When faith becomes an excuse

Violence should not be sanitized as values.

I want to be clear about something that often confuses people when this topic comes up.

I am not surprised by hate. I recognize it. I grew up around it. I come from it. None of this is new to me, and none of it shocks me.

My family is deeply conservative. I no longer speak to my brothers and sisters. One of my sisters married a minister who once refused a glass of water from me because he believed it could give him AIDS. That actually happened. It is not a metaphor or an exaggeration.

That background matters because it means I understand the culture that produces this cruelty. I know the language. I know the justifications. I know the way fear gets dressed up as concern and how violence gets reframed as morality.