One of the biggest and ongoing challenges, for me, of fully stepping into a new space as someone who is #faithfullyLGBT is to ensure that I am not merely trading one “us/them” tribe for another.
Dehumanization is not a practice exclusively reserved for evangelical spaces. It happens on both sides of the political, theological, and ideological divide and I am daily mindful of whether or not I am perpetuating the dehumanization of someone I do not agree with.
I do not get a “free pass” to treat someone as less than human merely because I have been treated that way before.
Rather, I am even more responsible for my words and actions because I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of ill-intended words.
So how do we call others out for their own short-sightedness and harmful rhetoric without mirroring the behavior we detest?
By remembering where we have been and every experience, every story, every conversation that changed our hearts.
A changed heart precedes a changed mind.
If our posture is debate and/or defensiveness, so the heart will maintain a posture of defense and the mind will stay closed.
Rather, open dialogue leads to open hearts, changed minds, and changed lives.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.