Today, one of the boldest people I ever knew would’ve turned 41. Religious people often talk of personal spiritual heroes and heroines, well, Rachel Held Evans was easily one of mine. Underappreciated in this country that has confused devoutness with how far-right you are, she would use her personal Twitter page to call out Republican homophobic and racist bull-crap. She would point out the hypocrisy of banning authors from Christian bookstores for telling their foreign adopted children to look out for police brutality and that they might end up gay, but sell books by Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson and Donald Trump, who advocated bringing back the concentration camps Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in during World War II for Moslems and the barbaric practice of conversion therapy, where an LGBTQ+ child is beaten and electrocuted while they are shown gay porn until they agree to be straight. She criticized the monstrously evil Trump administration for its Stalinist tactics on its cult members, its claim that West Virginian Neo Nazis were patriots as one murdered a person with their car and its role in helping their minister come up with the “Nashville Statement,” a document condemning not only the entire LGBTQ+ community, but also saying any Christian who was an ally was now no longer a Christian, thus making all reconciling congregations null and void as Churches (the document possessed no legal stance, so it was mostly ignored). Evans’ status as a Feminist earned her attacks from comedian Larry the Cable Guy, who associated feminism with what he considered evil, which may mean just women being able to speak without being judged or criticized. Rachel Held Evans last book finished during her life was released on June 12th, 2018, the same day that Vicky Beeching, a British lesbian Christian music singer/songwriter, ‘s autobiography was released. Both fought hard for a better world, a world where it is acceptable to be LGBTQ+ AND Christian.
But Rachel Held Evans did not see this world. She had a bad reaction to some medication and died May 4th, 2019. Because my uncle had died less than six months prior, I initially wondered if Trump was carrying out assassinations to ensure he’d be an unchallenged “Christian” voice. Even today, when I think of this event, I imagine Trump and Larry the Cable Guy thanking God for killing one of their enemies as they toast the good champagne. One last book was released last fall from her notes and I see glimpses to the woman I last read on Twitter in 2017. Strangely, the woman there who resembles her most is Tara Platt, protecting the young and vulnerable, encouraging minorities and unwilling to tolerate a right-wing politician speech full of crap and lies that says “I’m sorry, there’s nothing we could do,” when they mean “we don’t want to change anything unless it suits our priorities, like abortion, making racist laws and gay marriage, stop whining.” It is unclear what change we’re going to do and some days, without Jon and Rachel, it seems too daunting, but I think we can do something. We’ve spent too long doing nothing and now it is time to act, the women, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, LGBTQ+ people, Latin Americans and more deserve no less.
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