Jesus Taught Love, not Hate

Even though I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for five years now, I am constantly surprised when I read the scriptures and Christ is being Christlike and not hateful like the media and the alt-right paint Him to be. I am reading the new Testament for the first time and I don't see much of Jesus hating and condemning sinners, but I see Him helping sinners and sitting with sinners and praying with and for sinners. In my mind I don't see christ angry at a woman getting an abortion, I see Him holding her hand and comforting her as she makes an incredibly difficult decision, whether He agrees with it or not. I don't see Christ happy that parents kicking their son out for being gay, I see Christ helping him find a new place to live, somewhere safe where he'll be happy, whispering in his ear that he is loved.

I spent a lot of the last five years hiding the fact that I was a member of Gods church because of the stereotype that those who follow Christ are hateful because Christ is hateful. But Christ is not hateful. He loves each and every one of us, even when we sin. He is disappointed when we sin, but He still loves us. 

People tend to use Christ as a scapegoat. Use Him to justify their bigotry and hatred when He was neither of those things. I went for an annual checkup at Planned Parenthood and was met with protestors in the parking lot, holding signs wanting to defund Planned Parenthood, that it's a slaughterhouse, and others like that. I'd never been to Planned Parenthood, I went because I needed an annual checkup and a TB test for when I start on campus classes at BYUI in the fall, but I was meat with protests and yelled at for murdering children (I wasn't) and that I was going to burn in hell (I'm not) and that Jesus doesn't love me (He does) if I go into Planned Parenthood. Matthew 5:22 says "but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgement." I was a stranger, and they were abusing me in the name of Christ because they assumed something that wasn't true. 

As I was looking through my past tweets to find the picture on this post, I saw something I had retweeted that just said "kindness upon kindness" that Elder Gong shared at the most recent general conference. I don't remember the context (although he must have talked about passover because I tweeted about that just before retweeting this quote) but it reminds me of the D&C 98:12 "For He will give unto the faithful line upon line, precept upon precept," because I don't believe being faithful just entails following all the commandments, but it involves being Christlike and showing love to our brothers and sisters and above all being kind to each other, whether we agree with what someone is doing or not. We don't know what someone is going through and one kind word could be all someone needs to hear.