I know what you are thinking… "is this Christian missionary agreeing with something that is sinful according to the bible?!" Hear me out… I'm not agreeing, I am not approving, but I am accepting.

I am currently living in Africa and I waited up for hours for Taylor Swift's new music to drop. I was in India when "ME" dropped and I could tell I was going to dig this Taylor Swift era. I am beyond excited for Lover and I cannot wait to drop the rest of my life savings on concert tickets. When I first heard "You Need To Calm Down" I was confused about what it was about… it said something about "throwing shade won't make anyone less gay" and I am a person who doesn't dig deep into things some times, so it just was another lyric that went through my head.

Later, when I found out it was an anti-hate jingle, I was like "who wouldn't love this!?" That's the thing… people didn't love it. People criticized it. People didn't like how they were represented in the video holding hateful signs. But you guys, stuff like that is happening every day. Before I found my faith in the Lord, I grew up doing musical theater which means, I have friends who are apart of the LGBTQ community. When I started reading the Bible and growing in my relationship with Christ, my view on them didn't change. I just knew I wanted to love them more.

I could give you scripture after scripture on what we are actually called to do as Christians, but the main point is... We were called to LOVE others and NOT judge because, newsflash, that's not our job. The reason we are here is to CREATE disciples... How can we create disciples by forcing them out with hate and sin shaming?! Would that make YOU want to follow Jesus? I know that hate is not of MY God.

I'm going to step off my soapbox because the main point here is that this new song and video isn't mean, it isn't fighting back, it is simply saying "we are not listening anymore." I get it, I wouldn't want to listen to either. Even as a follower of Jesus, I also get hate from followers of Jesus on many different things… there is something wrong with that picture. People don't want to listen to what we have to say because what we are saying isn't coming from the holy spirit.

I am not asking you, followers of Christ, to approve and promote something you do not believe in. I am asking you, however, to accept this child of God and love them like you would love anyone else. Because you know, God loves all of us equally. Jesus died on that cross for ALL of us. The way to God is through Jesus himself. So, go out, calm down, and show people the Jesus I know… no matter who they are, what they identify as, and the life they decide to live.