When I was in Sunday School, we were given a strict (Catholic Catechism) definition: Your neighbor is anyone you meet. It doesn't even specify any "human." My mom always brought home that point whenever animal cruelty was discussed.

Of course, my parents who taught me that lesson are still Catholic and yet super proud of my identity. Very chill with my trans spouse. Even marched with me at a local pride event.

Maybe they're the exception but "love thy neighbor" does still have tangible meaning to some folks.

Race science was created specifically so that they could see non-white people as non-people. This was done so that Christians could (just barely) hold onto their belief system while committing all of the atrocities of the colonial era.

Do they see "love thy neighbor?" I think many ignore that part entirely

I promise you they hate straight white guys too, if you even express a hint of kindness.

They just see the kids in their church.

They’re called to “love thy enemy as themselves” as well. So it’s not just their neighbors, but also the people they hold hatred for that they are called to love.

It was a racial clause from the beginning. -The word wasn't needed otherwise. -Same as the sexual clause 'neighbour's wife' instead of 'spouse'.

And context supports that:

'Think not that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets', 'Do not go among the Gentiles', 'I have come only for the lost sheep of Israel', 'it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs'.

Wow tax collectors catching strays even 2000 years ago.

Transcription for those who need it:

Matthew 5:43-48 New International Version

Love for Enemies You have heard that it was said "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Did that have to be an image of text that breaks accessibility, searchability, and fault tolerance for no compelling reason while making the web less usable?

Trust me, it's mostly Christians taking them out of context and denying clear statements. For example, Charlie Kirk spun: 'but what did the original word for slave mean in the Bible'. Well context actually defines the word for us:

Leviticus 25: 44 “‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. 46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

I've never seen a Christian effectively argue context by showing context (as above).

Me, 89% of the time when I see or hear Christians use this statement.

Which is kind of funny, as some would say Jews of Old Testament times were expecting their coming messiah or king to be some kind of military leader. One who might lead them against the oppression of the Romans. Maybe kind of like Moses.

Not to mention the pale skin...

"then you ain't one of mine. go on, git!" -Jesus apparently, Gospel of John chapter 13 verse 35

Well a lot of people professing to be Christians could do a lot better at loving LGBT people than they are doing right now, so I say take them up on that.

"A revolting bit of casuistry," as Christopher Hitchens put it. The problem this justification is that homosexuality is what people are and not what they do, and hating someone's inherent and immutable trait is the same as hating the person themselves.

Station!

Don't forget 'Party On, Dudes!' Most of the cults i started had BillandTedology at their hearts.

Or they can wholesale just make shit up like all the evangelical rapture crap. Hell, look at even the constitution and how that's been stretched and colored for all of the anti-progressive rhetoric in the past.

Even when I was a religious child, I still found contradictions in the bible. But, as you know, when you were a young naive child like everyone of us and found something odd, we're told to ignore it and just don't think about it.

Gotta use what Jesus said, not the "bible".

When someone uses the Bible to justify their hate or bigotry, it’s very easy to throw back in their face. They never believed any of it — especially not anything that radical leftist Jesus taught — it’s a tool that represents whatever they want for their manipulative, selfish, self-centered purposes. What is written there doesn’t matter. It never did.

Watch as they dismiss you anyway, with greatest hits like:

• “That’s not what {$DENOMINATION} teaches.”
• “That’s just heretical.”
• ”So your interpretation is right but everyone else is wrong?”
• ”You’re taking it out of context”, especially after you just added context to a thing they were deliberately taking out of context.
• “Even the devil can quote scripture.”

Fuckin pussy