that all Americans should live according to the bible. Forget the fact that our immigrant ancestors came to this country escaping religious persecution in England, or that many of the founding fathers were thought to be deists rather than orthodox Christians (George Washington left church service before communion), or that we have a separation of church and state that prohibits congress from passing laws that respect religious establishments, that the first amendment guarantees not only freedom of religion but freedom FROM religion. We are free to support or reject any faith, and all religions are supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law. Gay couples wanting to be legally married don’t infringe on your right to be married in your church, it just gives them equality in the eyes of the law. New religious freedom laws give vitriolic Christians an excuse to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of faith, because apparently serving food to gays makes you a bad Christian and hurts your soul. Almost every day you read about state congress’ attempting to defund Planned Parenthood and limit a woman’s right to an abortion because they think everyone should believe that life begins at conception. Creationism and abstinence only sex education are being forced onto children while evolution and other scientific teachings, as well as comprehensive sex ed, are being removed, because the Christian agenda to indoctrinate the youth takes precedence over quality education. These Christians want you to think they are the victims while Jews, gays, Muslims, pregnant women, and many other, suffer daily over their misinterpretation of Christ’s teachings.

These Christians seem to be operating during a bigotry fueled renaissance, but a new age of enlightenment is bound to follow. This type of toxic and hateful Christian is successfully turning everyone against real Christianity, and unless those real Christians speak out and condemn the hateful ones, the whole religion will suffer.

I’m tired of being preached to. I’m tired of being called names. I’m tired of being told I’m going to hell. I’m tired of seeing my friends and cohorts terrorized by radical christians just for living lives incongruent with the bible. With every hateful word you speak you not only alienate others from Christ’s messages, but you alienate yourself as well. Jeering at women as they walk into Planned Parenthood doesn’t make you a better person, nor does refusing to serve a gay couple. Calling women sluts or defacing mosques and synagogues or leaving hateful comments on social media doesn’t make you a better Christian either. It just makes you assholes.