¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James 2:14-17

I have a lot of problems with the Church. There. I said it. Acting like I am someone who upholds every doctrine and verse in the Bible and the catechism of the Catholic church, which I was raised in, would be a lie and I’m not a liar. I have issues with the gender roles that are often assigned to girls and boys at a really young age. I take issue with the pervasive idea that being gay is a sin and I completely support marriage equality and LGBTQ+ rights. I could go on for awhile, but the point remains that I have some issues with the way I, and others, were raised within Christianity.

Yet, still, I find that my faith informs how I look at and interact with others. How could it not? In the Christian way of teaching, we are taught from a really young age what it means to love someone without reserve. What it means to be a self-sacrificing, giving person. What it means to be a person of God and of faith.

That means, by definition, that my faith is not about me. My faith guides me to make the right, just and equitable decision without regard for myself, or it should. All of this is dictated by the same idea: love others, with no asterisk.

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