I’m really not a fan of adding the suffix “-phobia” to a word unless it actually applies. I think it’s far too often used to stir up hatred and overstate what people believe. I’m all for going back to a “phobia” being an irrational fear of something. I don’t think that applies when someone is simply stating a philosophical or religious position. We don’t say someone is “adulteraphobic” just because their religion teaches that adultery is wrong.
Having said that, as a Christian, I don’t believe there is any case where I am called to do anything but love others. This doesn’t mean that I have to endorse anyone’s actions, but it does mean that I am to rely on God to do his work with them and accept that part of that work could circle back to me loving them.
On the other hand I wonder…can I have it both ways? Because I saw an article about someone’s actions being “Christophobic,” so if I want to be consistent, I’ve got to be skeptical. Is “Christophobia” even a thing? I think it is, but it’s not some recent concept. John writes in his telling of the gospel, not far from what is probably the Bible’s most famous verse (“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”), “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
And this, while God “did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
So we’ve got this: God loved the world enough to send Jesus — not to condemn us, but to actually save us. We earn our condemnation through our utter rejection of the God who created us and who sustains our lives even as we turn from him. But though we are enemies of him in our hearts, God counters with the free gift of life for anyone who would receive it.
So, does a hatred of Christ – the one who says, “Here. Have this gift. It’s free, and it means everything to you and came at great cost to me” — seem rational?
I say no. It’s not. But I also don’t think we’re talking about a phobia here. It’s much more, and it’s much more serious.