Although I have been a Christian minister most of my adult life, I want to be very clear that I am not the kind of Christian who denies science, oppresses people who are LGBTQ, treats women who are pregnant like community property and feels superior to non-Christians. So, when people ask if I am a “Christian” I don’t feel comfortable answering until I know what kind of Christianity they have in mind.

I am no longer interested in the kind of Christianity that calls itself “non-political” yet serves an unjust status quo. I don’t want to participate in worship that uses sexist language for God, or that confuses blessings with the sordid fruits of an unjust economic system. I don’t want to praise God by lifting hands made bloody by complicity with militant Christianity’s assaults on non-Christians, or by the religious nationalism that assaults immigrants and vulnerable peoples the world over.

Just looking at the Sermon on the Mount it seems to me that an honest Atheist is closer to the teachings of Jesus than a disingenuous preacher. It seems to me the kind of love Jesus spoke about calls us out of every unjust hierarchy of power, every unfair system of economics, and every form of sectarian religion that believes it holds the copyright on love.