An open letter

To My White Christian Family

A plea to vote Biden

#1. Because Jesus would have.
#2. Because I’m gay.

Reason #1: Jesus would have voted for Biden.

I am often alarmed by the number of American Christians who are quick to vote Republican due to their Christian values; I am even more alarmed by the number of Christians supporting Trump with their reasoning being solely their Christianity, so essentially their dedication to Jesus.

Following that line of thinking, Jesus, by definition, is the heart of Christianity. The values he taught drive us Christians, as the bible clearly instructs us to be more like him. Most Christians would agree that Jesus was one of the greatest teachers in history — he made his values, morals, and lessons explicitly clear to us in the form of a parable or story. Jesus was ahead of his time as neuroscientists confirm that humans learn best through story. Let’s look at one of the most well-known teachings of Jesus.

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Every Chrisitan in America can recite this line — it is repeated 3 times in the New Testament in Mathew 22, Mark 12, and Luke 10.

So it goes: Jesus was teaching in the Jewish temple. He tells his listeners that he has two commandments that are more important than the rest. I’ll paraphrase because I know you’ve read it before. He says: ‘love God with your whole heart’ & ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ You may say to yourself, ‘I am a good Christian; I love my neighbor, we go to the same church and school.’ But alas, Jesus actually explains what he means by ‘neighbor’ very clearly.

“And who is my neighbor?”

In Luke 10:29, a listener asked, ‘and who is my neighbor?’ Jesus follows with the story of the Good Samaritan. This story was told to clarify explicitly who Jesus was referring to with the commandment “love thy neighbor.” As a Christian, this is a significant story to understand the specifics and the nuances. In fact, this all started with a question from a listener to Jesus on how to inherit the kingdom of heaven,’ which is seemingly the main goal of any Christian. Therefore, this parable is one of the most, if not the most important story in the bible as it provides direct instruction on admittance to heaven.

The Story of the Good Samaritan

Jesus tells the story of a traveling man on the side of the road, stripped, beaten, and half-dead. He tells how a Jewish priest and a Levite man walked past this man’s decrepit body. After they pass, a Samaritan man approaches, stops, and nurses this broken man back to health. You may be thinking: of course, I know this story; everyone does.

But before I go further, I need to explain the historical context as it is of utmost importance. Jesus was speaking to Jewish scholars who, at the time of the Bible's writing, would have believed that this beaten, half-dead body was impure, and therefore they wouldn’t have seen anything morally wrong with the priest and Levite walking past. An even more important historical context to understand is that Samaritans and Jews hated each other and was, historically speaking, one of the biggest rifts in history. Therefore this Samaritan man stopping to help an almost dead Jewish traveler is much more profound and meaningful than you might have first realized.

What does all this have to do with voting for Biden?

Everything, Family. Absolutely everything.

Today’s modern American Christians traditionally vote Republican. This tradition was born in 1979 when Edward McAteer founded the Religious Roundtable, a large group of conservative right pastors. Their founding principles were laid out in a memo that stated: ‘To be aligned with Jesus, to have family values, to be moral, one must be against abortion and gay people and vote for the candidate that is antiabortion and antigay.’ This moment in history was essentially when Republicanism and Christianity became synonymous, and Jesus and his values were forgotten in favor of the values of a small group of white men. This was when our entire political sphere shifted to this idea that if you were Christian, you were also Republican, antiabortion, and antigay. Christians like yourself, and until very recently like me, don’t even realize the reasons we vote right are because of these men and because of persuasion and lies from the church. As Christians, we should follow the teachings and proclamations of Jesus, not teaching and proclamations of a small group of men, religion, or the church. Christians have been steered away from Jesus by American politics and religion, and that’s actually what the Republican party wants. On the other hand, I don’t even think the Republican party themselves realize just how far they are from the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus made his values explicitly clear by stating that his greatest commandment was to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ defining neighbor explicitly. Jesus chose two individuals that were from different locations, religions, and cultures. Jesus chose two individuals who disagreed on politics and simple beliefs. He used them to define his most important commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. If he were trying to teach us that his greatest commandment was to love people similar to us, he wouldn’t have chosen those two individuals.

Now, Family, I ask you, as a Christian, to reflect on the candidates for President, both of whom claim to be Christian, and decide for yourself who loves their neighbor.

Mexicans, Refugees, Black People, and the LGBTQ+ community are our neighbors. They are exactly what Jesus was talking about when he defined neighbor. So the evidence of true Christianity lies in how our candidates for the US presidency treat these neighbors.

Trump and his neighbors.

Donald Trump called our neighbors in Mexico rapists and drug dealers on multiple occasions. When Mexican families were brave enough to enter our country with their children looking for a better life [just like Great Grandpa did from Italy], Trump separated the children from their parents and locked them in cages. Many of these children still are not with their parents. Ask yourself — does he show love for his neighbor?

Trump explicitly encourages racist groups to continue with their racist behavior and would not denounce white supremacy when given a clear opportunity to do so. If we follow Jesus’ teaching of the great commandment, we know Jesus did not believe that humans should ever be separated by groups or hated because of their otherness. We can confidently conclude that he would have denounced and fought against white supremacy.

Trump campaigned on the value of keeping refugees out of America and ‘sending them back.’ Refugees, by definition, are seeking refuge from war or political turmoil. The way I read the Good Samaritan and the great commandment, housing refugees, and helping them find refuge is actually one of the clearest ways to explicitly follow the great commandment and act as the Samaritan by loving our neighbor.

Trump has advocated to take away the rights and protections of the LGBTQ community and continues to advocate to take away more. Trump has already rolled back protections granted to the LGBTQ+ community in the Affordable Care Act. Trump appointed over one hundred far-right judges who actively oppose marriage equality and recently appointed a life-term supreme court justice who would not even respond to questions around the protection of the LGBTQ+ community's rights. The simple fact is that the LGBTQ+ community is our neighbor. In the Samaritan parable, he did not ask the injured traveler what his sexual identity was before providing him healthcare. He just loved him and provided it.

Family, Jesus would not vote for Trump. Trump is the priest and the Levite who walked past the injured traveling man, the refugee, the poor, the ‘other.’ Trump is the antithesis of Christianity.

Biden, on the other hand, has a long record of walking in the values of Jesus. He doesn’t just claim to be a Christian; his life is centered around his faith. Joe Biden has been there loving his neighbor his entire career. He has supported and defended the traveling men, the refugees, the poor, and the ‘others.’ Joe Biden, while not perfect, is an example of a man striving to be more like Jesus, striving to love his neighbor as Jesus commanded.

If you follow Jesus, you’ll vote Biden

Reason #2: Because I’m Gay

Family, this isn’t politics. This isn’t deciding if Trump will lower taxes for you [he won’t and has only delivered on this for the wealthy]; this isn’t deciding if Trump will reduce violence in America [the data only shows that he has incited violence]. This is not debating if being gay is a sin [it’s not — more on this in my next letter]. This is about me, my community, my physical safety, and my future. I didn’t choose to be gay. My queer family didn’t choose their queerness, their transness, or their otherness. It is just a beautiful detail of our existence that God loved us enough to include in our DNA.

Family — I want to get married, I want to adopt kids, I want to keep going to the doctor with the same safety that you experience. Trump is currently encouraging his constituents to ban gay people from adopting, and he has already blocked our healthcare protections. Gay marriage is on the line with any Republican in office. Family, this isn’t about politics — it’s whether I can have a family or not. Family, I’m scared that my right to marry will be taken away. I want to fall in love; I want to get married — just like you. It really is that simple.

Throw away every detail I included in this letter if you want, but please remember this election matters deeply. It’s not politics. It’s my actual life. It’s a lot of people’s actual life. Joe Biden is one of the few political candidates in history to outright support the LGBTQ community. He has shown he’ll protect me. He promises to continue to protect me, protect us, protect my queer family, and protect and LOVE the ‘others’ of society.

If you love me, you’ll vote for Biden.