Tom DeBlass, a veteran of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a decorated American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner and mixed martial artist fighter, shared a Pride-themed message on his social media last week that was simply wonderful to watch.
“I gotta be honest, your sexual preference, your religion, your color, your job, nothing matters to me. I am friends [with] people of all backgrounds,” he said on Sunday, June 14. “To my gay friends, I support you and you always have a place on my mats.” We will definitely accept that invite.
He doubled down on his words in a separate video after so-called Christians accused him of “defying Jesus.”
“First of all, let’s get something straight. I’m just a man. I don’t claim to be perfect. But how dare you tell me that I’m not Christian because I support gay people?” he said. “Have you ever had sex before marriage? Have you ever gotten drunk? Have you ever committed a sin?”
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“You tell me a sin is a sin. Well, for sure, a sin is a sin,” he continued. “Don’t tell me a gay person that’s a good person, that’s not judging people, that is living his best or her best to help other people, is damned to eternal hell because of their sexual preference.” PREACH!
He wasn’t done just yet. “Listen, the Bible says many things. It does. And I can’t say I agree with all of it, but I can say, I love Jesus, through and through. Thou shalt not throw stones. Many of you throw stones. So we can have different beliefs but don’t come here and tell me and speak to me as if you are Jesus Christ himself, because you’re not.”
“Yes I love my gay people, I love my lesbian people, doesn’t matter, they can be gay, lesbian, Black, white, Muslim, I don’t care. If you’re a good person, you’re a good person. Stop throwing those stones. Don’t you have other things to worry about?”
Tom received mixed feedback in the comments section of his post but there were plenty of words supporting what he was trying to get across. “Man, I love you,” one person wrote. “As a Christian man myself I can’t stress this enough. ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ End of story.”