05/13/2026
This reminded me of the “God loves you, no exceptions” Episcopal sign at our entrance. We welcome you wherever you are on your faith journey.
At communion each week, Rev. Shug Goodlow welcomes all of us, saying something like …if you have been here or have not been here in a while, if you follow Christ or would like to try again, …you are welcome here…
Thanks to a UCC post for the repost that led me to it. (United Church of Christ ) — 9.6K reposts occurred, so it sparked a reaction in many… Take a breath and feel the peace internally.
I grew up in a Baptist church.
Not exactly a loosey-goosey denomination.
But even there, the invitation was clear:
"Come as you are."
Not because sin didn’t matter.
Not because truth didn’t matter.
But because Jesus was trusted enough to do the transforming.
Somewhere along the way,
a lot of Evangelical Christianity
traded that invitation for something else.
"Come as you are" has morphed into:
"Come as my definition of Christian."
sometimes with their second greatest command:
"Come ready to condemn the people we’ve decided God is most mad at."
And somehow, we called that “truth.”
Now, I already know the
angry thumbs are warming up
to rage type at me:
“You’re loving people straight to hell.”
No.
I’m refusing to hate people,
marginalize people,
shame people,
and call it discipleship.
I’m refusing to confuse cruelty with conviction.
I’m refusing to pretend Jesus said, “They will know you are my disciples by how well you hate everyone else’s sin.”
He didn’t.
He said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
And He said the greatest commands were to love God
and love our neighbor.
Not win the culture war.
Not dominate comment sections.
Not use “love the sinner, hate the sin” as a loophole for contempt.
Because God knows our hearts.
And if we’re honest, so do we.
Sometimes it isn't love.
And hate in the name of Jesus...
is still hate.
Sometimes it’s disgust
wearing a Bible verse.
Sometimes it’s political control
cosplaying as Christian conviction.
Jesus told religious people
with stones in their hands...
to drop them.
Yet somehow, we’ve built entire
Christian movements around
picking those stones back up.
That is heartbreaking.
Because a lot of people
haven’t rejected Jesus.
They’ve rejected a version of Christianity
that corrected them loudly,
loved them poorly,
and then blamed them for walking away.
You can ace theology
and still fail at following Jesus.
The Pharisees proved that.
So maybe the question isn’t
whether we can defend our beliefs.
Maybe the question is whether
our beliefs are making us more like Jesus.
More merciful.
More humble.
More honest.
More willing to drop the stone.
So for me personally,
when I stand before God,
I’d rather answer for loving too freely...
than to explain why my theology made
someone wonder if Jesus loved them at all.
