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A Christian man got a real Bible lesson after asking if she should exclude his kids from gay sister's wedding.

Not all religions are homophobic, but a sizable number of religious people still abide by homophobic interpretations of their text of choice. Having a devotion to that text, while still navigating a world full of diverse people you love can create some fairly clear contradictions. For example, if you love her sister and she's gay, then the logical step for most people would be to support that relationship and stand up for your sister's rights.

However, for someone who genuinely believes the Bible prohibits and discourages LGBTQ relationships, then a certain level of cognitive dissonance arises.

In a recent post on the subreddit Am I The Asshole a man asked if he's an asshole for not wanting his daughters to be in his sister's "gay wedding."

"AITA for not wanting my young daughters in my sister's gay wedding?"

"Throwaway for pretty clear reason.
I am a brother to a pretty awesome little sister (24) and also a dad of three beautiful little girls (2, 5, 9). My sister dated men throughout her teenage years and I'd always assumed that's how it'd stay. However she is now engaged to be married to a woman. Her soon to be wife is a really cool person and my own wife and I have enjoyed having her over and the kids enjoy her company. We haven't told them they are dating."

OP kicked off the post by clarifying that him and his wife really do enjoy his sister's fiance, but they haven't told the kids the women are romantically involved.

"My sister came to me recently as the wedding planning has begun and she wants my wife and I in the wedding party and also wants our oldest daughter as a bridesmaid with the two younger ones as flower girls."

OP's sister recently told him she wants him and his wife in the wedding party, as well as their three daughters.

"Here is my dilemma.. I have a very Christian family. My wife and I take our girls to church every Sunday and to me, homosexuality isn't in gods word. I feel that having my daughters go to church and then be a part of a gay wedding is only going to create confusion and questions for them. I have yet to discuss this with my wife. It's not that I intended for any of our family to miss my sisters wedding, but I hadn't even thought that far up until she told me she wants us to be a part of it."

While he fully intends on attending the wedding, OP wrote that he feels uncomfortable having the kids in the wedding since he hasn't told them their aunt is gay yet, and "homosexuality isn't in God's word."

"I spoke with our mother who is completely against the wedding happening at all. She says I should tell her no, in hopes she won't go through with the wedding. That's fucked up and I told her absolutely not. Like I said previously, I never made plans to not attend the wedding. I was hoping to maybe have the girls be babysat but I also struggle with that as they adore their aunt. Now that she wants them in the wedding, I can't get a babysitter and decline her offer. That would break her heart."

OP's mom doesn't support the wedding at all, and thinks he should tell her no in hopes it'll cause her to cancel the wedding.

While OP has no plans on doing that, he still doesn't want to have a conversation about gay marriage with his children.

"But again this wasn't a conversation I wanted to have with my girls. I don't want to give them the wrong idea.
I'm so torn here. WIBTA to tell my sister I don't want the trouble of small kids at her wedding even though it's a lie?"

Now, OP is considering avoiding telling the truth to both his sister and daughters by creating a lie about not wanting small children at the wedding.

"TLDR: sister is marrying a woman and wants my whole family involved in the wedding but I don't want to have the conversation about homosexuality with the daughters I've raised Christian. I want to tell her that I planned on having them babysat as I don't like bringing them to weddings despite it being a lie."

Since he feels generally conflicted all around, OP brought the situation to people on the internet, most of whom think he's an asshole for lying about his sister's sexuality.

Rabid-Sqrl got straight to the point with their assessment of the situation.

"YTA. Don't teach your kids to treat gays differently, no matter how your pastor interprets the Bible.
"Be careful who you hate, it could turn out to be someone you love"

Wuellig pointed out how the Bible itself doesn't actually condemn LGBTQ relationships, so OP's supposed excuse of faith doesn't even properly apply.

"YTA Not ignoring the irony of "should I bear false witness because I'm too Christian to be okay with the gays?" to begin with. Secondly, lots of passages in the bible often used to justify the viewpoint you espouse here don't hold up to scrutiny when considered in the larger context of the stories they are within. If you're on a journey of discovery, please take time to consider the points raised in the article and video here. https://www.upworthy.com/homosexuality-in-the-bible-here-s-what-six-passages-say-and-how-to-interpret-them"

Songofwaterandheat pointed out that no Christian follows the Bible perfectly, so why pretend to now?

"YWBTA. Let's not pretend you follow every one of "God's" words. You can ignore this one for one evening too.
You may want to find a more tolerant church."

AnimalLover38 gave OP advice on how to have the talk with his daughters.

"When ever I see people asking for advice on how to tell their young children about the LGBT+ and such it reminds me of what my parents said I asked about after they gave lil' ol' 5 yr old me that talk."
"They explained how sometimes a man loves a man and a woman loves a woman just like they love each other, and that's ok, there's nothing wrong with that."

And that sometimes little boys are born little boys, but they feel like they should have been born as little girls and when they grown up the can get surgery to become girls . And vise versa.
Apperantly I sat there thinking long and hard and finally asked "so does that mean if I feel like I shouldn't have been born as a little girl... I can get surgery?"

My parents had "oh fuck she's only 5" moment and panicked because they thought I was too young to have those thoughts, but being the awesome parents they are they just went "yes, of course you can"

"Then I elaborated, "cause sometimes I feel like I sh-shouldnt (starts crying) have been born a little girl. Sometimes I feel like I should have been born a baby bunny" cue my parents holding in laughter and thinking on their feet."

"Um sweetheart, I'm so sorry but doctors can't do that yet, but maybe when you're older they will have the technology to be able to do that! Or maybe you can become a doctor and figure out how to do that yourself!"
I stopped crying and said ok. 12 yrs later and I have no desire to convert to a bunny"

fruskydekke pointed out that children have far less hangups than adults in general, so it shouldn't be that complicated.

"Unless you've already taught your daughters that homosexuality is wrong, which I sincerely hope you have not, they have no preconceived notions. Just dress them up nicely, take them to the wedding, and if they have questions, just tell them that your sister and her girlfriend love each other and are getting married."

"Present it as natural and unremarkable, because, you know, it actually is. Humans can love each other in all gender constellations, and the sooner your daughters learn that, the sooner they can learn to be loving and accepting towards all people. I'm not a Christian, but isn't charity the greatest of all virtues among you lot?"

This article originally appeared on SomeeCards. You can read it here.

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I was sipping coffee in front of a cafe in downtown Washington when three people walked up and asked, "Can we pray for you?"

I asked them why they wanted to pray for me. They said they felt called by God to walk around the streets of D.C. and let God's voice tell them who might be "broken."

Broken. As a Christian, I'm neither opposed to prayer nor to people praying specifically for me, at least not when it's done in good faith. But I'm also a transgender woman, and I sure as hell caught the gist of why these folks happened upon me to offer prayer.

My introduction to Christianity was in evangelical churches. For years, I navigated conservative religious spaces where I encountered bigotry toward LGBTQ people and women as often as I found warmhearted people eager to serve others. There was more than a little racism, too. I've heard the statement "I'll pray for you" said with love, and I've heard it said full of judgment and scorn. I know the difference, and the folks who confronted me outside the cafe were making their judgment clear.

I wanted them to feel what it's like to have someone approach in "love" but instead inflict judgment, pain, and discomfort.

I could have ignored them, but I've had it up to here with some evangelicals giving a bad name to their community by insisting on defining my humanity for me. They saw a transgender person and assumed I was broken because of my gender identity. It angered me that the whole of my being could be reduced to their flawed understanding of LGBTQ people, a view that could easily be revised if only they took the time to get to know me. So I would be damned if I was going to let them interrupt my Sunday afternoon coffee when I certainly wasn't bothering them.

So I asked their spokeswoman if she understood how it might look to be searching for "broken" people to pray for and to then pick out a random transgender person on the street. They looked more than taken aback.

Then, I asked them what the Book of Matthew says about prayer. Their eyes went wide. The guy on the right started nervously stammering. The other two were just as flummoxed by the idea that the "broken" transgender person was asking about a common verse on prayer in Matthew.

I reached for Matthew 18:20 because of its strong presence in the evangelical community and its common misapplication by members. In short, it reads, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them."

Those up on their biblical knowledge might wonder why I didn't turn to the scathing verses that call out hypocrites who are performative in their Christianity, telling them to pray in private rather than out on the streets so that they might be seen by others. It's a good one, but it's unsurprisingly ignored in evangelical circles. They know it's there, but it's inconvenient.

The verse I selected instead hits hard because it's so commonly heard before a group prayer in evangelical churches. There, it tends to be inaccurately interpreted as a numbers game. They think of it as a call to bring more people into the church. In reality, it's a verse on accountability before God and about how God may work that accountability through human beings.

There, on that day, I sought to bring accountability.

These aren't issues I take lightly, and their passive-aggressive condescension was anything but harmless. So this wasn't the time for me to be polite. Not in a moment when the Donald Trump-Mike Pence White House is attempting to ban transgender people from the military, and transgender students with stories of discrimination are turned away by the Department of Education. Not in a year when Trump and Pence are seeking to implement a new Health and Human Services Department regulation that would permit health care workers to deny potentially lifesaving treatment to LGBTQ people. Not when eight transgender people have been killed in the United States so far in 2018 and 28 in 2017 — the most ever annually.

Not now. I wasn't going to be silent.

Instead, I spoke. "You know how Matthew says that where two or three are gathered in Jesus' name, there He is with us?" They stared at me blankly. At last, one of them spoke up: "Yes, that's right."

"So, let's pray." I said to one of them, "You start us off." And she did, going through the motions quickly so the three of them could get as far as they could from this awkward situation.

Then I began to pray. "Lord Jesus, thank you for the benefit of these friends."

I began by being wholly honest with God about how I hoped She would bless my new friends, encouraging them to affirm and be inclusive of others. I was hopeful that their community would honor all as God made them and value the strength of diversity.

I mentioned the natural beauty of the LGBTQ community and thanked God again for making us as we are, throwing in a genuine wish that their trip back home would be a safe one. Then I wrapped the prayer up in the usual evangelical phraseology — "no weapons shall be formed against them," "put God on their hearts" — to let them know that I was just as familiar with their community’s vernacular as they were.

Then I finished, having returned their "let us pray for you" to them tenfold. Then they murmured their thank yous and scuttled the hell away.

I don't know whether my words made it through, but I hope those people now have a sense of what it feels like to have a stranger impose self-righteous venom on them.

I also hope that they'll realize how much actions such as these diminish the power of prayer and enable so much harm to LGBTQ people. A prayer that one might change their sexuality or gender identity is egregious encouragement to those who would discriminate against LGBTQ people in our laws and in our communities. My prayer's sharp edge was intended to make them aware of their own. These people did not want to know more about me. They wanted to talk at me and pray at me. And I'm confident that's not how Jesus would go about it.

There are many folks in the evangelical community who love and affirm their LGBTQ family, friends, and fellow human beings. It's unfortunate that others in the community still need to be told a simple truth: They are not doing the Lord's work by politicizing prayer at the expense of others or by dumping their misplaced condescension on strangers they believe to be broken. Prayer should be a loving act, not a weapon of marginalization.

This story originally appeared in full on The Lily, a subsidiary of The Washington Post. It is reprinted here with permission.

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Kimberly Shappley didn't vote for Barack Obama, but she recalls the exact moment she became grateful for him.

A lifelong conservative Republican, Shappley found herself sobbing with joy when then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch told transgender Americans, "We see you" and "We stand with you" a few days before the White House issued guidelines requiring schools to treat students' gender identity as their sex.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

"I sobbed with relief, and in my mind, I thought our fight just got shortened and it was going to be easier," Shappley says.

Shappley's daughter Kai started telling her mom that she was a girl at age 3. At first, they tried to discourage her, hiding "girl toys" and even punishing her for insisting, but after meetings with a series of psychologists and psychiatrists, the Texas nursing student and devout evangelical Christian began to accept she had a daughter.

Shappley was always skeptical of the Trump administration's claims that it would support LGBTQ rights, given Mike Pence's record of supporting measures limiting them.

That didn't make the Justice and Education departments' Feb. 22, 2017, announcement rescinding the Obama-era guidelines any easier to stomach, particularly the notion that protections for trans students should be a "states' rights" issue.

“He just threw my kid under the bus, so to speak," she says. "He just said it’s OK for people to discriminate against her because of where we live. It’s still the United States. I shouldn’t have to decide which town or state is safe enough or welcoming enough or kind enough to let us live there."

It was a crushing blow after losing her family and almost all of her friends when her daughter came out.

Living in a conservative Houston suburb, many of her neighbors still have trouble accepting her daughter is a girl who belongs in the girls' bathroom.

Kai Shappley. Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

Still, after months of agonizing, Shappley made the decision to continue to attend her church, where she says she and Kai still get dirty looks. Nevertheless, she believes it's important to continue to engage her community, even if that means changing one mind at a time.

"They still have to see me and they still have to see my daughter, and they still have to see that we love the Lord, that we still study our Bible, that we still pray, that we’re still good people," she says. "And I think that a lot of times the best advocacy is just being there, being present, being seen, and not hiding."

Through online support and advocacy groups, Shappley keeps in close touch with thousands of moms of transgender youth who identify as Christian. She says helping Kai navigate the world has enriched her faith.

Kimberly and Kai. Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

"One of the things that I realized for me is that the Bible helps me be a better person," she says. "The Bible doesn’t help me tell other people how to be a better person, and that’s not what it was given to us for. It’s not a weapon for us to hurt other people, or tell them what they’re supposed to do or not do. It’s there so that we read it and we change."

Shappley doesn't expect Trump to come around to her way of thinking, though she hopes he heeds his own advice from the campaign trail.

"He said it didn’t matter to him which bathroom Caitlyn Jenner used at Trump Tower. If that is really true, and that is at the core of what he believes, then he should tell people that: 'This is right, and this is wrong. This is what I see.'"

In the bathroom debate, she sees parallels to the civil rights movement, where public safety concerns were used to mask a broader bigotry.

Winning with opponents in the White House, she believes, will mean fighting in every school district in every town across America.

Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

"Call your school board members. Call your superintendent," she advises. "Call them, call them, call them. These are people that are elected, so just continuing to call them and let them hear. Whether they agree or not isn’t even the point. So I would encourage everyone who votes, especially, to call the school board members where you live. Call your superintendent that you elected."

Fighting on Kai's behalf and encouraging others to do so, she explains, is her duty a parent and a Christian.

"Is it challenging? Yes. Is it discouraging? Yes. But I can’t just stop because right now my child is 6 and I’m fighting for her now so that when she’s 13 or 20 or 50 or 75 years old that hopefully I’ve done enough, I’ve been loud enough, I’ve been vocal enough that there’s been change. Because as her mom, I won’t always be there for her."

For Shappley herself, that means continuing to show up.

Kimberly (rear center), Kai (front center), and family. Photo by Eric Edward Schell.

"We want people to see that we’re just people. We’re a family. We’re crazy, and our house is sometimes messy. It’s crazy to think that we have to show people that we’re human."

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Heroes

What happens when a Muslim center opens up across from a Christian church? Community.

True

It all started when the Memphis Islamic Center purchased land across the street from Heartsong Church.

It took Pastor Steve Stone of Heartsong Church by surprise. "When I saw that, my stomach kind of tightened up. ... I felt that ignorance and that fear," he said.

He wasn't sure how to respond. But more than that, he wasn't sure how his congregation would respond. Would they welcome their new neighbors with open arms? Or would their arrival only lead to backlash?

Like Stone, Dr. Bashar Shala of the Memphis Islamic Center was unsure of what to expect.

The goal of the Islamic center was to create a place for people to "pray and play" and have a sense of community, but he knew they'd likely face resistance from the other churches in the area. The site would be surrounded by more than five Christian churches on what's been referred to as "Church Road," so the newcomers were sure to be noticed — especially at a time when mosque construction projects across the country were facing opposition.

"It is a difficult time for Muslims in America," he said. "We did not expect to be welcomed."

Some members of Heartsong Church were clearly uncomfortable.

"Me and my wife both were thinking about leaving church because I just did not accept what was going on," said Mark Sharpe, a member of the church.

Sharpe looked to Stone and asked him what he should do. The reply? Just read the gospels. Which Sharpe did. And they helped him reach a pretty emotional realization about the situation.

"I figured out I was the problem," Sharpe said. "What was going on with the world today, I was the problem."

Things started to take a turn during the holy month of Ramadan.

Shala wanted to kick it off with the grand opening of the new complex. But with delays in the construction, he knew they weren’t going to make it in time. So he reached out to Stone, asking if they could pray in Heartsong Church while they waited. He figured his congregation would only pray there for a few nights.

They ended up staying at Heartsong Church the entire month of Ramadan.

All images via Starbucks.

The experience brought both communities closer together unlike anything else.

"Ramadan brought us much closer. People started knowing each other on a personal level," Shala said.

Interacting with a group of people they probably wouldn't have otherwise and getting to know them as individuals helped some members of the church confront biases and prejudices. Sharpe explained, "It's kind of like my world got bigger."

Now the two groups work and socialize together frequently.

They support those in need by doing coat and food drives together.

In honor of 9/11 every year, they have done a blood drive and shared their facilities.

They’ve even combined their Thanksgiving dinners into one giant celebration.

And in spring, they throw an amazing picnic to gather the entire community.

Their inspirational friendship serves as an important reminder for all of us.

Even though about 1% of Americans (3.2 million people) are Muslim, they're still a very polarizing topic in the United States. But at the end of the day, who we pray to (or pray with) shouldn’t get in the way of loving and accepting each other.

Simply put, we’re all just people, ready to welcome new friends into the neighborhood.

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When a fan yelled anti-Muslim comments before a Packers game, Aaron Rodgers couldn't let it stand.

Before Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions, the Green Bay Packers asked their fans to observe a moment of silence to honor the victims of Friday's deadly shooting in Paris.

Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images.

While many did, one fan took advantage of the quiet moment to yell out something obnoxious.

Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images.

"Muslims suck," is what many heard, according to a report in The Washington Post. Including Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers was asked to respond to the comment after the game, and respond eloquently he did.

— (@)

"I must admit I was very disappointed with whoever the fan was who made a comment," Rodgers said.

"I thought it was really inappropriate during the moment of silence. It's that kind of prejudicial ideology that I think puts us in the position that we're in today as a world."

Rodgers is right to call out the fan's bigotry, and it's a lesson much of the world could stand to hear right now.

Photo by Bulent Kilic/Getty Images.

Following the attacks, talk of tightening — or even closing — state and national borders in Western countries to refugees from the Middle East has increased, even though many of those refugees are fleeing the exact same people who committed the horrible act of violence in Paris last weekend.

Some have even gone as far as to suggest that the United States should focus on admitting Christian — not Muslim — refugees.

Good guys and bad guys can't be sorted by their religion.

Radical extremists come from all religions and all nationalities and threaten people of all religions and all nationalities — as last week's far-less-heralded, but similarly deadly bombing in Beirut makes abundantly clear. Presenting the current conflict as a clash of religions or civilizations only makes it easier for them to victimize more of the world's most vulnerable people.

That's why Rodgers' comments are an important wake-up call.

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images.

The only way to defeat the bad guys is by standing together. Not apart.