As a person who loves Jesus, I am devastated whenever I hear people screaming their hate and discrimination in the name of religion. I hate it because, believe it or not, not all Christians feel the same way. But as they say, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. In my opinion, there have been too many squeaky Christian wheels trying to tell people what they're "doing wrong," rather than showing everyone what Jesus is like. So with that, I would like to apologize.

To anyone who has been discriminated against in the name of religion, I'm sorry.

The biggest task we, as humans, are given by Christ is to "go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew: 28:19). As a lifelong believer, I have tried to put myself in another's shoes and think about what would make Christianity appealing to me. The Good News (see what I did there?) is that it's literally spelled out in black and white (and sometimes red). Not only is it told, it is also shown to us through stories about what Jesus did during his short life on earth.

Jesus did not hang out with people who looked, acted and dressed like him. He spent time with people who were weird, confusing and deviated from the social norms. Take the story of the woman at the well—she was totally called out by Jesus for having multiple husbands and being with a man at that time who was not her husband. She was weird. That was not normal. But Jesus was totally comfortable with her.

That's a perfect example of who Jesus was and where his priorities were. He loved God's people—and still does. And Christians today are called to do the same, not discriminate against people who sin differently than they do.

If the "love of Christ" that Christians have shown you is anything but love, I'm sorry.

Jesus is the purest example of love. He makes it pretty clear we, as humans, are called to do the same thing. I pray everyone gets to feel the love of Jesus because it is absolute agape love - meaning it is unconditional. There is nothing you can to do make God love you any less (Romans 8:38-39). You are a treasure. You are worthy. Nothing can change that.

To anyone who has been interested in God and then was turned off because of people, I'm sorry.

I pray you'll give Him a second chance and not let any one person cause you to hate God. I'm sorry we are all imperfect people who don't always know what we're doing. But please, please don't let that become your image of God. He is perfect; we are not.

God is love (1 John 4:8).
We are created in His image (Genesis 1:27).
God loves the world (John 3:16).
God thinks we're cool people (Zephaniah 3:17).
God is full of grace and mercy (Psalm 86:15).

May you come to see that Christians are not perfect, but Christ is, and that's a love worth knowing.