Politics, Religion, And Me
Yikes. Let's do it.
The following email excerpt is shared with permission:
Austin,
Recently I became aware of your Christian beliefs. To say I am disappointed in this discovery is an understatement. As someone with a large following, your problematic relationship with religion and it's historical hatred toward the LGBTQIA+ community needs to be known. Please join the rest of the 21st century and leave the ideas of the bible and God where they belong, IN THE PAST. There are important battles for equal rights taking place and if you aren’t going to use your platform for that, you need to give it to someone who will. I sincerely hope you understand why I will no longer support you.
[SIGNED].
⁂
Talking about your faith isn't easy. In the digital age of clickbait content and call-out culture, something as nuanced as a person's religious beliefs (and thoughts on moral principles) cannot hope to escape oversimplification, caricature, and downright misrepresentation. As we escape the new millennium's rascally teenage years and enter into its twenties, one can only hope The Internet will adopt a more mature and rational way to dissect what is (to many) the most private and precious thing they have. Perhaps this is wishful thinking: after all, religion and politics are complicated subjects, and I suppose they were removed from the dinner table for a reason.
These days, however, culture seems obsessed with politics - I find myself routinely exhausted by friends, coworkers, and Internet Strangers whose entire personality seems to be crafted around their preferred political jersey. Wearing the wrong jersey? You're an enemy. To them, all the world's a political battlefield… and every morning, there's a new crusade to carry out. Try as I might, I just can't keep up - and the older I get, the more value I find in unplugging myself from social media and the 24-hour cynical news cycle - leaving me thoroughly unequipped to know What I'm Supposed To Be Mad About during any given day. I've tuned it all out. Forgive me, but my heart just can't take it anymore.
In my desire for some peace and quiet, I have become (to many) worse than an infidel: I am the man who wears no jersey at all.
Do I have my own private social and political beliefs? Sure. But I'm not on a team, and I have no intention of signing with one. For some reason, I can't seem to find one that fully harmonizes with the way I see things! And in a hundred years, the current teams will have folded - new crusades will be fought, and old crusades will be questioned. For now, I'd rather have no record of my participation in the game at all. Who can tell whether my political or social thoughts will change even within the next ten years? Better for me to simply treat people in my corner of the world with love and respect and leave the day-to-day cultural proxy wars to people who like to play. I just can't summon the passion for it that other folks can.
For this reason, I generally keep politics out of the things I create. Despite some of my viewer's best efforts to get me to wear a jersey, I've always refused. Why do they need me to? I'm not interested. Sorry. Admittedly, this has led to some ambiguity over Which Side I'm On: In 2020, I was approached by the Biden campaign to participate in a YouTube fundraiser for the US Presidential Election. Two years previous, members of the GOP reached out, hoping to get my support during the midterms. Why do these people want the ink cartridge guy? I respectfully declined all such requests. If you're hoping that this article ends with me putting on a jersey, or paying lip service to some political party or cause - all I can tell you is that to me, most bumper stickers do nothing but devalue the car. Besides, for the record: if you base your political beliefs on what your favorite YouTuber says, you should probably grow out of that as soon as humanly possible.
But, what about religion? What about this email? Am I a Christian? Is my faith problematic?
For sure, I am a Christian. Sixteen (or so) years ago, my faith pulled me out of the darkest depths of despair that I'd ever experienced. I was disillusioned, self-destructive, suicidal, and facing PTSD from a childhood of physical and sexual abuse. Becoming a person of faith rescued me. Christ rescued me. I learned that it's okay to let the past go and that you don't need to define yourself by it. It's okay to forgive. It's okay to have hope that death is not the end. Many find religion detestable these days, but for my part, it took the broken pieces of what I was and mended me into something far better. Is that problematic to say? I don't know. All I can do is share my experience and tell you that each life has its own journey.
I am not perfect at practicing my faith. I am a man of many sins, and I'm still learning more and more as I grow older about how I best ought to live. I am a student of religion, and (given the correct setting) I do teach and preach about what I'm learning to those who wish to listen… but for those who don't care to hear it, I generally stay quiet.
I have never forced my faith upon anyone (what would be the point?), and I've elected to keep the finer points of my religion off of my YouTube channel. I'm not stupid. I have some 2 or 3 million unique visitors to my channel every month, and I need to be smart about handling that potential influence. Their religion is not mine. Their lives are not mine. The cult of personality is an uncontrollable fire that I have no desire to play with. Parasocial relationships are messy and dangerous enough as it is, and the last thing I want is someone "adopting" my faith just because I'm their favorite YouTuber. Thus, I reiterate for the record: if you base your religious beliefs on what your favorite YouTuber says, see above.
My viewers come in all shapes, sizes, creeds, and beliefs. I should do my best to treat everyone with love, and I do believe I'm making a sincere effort in this respect.
So, imagine my frustration receiving an email like this, painting me as some relentless gay-bashing homophobe. Such branding was, of course, news to me. I've worked in the television and video industry for over 15 years, with I can't even remember how many gay or lesbian coworkers, colleagues, employers, and employees. During my time making videos on YouTube, I've done shout-outs for (and collaborated with) plenty of small channels and creators - probably 35-40% of whom are gay. I’m penpals with a transgender woman. If I'm a homophobe, I certainly have a weird way of showing it.
What could be the source of such an accusation? A 30-second video clip of a speech (clipped from a much longer speech) that I gave... half a decade ago. Boy, stop me if you've heard that setup before.
The clip purports to show a younger (and may I just say for the record, much lankier) me pushing for a legal ban on gay marriage. Other remixes from internet trolls have spliced and manipulated the clip, passing me off as some hate-filled bigot that is bent on bringing the United States back to the 1920s. Yikes, indeed.
Once this clip "resurfaced," it touched off speculation among some of my viewers: what in the world was Austin saying? Does he really believe that stuff these days? Does he think everything from alcohol to gay marriage to the military should be illegal?
If you grant me about five more minutes of your time, I'd like to give you an answer. If you don't want to spend that much time reading and just want a tl;dr… then perhaps you should consider whether or not you really cared that much in the first place.
⁂
To be sure, I never imagined that my own faith would be of interest or importance to absolute strangers half a decade ago. When I stood in an auditorium and spoke those words to a specific audience during one of the most politically-divided periods in my lifespan (even among the religious), I never considered that my words would be recorded, clipped, separated from their immediate context, and then broadcast to people who lacked any real frame of reference for what I was talking about, or who I was saying it to. These days I'm trying to take more care in how I speak - I routinely ask myself, "if someone hears just one paragraph of this, how badly can I be misrepresented?" It's an impossible task, and during the speech in question, I doubted my words would ever be heard elsewhere, not to mention partially.
I’ve long believed that mixing politics and religion is a surefire way to radicalism (and the cult of personality mentioned earlier). During the 2016 Presidential Election, many religious Americans fused their faith and petty politics, becoming volatile, hateful, divisive, unproductive, and frankly annoying. Trump, Pence, Reagan, Biden, Bernie, Hillary - whether intentional or not, these names stopped being political figures for some and crossed the line into golden calves. I started noticing the Christians around me fighting way more about The White House than studying about Jesus. When allowed to speak at a religious event at the height of this frenzy, I elected to share what I had been studying that year from the Bible regarding a Christian's relationship with the civil government.
My overall message was simple: no civil ruler will enact policies that are 100% in harmony with Christian principles, and for all the division in the religious world about hot-button social issues to begin with, it is pointless to engage in vain and empty arguments and political rhetoric. Too often Christians brawl with strangers across the world wide web, while their neighbor next door goes hungry.
I strongly believe in the separation of church and state. During each presidential election, I see that separation getting more and more muddied among friends and family who claim to believe the same. During this speech, I stressed that it would be far more profitable for Christians to practice their principles by loving and caring for the needy instead of bickering with each other about which candidate to support based on their stance(s) on controversial moral issues like drugs and alcohol, divorce, gay marriage, carnal warfare, etc.
In essence, legislating and enacting civil law was not the job of primitive Christians, so I doubt it should be the concern of Christians today. Regardless of how you feel about that statement (and believe me, plenty of Christians in the audience took issue with what I said), that was the context. Recently, a single clip from this speech has been misrepresented to claim that I believe Christians should hop in the driver’s seat and outlaw alcohol, warfare, divorce, gay marriage, (insert current year's controversial social issue), etc. The real teaching was the complete opposite: enacting civil law is not the job of the church. Christians have no business attempting to legislate or impose their worldview(s) on others - especially considering that Christendom seems to be having a hard enough time setting its own house in order. As I study the Bible and primitive Christianity, the more I believe this to be true.
To be crystal clear: I do not hate anyone who is gay. I find homophobia and all bigotry detestable. As a kid, I was on the receiving end of numerous slurs and bullying targeted toward my own sexuality. It made life growing up terrible, and I'd never want to do that to others. If you think hate toward any person, regardless of their sexuality, nationality, skin color, religious beliefs, age, or family history is acceptable - shame on you. My religion teaches two great commandments: The first is that I love my Creator, and the second is that I love my neighbor. There are no qualifiers on who my neighbor is. Jesus said we should even love our enemies, and the Torah reminds readers to love the stranger - because believe you me, I was once in Egypt.
I am a man of many faults and imperfections. Love has not come easily for me, but I am trying more and more to show my love through my actions. Should I err, I hope to err on the side of love. What I can promise you is that I will try my best to show my undying love for all people, who I believe are made in the image of God. This isn't easy, and I am certain I will make mistakes, but it's the only way I've been able to get through life.
If this article does not satisfy your expectations of me, then my suspicion is that nothing I say or do ever will.
For those like the above emailer who find the idea of faith itself old-fashioned or detestable: I completely understand. If the knowledge that I have religious beliefs keeps you from enjoying my work, then you have every right to stop watching. But, remember: if you continue removing your exposure to people who hold differing ideas or perspectives than you, don't be too surprised by how small and shakable your world starts to be.
All my love.
- Austin