Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

 I don’t have TikTok because I’ve heard that it sucks you in,

And I don’t anything else to suck me in.

Facebook is enough—

Especially now that I’ve discovered cute animal videos 😊!

But the other day,

As I was scrolling through FB,

I saw a video post by a friend whom I admire.

It was a TikTok video.

 

The video hit me right in the gut.

 

For days now,

I’ve been thinking of what the creator said.

Finally, I asked my friend to share.

She did.

And this is what @bibleschoolblacksheep (TikTok) said:

 

“I think the worst thing the evangelical church has done

Is to combine the idea that you should love others as yourself

With the idea that you are inherently unlovable and deserving of hell.

Because if you’re taught to hate yourself

Then when you hate others,

You’re loving others as you love yourself.

This is why evangelicals have this disconnect between loving people

And accepting them for who they are--

Because inherently

They’re taught that they are not acceptable the way that they are,

So they cannot accept other people the way that they are

Because they can’t accept themselves the way that they are.

And they’re taught that that is actually loving themselves and other people.

And that’s how evangelical and fundamentalist churches weaponize God’s love—

By teaching you to withhold it from yourself and from others.

That’s also why there’s such a correlation between learning to love yourself

And deconstructing your evangelical upbringing.”

 

Friends:

I’m not sure what else to say.

Sixteen years in therapy,

And I’m still learning to believe that

I am a beloved child of God.

 

May you learn it, too,

So that you can fully

Love God,

And then,

In a healthy way,

Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

Amen.