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The Very Unchristian Hell Religious Extremists Put LGBT Children Through

By calling homosexuality a sin, religious groups are complicit in the suicides of LGBT youth.

With the possibility of a constitutional crisis looming over the Trump presidency, it's easy to miss some of the damage being done by ideological Republicans salivating over their new political power. Congressional evangelical Christians and their promoters, with anti-LGBT Vice President Mike Pence in the wings, are pushing Trump to stamp their interpretation of morality into law and the public consciousness.

In a country where support for marriage equality is at a record high, and those who believe the Bible is the literal word on God is at a record low, outspoken religious evangelicals are claiming Christianity is “under attack” and must be defended with “religious liberty” laws that allow discrimination against LGBT people. Texas is on the verge of passing two anti-LGBT bills—an anti-trans “bathroom” bill and a bill enabling state-funded adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples and non-Christians based on their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” That bill, HB 3859, could also permit foster care organizations to practice so-called “conversion therapy,” which California Gov. Jerry Brown called “junk science” when he signed a bill in 2012 banning such “psychological child abuse.”

Indeed, the Religious Right’s embrace of Trump’s unabashed narcissism, hypocrisy, and propensity for lying, has raised questions about morality itself: A May 22 Gallup Poll shows that “[m]ore than four in five (81%) now rate the state of moral values in the U.S. as only fair or poor” and “77% say the state of moral values is getting worse.”

But who defines morality? After all, it is the Congressional advocates of the discriminatory “religious freedom” bills who are pushing a $4.1 trillion federal budget that slashes the social safety net for the poor—eviscerating Medicaid, cutting food stamps and other programs for the homeless and physically and mentally disabled—while promising tax cuts for the rich.

Is that what Jesus would do?

That question has deep implications for Mitchell Gold, co-owner of the multi-million dollar furniture business, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams: In 2006, Gold founded Faith in America “because I have faith in America,” he tells NewNowNext. He and co-founder Jimmy Creech, a Methodist minister who was defrocked for marrying same-sex couples, established the non-profit to educate the public—especially the church-going public—about the harm caused by religious-based prejudice.

By calling homosexuality a “sin,” they maintain, religious communities are essentially complicit in the suicides of LGBT youth.

Gold jump-started Faith in America after the presidential election. His new program, Save yOur Kids, “will directly engage Christian institutions, pastors, congregations, and the media to address the underlying causes responsible for the crisis of the staggering suicide rate among LGBT kids and the tragedy that children have to choose between being authentic to themselves or having a roof over their head.”

The statistics are horrifying: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10–24, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The rate of suicide attempts is four times greater for LGBT youth and two times greater for questioning youth than that of straight youth. And suicide attempts by LGBT youth and questioning youth are four to six times more likely to result in injury, poisoning, or overdose requiring medical treatment.

Nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about suicide, with a quarter having attempted to take their own lives.

But here’s the most underreported finding: LGBT youth who come from families who reject them are more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide as LGBT peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection, according to research from the Family Acceptance Project. Each episode of LGBT victimization, such as physical or verbal harassment or abuse, increases the likelihood of self-harm by 2.5 times, according to a 2010 report in the American Journal of Public Health.

Trump’s proposed budget ignores the fact that, of the approximately 1.3 million homeless children in America, 40% are LGBT.

Tackling these issues won’t be easy, especially since the media, Democrats, and even LGBT groups are afraid to openly talk about the harm the religious preaching of “sin” can cause. Gold is not afraid.

“There are two Christianities,” Gold said in a May 19 interview in Beverly Hills. “Good Christians use their religion to uplift other people, to be inclusive, to help poor people, to help disadvantaged people. They live in the love of God—versus people who live in the fear of God. They are so afraid that they’re going to hell if they don’t save you, if they don’t stop a person from being gay, if they don’t stop a woman from being in control of her own body. They live in this fear.”

The “bad Christians” are professional haters like Cardinal Dolan, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., and Tony Perkins and his minions at the Family Research Council. These “power-hungry” leaders are “ruthless, willing to say and do virtually anything,” Gold says. And they made a deal with Trump. They would overlook his serious character flaws if he gave them Supreme Court Justices, federal judges, and cabinet positions where they could “chip away” at LGBT equality and other protections.

VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - OCTOBER 05: Cardinal Timothy Dolan attends the opening session of the Synod on the themes of family at Synod Hall on October 5, 2015 in Vatican City, Vatican. The main themes of this Synod of Bishops are 'The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world'. (Photo by Giulio Origlia/Getty Images)

“What makes my blood boil,” he says, “is that there are Catholic kids all around this country who are being taught by Cardinal Dolan—who comes across as some pious morally high-ground guy on TV—but he’s telling these kids that they’re broken, that homosexuality is a sin, it’s an abomination. Dolan is the Big Dog in America and he puts out these words with a smile on his face. He loves the sinner, hates the sin. It is toxic for these kids.”

Then there are the Christians who live in rural areas like Taylorsville, North Carolina, where Gold’s factory is. It's got a population of 37,000 people and more than 100 churches.

“They are really good, hard working, nice, decent, caring people,” Gold says. “But they’re being lead by their pastors and they just don’t understand the harm that they’re causing to people. It really saddens me because I’ve seen so many of these folks, who, once they understand the harm they’re causing—especially to LGBT kids—they change.”

Faith in America is trying to now raise money “so we can put our message out to people directly in the pews,” through clever media buys and billboard and digital strategy campaigns around the upcoming Baptist, Mormon, and Catholic conferences. “We can’t depend on changing clergy. We have to get to the people in the pews and change them,” have them realize “the harm that their religious teachings are causing kids….They do not want to hurt their kids. They do not want their kids to commit suicide. They do not, by and large, want to hurt other people—and we want to educate them to understand that.” And they become stronger people of faith because of it.

Gold looks at the problem like a businessperson who needs to figure out why something isn’t going well. “As a businessman, I’d ask: what is the root problem? And it’s the same thing here. What is the root problem in the LGBT rights movement to having full rights? Who gets in our way? Who brings up these religious freedom laws? Who made us crazy in California when marriage equality was passed in the Supreme Court and brought up to an amendment? It is these evangelicals—which includes Mormons and Catholics—it’s a coalition of religions that believes homosexuality is a sin. That is the key.”

Time is right now, he says. There is such chaos, lots of people are asking how can we keep our faith in America?

“I really am scared of what is going to happen in this country unless it is stopped far sooner rather than later,” Gold says. “These folks are dangerous on many levels because their brand of Christianity is not a loving, giving caring one. It is a much more controlling, restrictive one. I think that when people really look at what Christ and Christianity are all about – these folks do not fit into the bill. They tell you they do. And they have a powerful method of persuasion,” including narrow stream of their supporters follow.

“We need all these evangelicals to understand why it is the good Christian thing to try to give every child that is born an opportunity to have a decent life,” Gold says.

“When I got married—that’s one of the things I realized—the hole in my life when I was a teenager thinking I was never going to be with somebody. I was never going to have what my parents had, as contentious as that was at times. But I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be happily married. But we have to give people that opportunity – I think if we can change peoples thinking about LGBT people and the simple concept of sin, we will make a huge advance, and break away at Trump’s support.”

For more information visit Save yOur Kids.

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