life of a female bible warrior

Almost a month ago, I happily joined a Facebook blogging group called “CHRISTIAN BLOGGERS NETWORK” (CBN). The group now houses 9000 members. I thought it might be a fun way to make new friends with other Christian bloggers, plus I expected to learn and share points of view with other Christian writers, like myself. I was warned within a few days of joining that there were strange things occurring within the group; I saw this for myself the first evening that I began to post.

No sooner had I offered opinion than I was viciously attacked by one of the more rabid, conservative zealot-types, who are the primary outspoken posters within the group. I watched a young transgender woman be trolled and bullied mercilessly, so I hopped into the fray to offer my perspective on Jesus Christ and love. I suggested that Jesus would not have treated anyone like this girl was being treated, ever. Someone summoned a moderator and that was the end of that particular dust-up, but there were many more to follow.

Within a few more attempts at posting there, I discovered that this was a primarily religious right, conservative group and that the new administrator of the group, “Derick Dickens,” is determined and overtly planning to keep it that way. I was attacked for my allegedly “progressive” Christian views and quickly banned for absolutely no reason whatsoever, short of coming to the defense of another member and standing up to one of the more radical bullies there.

Thanks to one of the only reasonable moderator’s active at the time, (she was also banned within a week of my joining), I was reinstated from the ban. No sooner had I been reinstated then I was banned again at some point yesterday, due to being in agreement with a well-known, well-respected Christian blogger named “John Pavlovitz,” who has also been banned from the group at the same time that I was. I was informed by one of the current female moderator’s, “Laura Prater,” that John Pavlovitz is preaching a false gospel and is a false prophet, and since I agreed with his blog posts that I am a false prophet too. By midnight, yesterday evening, I was banned by this woman for the second time, with no warning or even an explanation for the banning.

Now obviously, with this kind of insanity occurring within this large Facebook group, the smart thing to do would have been to simply exit the group on my own, before being banned for the second time, but this is a huge blogging group of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ! I really believed that my blog would receive exposure and through that, more people would be brought to know Jesus Christ and my primary message to many of the Christians within the body of Christ would be seen more widely. Well, things did not happen that way and I have had an interesting, if somewhat painful lesson in Christian politics within the conservative Christian blogging sphere of the online Facebook community; I was, and am disturbed by what I’ve learned and experienced.

I have seen examples of a large percentage of the Christian blogging community interacting with one another and taken note of how they perceive of life and living it as a Christian. It is a scary prospect that the future of Christianity seems to be one of judgment, obsession with sin to the exclusion of love, mercy, and forgiveness, and a want to preach the wrath of God to the exclusion of all else. The impact that this is having on bringing people to Christ is sure to be felt. That was a group of 9000 Christians who are being taught to shun and disrespect those who think differently than they do, along with any and all LGBT Christians; those who identify as transgender are firmly told that they are going to Hell. Christians who are homosexual or bisexual are angrily informed that the Lake of Fire awaits them. These Christians are bullied mercilessly and told that they are being “loved,” in the process; I know for a fact that they do not feel very loved.

On some level, I am relieved to be away from the drama and the obvious false religion from a group of self-righteous, bigoted, Pharisaic “Christians” who are anything but Christ-like, but I worry for whom ever stumbles into that ugly web next. Not only are the vulnerable and naïve targeted and brainwashed, but this is occurring all under the guise of good old Christian-teachings, backed up by ONE standard interpretation of the Holy Bible… theirs. The fall out will be unknown and uncertain, but at least there will be a written record of these events, and my voice added to it, small as it is.

May God be with those who are in that group now and those who join in the future. I pray that God take it upon Himself to handle this matter and I now turn it over to Him directly. I ask for God’s intervention as He watches what is occurring there. May He intervene and do what He chooses with the leaders of that foul site and their false religion that surely stinks to high Heaven; their fruit is rotten and it is obviously falling from bad trees. I wash my hands of that group, and shake the dust off of my proverbial sandals, and I am moving forward to where ever the Holy Spirit guides me next.