Blessed Are the Builders: A Call to Heal the Faith of Our LGBTQ+ Family

“If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble...” Christ gave a stark warning of retribution and, yet, churches, filled with self-righteous pseudo-Christians, weaponize scripture like stone, bruising souls, rather than healing them, in the name of holiness.

I have always believed that ones faith is the sanctuary of their soul. But sanctuaries have become battlegrounds because, somewhere along the way, the Body of Christ mistook uniformity for unity and created theology that wounds the very souls it should be healing. Especially when those souls are LGBTQ+.

The harm didn't come from God – it came from those who spoke wrongfully in His name without knowing, or understanding, His heart.

What if churches cause individuals to stumble? Romans 14:13 urges us not to set stumbling blocks in the paths of others. “Let us not therefore judge one another anymore; but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.”

Matthew 18:6 speaks to the gravity of causing others to lose faith: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

And, yet, for too many queer believers, church has become a place of stumbling – not of sanctuary.

When pulpits preach shame, when fellowship is withheld, when identity is framed as rebellion, it doesn't just wound hearts. It bruises belief.

Faith isn't fragile because LGBTQ+ people are fragile. It's fragile because rejection and hypocrisy strip it of hope.

But, scripture also offers another way: Galatians 6:1 calls us toward restoration. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness...”

Romans 15:2 tells us to build others up: “Each of us should please our neighbors, to build them up.”

And James 2:13 reminds us that mercy triumphs over judgment: “For he will have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy; and mercy rejoices against judgment.”

This is what healing faith looks like: Mercy over metrics. Relationship over regulation.

Imagine if, instead of preaching condemnation

  • churches preached redemption – and meant it – for every trans person who's been told they're “too much”.

  • Anoint queer love as sacred, not sinful.

  • Welcome earrings, pronouns, tattoos, testimony, trauma – and call them beautiful.

Imagine if pastors said, “You are wonderfully made”, and meant all of you.

Affirmation isn't rebellion – it's restoration. It's what happens when Christians stop gatekeeping grace.

So, to every Christian leader, sibling, elder, and seeker:

  • If you've stood silently while someone's faith was fractured, it's time to speak healing.

  • If you've preached exclusion cloaked as theology, it's time to repent – not for being wrong, but for being harmful.

  • If your church isn't a refuge, it isn't a church. It's a monument.

  • To begin to rebuild, we need to start with empathy. With compassion. With love. Not because it's trendy, but because it's the gospel.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” Romans 13:35

Not tolerate, correct, or fix.


LOVE!

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