I really didn’t think I was going to touch on this topic. With social media being overtaken by joy, hate, anger, cuss words, and condemnation I really just wanted to turn my phone off and crawl into a little ball until something else caught everyone’s attention and maybe it would be safe to emerge from my self imposed social media fast. However, there was one thing that I couldn’t ignore. That would be a member of my church who posted a picture of our church building with a rainbow overlay and comments that insinuated that we were a homophobic, gay hating church.

As someone who not only loves God and my church but also has friends who I love very dearly that are gay I was furious. To outright assume that a church that preaches the meaning of the Bible would be a place of hate is not only presumptuous but also slanderous. A church that tries time and time again to reach out to all people no matter who they are or how they live. A church that I have seen go out into the world and feed thousands of people and try and not only meet spiritual needs but physical needs of their communities. In a day and age that we see hate and cruelty everywhere we turn I think it’s incredibly irresponsible to try and compound that hate and create more tension. The hashtag #loveislove is not only trending but one that I want to explore a little more: what is the meaning of love-who’s love is truly equal for all?

Both answers can be found in the Bible-a book that I believe this church member may have forgotten about. First and foremost God’s love is the only one that will ever be truly equal and unconditional. God believes that love is so important that in Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus makes it known that Love is the basis for the most important commandments: to love God and to love people. (This really sounds like a hateful deity to me?) Second what is the definition of love; well again in the Bible we see that love is defined as not boastful, as kind, as keeping no records of faults, etc. in 1 Corinthians 13.

So as I scroll through my news feed I steam with anger from one side that is assuming the worst in my God when he is truly just a good Father that loves his children (this does not mean that what he teaches on sexuality can be overlooked however, it means that he is not teaching such things in condemnation but rather in warning). The other side being some Christians that are using social media as a platform of hate while they are ignoring that they themselves simply sin differently.

So to my main point: the miracle of rainbows. The intentional creation of rainbows is documented in Genesis 9 (again the Bible! Who knew that it contained so much information!? Perhaps some people should I don’t know read things before they make asinine assumptions?). The rainbow was created between God and man as a covenant to show that God would never flood the earth again despite the sin and evil that ran throughout the world. How encouraging is that to us today when we see so much hate and evil on every channel? So God sent a rainbow to be the symbol of his love for us.

So despite what you believe on the Supreme Courts ruling or on Christianity and it’s teachings in general I just want to make my own opinion clear. I am choosing to look at rainbows with their main intention: as a symbol of God’s love-which is the only true and unconditional love-a kind of love we should strive to represent and embody. So rather than #loveislove I would counter with #Godislove and if the world truly wanted to create a better society we should all work to live by the greatest commandments: to Love God and Love People