Vicky Beeching has a powerful message for anti-LGBT Christians
Christian musician and author Vicky Beeching has hit out at critics after being trolled online for her new book, which discusses being gay in the church.
Beeching, who came out in 2014, responded to negative comments on Twitter and said: “God’s heart breaks at the way some Christians treat LGBTQ people.”
In a series of tweets Beeching hit out at the “toxic views” in some churches regarding LGBT people and added “bad theology costs lives.”
“Today’s been one of those days when being on social media has felt like being repeatedly punched in the face,” Beeching continued.
On Twitter Peter Russell-Yarde (handle @pryarde1) slammed Beeching’s “knowledge of scripture”, and refused to bless her because “God does not reward rebellion.”
But Beeching hit back and schooled the social media user, explaining that “many LGBTQ Christians & allies have prayerfully studied the Bible for years” before “deciding to support same-sex marriage.”
The author received a heightened level of attention after appearing on the front cover of the Church Times.
Wonderful to hear from church leaders who read @ChurchTimes & Undivided this weekend & said “we will begin to prayerfully re-examine our views on LGBTQ equality”… “it’s clear conservative theology can damage lives & even cause suicide”. “Forgive us for not understanding sooner” pic.twitter.com/8hE9Eztls2
— Vicky Beeching (@vickybeeching) June 25, 2018
This week Beeching has also appeared in Christian podcasts and on radio stations discussing her book.
The 38-year-old said she knew there would be some backlash to her media appearances and said she didn’t read them. However she was surprised at some of the responses.
“Several people told me those articles actually ended up convincing them to support LGBTQ equality as the authors were so vitriolic & absent of love & grace. Love wins,” she wrote.
Last week history was made after The Vatican referred to queer people with the acronym ‘LGBT’ for the first time.
The Catholic institution has previously only referred to LGBT people as “homosexuals” or “persons with homosexual tendencies” in official documents.
The news came days after Pope Francis condemned same-sex parents and abortion in a series of scathing comments.