Elton John: “Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays”

From his interview with Jake Shears:

“Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.”

“From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it… But the reality is that organised religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate…”

I am reminded of a phrase from II Peter 2:12: “blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant.”

It is not enough to “love the idea of” the teachings of Jesus; we must actually love and delight in the teachings themselves (Psalm 1), which include the command to evangelize and to respect the church, the bride of Christ:

“Go and *make disciples* of all nations, *baptizing them* in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, *teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.*” – Matthew 28:19-20

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will *keep* my commandments” (John 14:15). – Sonja Dalton