Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric and the Q Club Shooter

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives.

Jesus taught that we would know "false teachers" by their fruit. Paul describes the "fruit of the flesh" as immorality, division, and violence. The "fruits of the spirit" include love, compassion, gentleness, and self-control. 

Eric argues that anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has produced the rotten fruit of violence against LGBTQ people. 

Rhetoric that depicts LGTBQ people as evil threats (such as people who "groom" children for abuse) pushes people who are comfortable with using violence to "do what must be done" and eliminate the threat. Thus, Anderson Lee Alrich shoots people at the Q Club in Colorado Springs. 

If this is the "fruit" of our theology and politics, then what does that reality mean for us as Christians? 

This episode references the following sources: 

Interview with the shooter's father
On Killing by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
How School Shootings Spread by Malcolm Gladwell
The Big Man Can't Shoot by Malcolm Gladwell (This begins with a long set-up about Wilt Chamberlain)
Trolleyology, Psychology Today

Learn more about Trinity UMC in Piedmont, MO, at www.umctrinity.org

Contact Eric at [email protected]

Podcast Author: Trinity United Methodist Church, Piedmont, MO