Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged

"Uh, Cas?" Charlie hesitated on this question as she looked at the angel seated in a different comfy chair on the other side of the Bunker's library. She had been wondering about the answer to this question ever since she had heard that angels and God were in fact real. However, she had debated whether or not she should actually ask it. It was strange for her, even she knew that, but…

This question, in particular, was important to her.

"Yes?" Castiel looked up from the book he was reading, and Charlie felt a smug sort of pride over the fact that she had gotten an angel to read the Percy Jackson books, even if it was ironic having an angel of God with a capital G reading a series centered on an ancient polytheistic belief system. Still, his eyes as always were earnest, and he devoted his entire attention on her. He was genuinely interested in what she had to ask.

For a second, she hesitated again. After all, depending on the answer, it could crush her. Then she drew in her courage and opened her mouth.

"You know I'm a lesbian, right?" Charlie blurt out.

Cas tilted his head a bit and narrowed his eyes. "Yes."

"So, uh," she stumbled over the words, "why don't you have a problem with that? In the Bible, I mean – " She couldn't finish and looked down, slightly embarrassed. LGBT was a big topic all over the world at the moment, and a lot of the protests were based off of religious scripture. Charlie had thought that getting the opinion of an actual angel might make her feel better, especially as the issue was so near to her, but she couldn't bring herself to finish.

She heard a slight sigh and the sound of Castiel closing his book. Within a few moments, she suddenly saw Cas's sensible shows in the scoop of her vision as she looked at the floor, and she jumped a bit because she hadn't heard him walking. They shifted as the angel settled in the chair right across from hers.

"Charlie." His voice said softly. "Look at me." She slowly looked up, and he gave her a small smile.

Something in her relaxed at that smile. Charlie relaxed further as he reached out and touched her gently, though he looked a tad bit unsure if he was doing the right thing to comfort her. Castiel was a terrible liar, and she saw no attempts at falsehood in his gestures, only complete sincerity and care.

"I am utterly indifferent to sexual orientation. And gender for that matter." He told her. "I happened to end up in a male vessel, but I would still have been myself in a female vessel." He made a funny face at that, before he shrugged. Castiel looked her in the eye. "I am fairly sure that my Father feels the same way. After all, all humans, both male and female, are made in his image. We only refer to him as a he for simplicity's sake. It comes down to one's soul; who they were, not what they were. All in all, it's a case of," his face twisted as if he was trying to find a proper analogy in the limited English language, "I believe one could say, it's a case of the contents being more important than the container."

Charlie took in a deep breath at that. It kind of felt like a burden she hadn't even know she had had been lifted.

"Also," Cas continued as he hadn't noticed her reaction, "one has to remember that even if information is given to prophets from my Father, how they interpret and write it is up to them. I'm sure you can understand that as you have read the Winchester Gospels. I cannot believe that prophets remembered every single detail that was revealed to them and wrote it verbatim." He looked away from a moment and gave a small chuckle at that thought.

She faintly nodded. Charlie would be surprised if God solidly approved every description within the books. In some ways, those books were more detailed than the Old Testament.

Castiel looked her in the eyes once more. "Besides the Christ child spoke directly from Father. He preached on acceptance and love. That should more than show how Father regards this matter." He smiled at her.

Part of Charlie wanted to cry. She somewhat felt the tears welling up in her eyes, and she looked away from where Cas sat before her.

Here was an angel telling her that it was all right to be who she was. She had never been ashamed, or tried to hide it. And even if his answer had been the opposite, she still would have continued as she had been. Somehow though, she just found the angel's words to be a huge relief. After all, if anyone should know about Heaven's stance on the matter, it would be him.

"Charlie." Castiel said gently, and she looked back at him. His gaze softened and that smile was still there. "With all of the sins this world has to offer, did you really think that one would be sent to Hell simply for loving someone? Even if that person is the same gender?"

And that was it. The floodgates opened up, and Charlie couldn't hold it back anymore. There was a small sound like something rustling, and Castiel's arms embraced her. He held her as she cried a bit, because she was simply so relieved.

And even though she knew that Cas always worried about screwing things up and hurting people, Charlie knew that later she could tell him that he had definitely saved some part of her.

AN: Bit of a more serious story. First off, I would like to say that I am, in fact, a Christian. I am not, though, a member of the LGBT community. Actually, given my disinterest in the practice, I am most likely asexual than anything else. It really me off though when people try to use religion, such as quoting the Bible, in order to justify bigotry and hatred. In the Gospels, which I pay more attention to given that the basis of my religious belief is that Jesus himself is part of the Trinity of Holy Beings, Jesus never spoke out against homosexuals so I wish people would stop saying he did. The only people he spoke out against were hypocrites who tried to use his Father as a way to push their selfish schemes, like the Pharisees. Besides, I'm fairly sure the section of the Bible where it says homosexuality is a sin is also the place where it says divorce is a sin (oh, hello, rising divorce rates) and women wearing pants is a sin (I mostly only wear pants). Sorry if this potentially offends anyone, but this chapter is based off of a rant that I typed up in order to vent about my frustrations. Besides, if you are going to judge people for being LGBT, are you really clean enough to cast the first stone?