A short YouTube monologue by Betsy Guerra asking viewers to reflect on whether religion or spirituality is more important. Through two personal stories — a mother rejecting her gay teenage son due to church teachings, and a priest requesting a therapist to 'remove' LGBT influence from youth — the speaker argues that love and acceptance (being the 'face of God') should take priority over rigid religious judgment. The video ends with a call to choose love, a quotation from St. Augustine, and a link to the speaker's website.
Chapters
Today I'm going to challenge you to reflect on a question. What is more important, religion or spirituality? I am just going to tell you a couple stories that I experienced recently, and I'm going to let you be the judge of that question. The first thing I want to share is that I have a mom who came to see me, and she was destroyed. She was heartbroken because she had recently found out that her son was gay. He was a teenager, and this mom couldn't accept it. She couldn't accept him, I should say. She came to me and she was like, that's wrong. What do I need to do to change him? How do I fix him? This is just not okay. This cannot happen. What do I do? And in the journey, she was explaining how he feels so abandoned, and he has told her that she looks at him with eyes of disgust. And this kid who is already struggling with his sexual identity and trying to define who he is and is now facing on acceptance and abandonment and judgment from the person who's supposed to love him the most in the world. And as I was listening to this mom, I was trying to help her realize that this son of hers, who I know personally was the face of God. This kid was the kindest human being on the face of the earth. He was always so nice, he. And sweet to everybody around him. With other teens in our community, he would help them. He would look out for them. This kid is the face of God. But mom could not accept him because the church, her faith, says that being gay is wrong and it's a sin. So she removed her love in the name of religion. And that doesn't add up to me. I'm going to tell you another story. Recently, I received a phone call from a woman who said, betsy, a priest, asked me to look for a therapist who understood that this LGBT movement for youth is evil and is destroying our children, and someone that would be able to do talks for these kids to remove them from that evil. And I remember thinking, like, I couldn't even understand what she was saying. I have a community of youth and teenagers in my private practice, and I cannot equate in my mind youth to evil. Children are the closest to God. So I told this woman, I'm like, listen, I am Catholic, and I cannot, in the name of the God that I love and worship, I cannot do this for you or that priest. I don't believe that a person is evil because they have a certain sexual orientation or. Or identity. And I, a woman of faith, a therapist who incorporates spirituality and love and faith and God in everything she does cannot be the source of judgment for people who already feel alone and alienated and abandoned. So my challenge to you is reflect on what is more important to you. Is it to follow certain religious ideas and beliefs, or is it to love and be the face of God for the people around you? St. Augustine said, Love and do what you will. So start with that. If this video resonates with you, please share and help me make this world a little better. And if there's anything else I can do for you, you can Visit me@betterwithbetsy.com.
