Also, they’re fed this twisted idea that somehow it’s “love” to show hatred to someone, that they think that by scorning people, denouncing them, acting with hatred. . .that they’re somehow “loving” them, because they’re indoctrinated into a profound fear of hellfire and damnation, and are absolutely sure the people they hate are going to hell, so they delude themselves into thinking it’s some kind of love to scorn them, thinking that this will make them conform to the image of God they’ve crafted in their own image.
They think that somehow it’s Holy to hate, just as long as they can convince themselves they’re doing it to save someone’s soul.
They’re sure that people choose to be LBGT, because they supposedly hate God. . .and they can simply just choose Jesus instead and magically not be LBGT and thus they’re “saved”. . .and they think the best way to do this is to act with absolute fear and hatred towards them, thinking they can scare and intimidate people into being cis-het.
i don’t think it’s about self reflection in the process OP is outlining. in fact, i think it’s the absence of self reflection that OP is pointing out. as humans we are constantly building associations between emotion and action. evil christians exist in a constant feedback loop that creates the association between internal hate and external hate without the environment to nurture enough self reflection, forgiveness, and care to then extend those self directed acts of love outward. literally for them the only way they understand love, hate, and fear is as all as the same thing. it’s all one emotion to them.