If I had a dollar for every time someone has said God hates gays, gays are going to hell, being gay is not okay, etc... I could be a millionaire by now. Ironic because I don't know about you, but the God that I worship doesn't hate anyone. The God that I worship says to love everyone and accept everyone you meet with open arms. So why is it that so many "Christians" turn their cheek at a gay man and tell them they're going to hell?

I try extremely hard to respect everyone's beliefs no matter how different they are from mine, but what I cannot bring myself to understand is how anyone could think poorly of someone just because of who they love. First of all, why does it concern you who someone else loves? It's not harming you, so why even care? Love is Love. You don't judge the woman that lives beside you who is married to the strange creepy man you don't care for, so why are you judging the woman who married another woman just because of their genders? Everyone loves different people so it shouldn't matter whether that person is a man or a woman. It's not harming you, so it shouldn't matter.

God says on more occasion than one that we should love everyone. There are endless verses about loving others, but one of my favorites is John 13:34. "A new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." He tells us to love one another, not love certain people and condemn the rest. He loves equally, and so should we.

He also tells us not to judge others. In Matthew 7:1-5, God says, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Yes, I am aware that we all struggle with judging others. I'm just as guilty as the next person. But judging someone based off who they love is not okay. It's completely unnecessary and an invalid reason to judge someone. Again, we're all different. You can't judge someone just for being different. Being different doesn't make you any less than someone else.

Yes, I am aware that there are verses in the bible that clearly state that it is an abomination for a man to lie with another man. But did you know that the bible also says that we shouldn't eat pork, get tattoos, get remarried, gossip, get divorced, shave a beard, or let women speak in church? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure people do these things every single day and no one shames them. Why are these things okay, but being gay isn't? The Bible says all kinds of things are sins, but we still do them every day. Judging and hating others is a sin. So by telling someone, they're sinning because of who they love, you're sinning just as much as they are. Why is their sin worse than yours? You don't get to decide which sins are okay and which aren't. Did you hear that? Do I need to say it again? Maybe a little louder for the people in the back? YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE WHICH SINS ARE BAD AND WHICH AREN'T.

A sin is a sin. Come back to me when you're perfect, but until then, you don't get to shame someone else for not being perfect either. Period.