I am a disloyal traitor. How about you?

Loyalty is a virtue, right? Being a traitor is one of the worst things you can be, right?

Well, I’m not loyal; I’m a traitor.

In the past, I have attended and supported multiple churches that believed and taught anti-LGBTQ+ doctrine.

And I accepted it. I sat under their leadership. I tithed. I was a member. I was on the team.

I have since left and changed my beliefs. I am ashamed of what I used to believe.

I am no longer “loyal” to the teachings of the bible (and most traditional American churches).

I am seen as a “traitor” by many Christians.

So, yes, I am a disloyal traitor to their teachings and doctrines.

Wait; do you see the problem here? The disconnect?

Isn’t loyalty always framed as being a “good” thing?

Isn’t being a traitor always framed as being a “bad” thing?

When people are “loyal” to IDEAS and BELIEFS (and called a “traitor” for daring to change them), you lock yourself into dogmatism, where OPINIONS become FACTS.

A belief is not something that you should be loyal towards. You can believe something today that you change your mind about in the future. I hope that by age 60, I’m WISER and don’t believe all of the same things that I believed at 18. I DO NOT want to be loyal to a belief that I had as a teenager.

Be loyal to PEOPLE. Friends, family, neighbors.

Be loyal to humanity; see the best in people and help strangers.

Religious thinking has people turn opinions into facts with the common bond of everyone agreeing on what those facts are. Then, if you ever want to change your mind (or opinion) on something, you are a traitor to the “facts” that everyone agreed on (and, therefore, a traitor to the group).

Where else are people “loyal” to ideas and labeled as “traitors” for changing their minds?

Cults.

Cults thrive on getting people to be “loyal” to their IDEAS. The fear of being ostracized, isolated, and labeled a traitor to the group prevents people from ever changing their minds or beliefs.

But the group isn’t actually loyal to each other (people); they are loyal to a set of ideas or beliefs, either set by the leader or written in a “holy” book, written or “inspired” by an invisible supernatural entity that is both “perfect” and not allowed to ever be questioned.

Most Christians that I know openly REJECT the ideas of dogmatism and legalism, but I can’t help but see that those are the only reasons that they have for justifying the beliefs and opinions that they hold up as “facts”.

“This is what the bible (or other holy book) says and WE ALL AGREED TO BELIEVE IT FOREVER or else you are a disloyal traitor and we can’t be friends.”

Oh, you “changed your mind” about LGBTQ+ people? Well, GTFOH.

It shows that a religious way of thinking makes you legalistically loyal to dogmatic beliefs or loyal to words written in old books as opposed to being loyal to people, family, and friends.

It shows that a religious way of thinking locks you into a finite set of beliefs that can’t be changed or questioned, no matter what additional information you learn during your lifetime.

And once you ascribe to that way of thinking, if you ever decide to change your beliefs or opinions, you are labeled as a disloyal traitor.

An exceptionally egregious example of this is when parents of LGBTQ+ youth kick their own kids out of their homes (based on religious beliefs). Or when parents are counselled by church leadership to do the same.

You are probably not surprised to hear that the suicide rates for LGBTQ+ youth who have been kicked out of their homes and shunned by their family and religious circles are very high.

These parents are so loyal to their “beliefs as facts” that they throw their own children out onto the street where the children often take their own lives. They are more “loyal” to the belief system than to their own children.

This shows what the immense pressure of being “loyal” and not seen as a “traitor” can do.

And who is at fault? Who gets punished? Who has blood on their hands? The parents? The church? The church leadership?

Nope. There is a DEAD CHILD but there is NO CRIME because religious beliefs can’t be questioned. They are “sacred”. Parents and church leaders just move on with their “beliefs” in a perpetuating system that can’t be questioned or changed. An LGBTQ+ child commits suicide on Saturday and the church continues to preach hate on Sunday.

Changing their doctrine and beliefs would be akin to admitting fault. It’s embarrassing what they are “loyal” to.

I wish they could get out of their own way. I actually believe that many people who regularly attend religious services don’t actually believe what their leaders and their books teach. Thankfully, many ‘bad beliefs’ are dying out generationally as the elders pass on and the younger generations take over (as has happened for hundreds of years).

You don’t have to go back very far to find a time where most churches would openly disapprove of inter-racial marriage, would openly preach against segregation, or even a women’s right to vote. There are many people alive today who have watched these “beliefs” change during their lifetimes.

Go back further and you’ll find most churches justifying slavery and burning women alive based on accusations of witchcraft.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be alive and attend an America church in 1692 (knowing what we know today)?

What would happen to you if you dared to say that we should NOT burn people alive for being accused of being a witch or that black people should NOT be slaves?

You’d be labeled a DISLOYAL TRAITOR and likely burned alive next to the “witches”.

So many people today are struggling with this. They have cast their lots with sets of opinions that have mutated into “facts” and are now STUCK. They are stuck because the systems that they are in force them to be loyal to “opinions as facts” (that can’t be changed or even questioned) instead of being loyal to PEOPLE.

Unfortunately, there is a flipside to this as many people are often emboldened by this dynamic. They thrive off of persecution complexes (it’s literally built into their belief systems). They see changes or challenges to their beliefs as proof that they are actually correct and end up reinforcing their beliefs which only makes it more difficult to ever change. It’s a vicious cycle.

So, I challenge you to rethink what it means to be loyal and to be a traitor.

I challenge you to think about your own beliefs and to consider if it’s time to do what’s right and be a disloyal traitor on things that, deep down, you know to be bad beliefs. You don’t have to change everything that you believe but consider beliefs that are HURTFUL and HARMFUL to other people and start there.

We need people to do what is right both for today and for future generations. Honestly, we’re striving to be better and will move forward with or without you, but we’d rather you join us.

As for me, I am thankful that I am NO LONGER LOYAL to antiquated, hurtful, and harmful beliefs and PROUD TO BE A TRAITOR to the systems that perpetuate them.