Revs. Abel Arroyo (he/they) & Matt Zemanick (he/they) operate the podcast Chatoic Bisexual Text Study, which exists to “discuss the Bible and our times as Bi/Pan/Queer” folks. Both are ‘pastors’ within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with Arroyo being the Assistant to the Bishop for Faith Formation & In-house Theologian for the Southwest California Synod, and Zemanick being the Program Director for the Lutheran Disaster Response, along with his other regular pastoral duties.
During a recent episode of their show, the two budding socialists claim that the gospel is not best summarized as “Jesus died for your sins” but rather “Don’t be a d***”
And like you were saying, like ‘Jesus died for our sins’ is not the best way to summarize the gospel. And I was just thinking, like, what would be a better way to summarize it, and I just keep thinking, ‘just don’t be a dick. Don’t be a dick, Jesus says,’ Like, period. Like, you know what I mean?
..I think it’s important to name that, right? Women, queer people, the environment, labor laws, all of those things align with the gospel. And like, in a world where God created plants and animals and all sorts of delicious things, now we’re being told oh, you need to pay $12 for a pound of chicken. You know what I mean? Like, if that doesn’t make you want to revolt…
Later, when asked what the gospel is for him, Zemanick responds:
“Oh, goodness. ‘Be a whistleblower, you’re free!’ That’s it. Or like as (unintelligible) would say, ‘Evil devours itself. Live like it.” Or like…”be free, people resent you, but you’re free.”
