Bless Their Bigoted Hearts

Y’all, I had a bless-your-heart-and-pass-the-bourbon moment last week reading about Pastor Zach Lambert down in Austin.

Now Zach did something absolutely wild by Texas evangelical standards: he acknowledged International Transgender Day of Visibility. Didn’t even say anything radical, just that there’s no biblical basis for being anti-trans.

Which, spoiler alert: he’s right.

Well, you’d have thought he set fire to a Cracker Barrel. Conservative Christians came after him like he’d canceled youth group pizza night in favor of a drag brunch.

But here’s the thing: Pastor Zach didn’t say anything new. He just said it out loud.

And for those of us in the queer-affirming, Jesus-loving, justice-chasing corners of Christianity, we’ve been saying it for years:

The Bible doesn’t bash queer folks – bad theology does.

The Clobber Passages Ain’t What They Say They Are

Back when I wrote “Clobbering 'Biblical' Gay Bashing”, I was fired up and armed with a seminary education and a whole lotta sass. I took a theological weed whacker to the so-called “clobber passages” that get trotted out every time someone wants to use Scripture to cover up their own discomfort.

Let’s take a stroll back down misinterpretation lane:

Sodom and Gomorrah? That story isn't about gay folks. It’s about power, humiliation, and a city so inhospitable they made your meanest aunt look like Dolly Parton. Ezekiel flat out says their sin was arrogance, greed, and neglecting the poor. You know… like half of Congress.

Leviticus? That’s about purity codes, y’all. Right next to rules against wearing polyester blends and eating shrimp. So, unless you’re planning on throwing away your Red Lobster punch card, don’t you dare quote Leviticus.

Paul’s letters? Honestly? The Greek words arsenokoitai and malakos are fuzzier than a dandelion head. They might be about exploitative relationships. They’re definitely not about your trans coworker who just wants to pee in peace and live their life.

Love Doesn't Need Your Permission Slip

Here’s the heretical truth wrapped in sweet Southern drawl: Jesus didn’t come to affirm the status quo. He came to flip tables, lift up the marginalized, and tell the self-righteous religious folks to sit down and hush up.

When you actually read the red letters, you don’t see a Jesus obsessed with who’s wearing what or who’s loving whom. You see someone radically inclusive, who put his body between the oppressed and the oppressors.

And yet, conservative Christianity has spent decades turning him into a middle-class moral policeman with a megachurch mortgage and a podcast on “biblical masculinity.”

Give me a break.

Real Faith Ain’t Scared

Pastor Zach’s real offense wasn’t theological. It was cultural. He crossed the unwritten line that says “You can talk about loving folks, just not those folks.” And in doing so, he pulled the curtain back on a Christianity that’s more interested in control than compassion.

But if your faith is so fragile it shatters the moment someone affirms a trans person’s dignity?

My friend, that's not faith. That’s fear in a choir robe.

So Let’s Get Real

If you’re still using the Bible to justify anti-trans hate, you’re not defending Christianity, you’re defiling it.

If your theology can’t make room for the fullness of someone’s identity, your theology’s too small.

And if your Jesus looks more like a Fox News anchor than the brown-skinned rebel from Galilee, it’s time to meet a new Jesus.

One who breaks chains, not people.

One who expands love, not restricts it.

One who’d probably be sitting next to a drag queen at brunch while telling Zach Lambert, “You’re doing just fine, son.”

Keep it queer, keep it kind, and never let the bigots have the last word.