Those of us who are culturally Christian --- even when orthodoxy is not a concern --- sometimes get verses from either the Hebrew Bible or Christian New Testament stuck in our heads, programmed "repeat."
And that's been the case this week for me with Matthew 25:40 --- And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’
The king here of course is Jesus and the deeds, acts of charity --- feeding the hungry, covering the naked and much more.
This is the day when bathroom rules for transgender kids across Iowa change, thanks to the Legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds. And families scramble to figure out how to provide gender affirming medical attention in a state that now forbids it.
Transgender numbers in Iowa are miniscule, actual problems related to transgender people nonexistent. But here we have the Republican statehouse majority and its fundamentalist Christian enablers targeting what surely is for now the "least of these brothers and sisters."
Although distressing, this really shouldn't surprise. Some forms of Christianity thrive only when there are devils to scare the faithful into submission --- the mythical devil and those demonized to serve as stand-ins. That's included, as the centuries have rolled by, anyone of a different faith, most notably the Jewish people; black and indigenous people; LGBTQ+ people. And now the least in numbers among the latter.
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