Why Fandom Gatekeeping Mirrors Spiritual Pride

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Hello everyone, welcome back to the Devoted Otaku podcast.
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I'm your host Javier, and man, do I have a conversation for you today that's been sitting in my heart for a while.
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You ever notice how there's this weird thing that happens in fandom spaces where people decide who's a real fan and who's just pretending?
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Like someone will post about a show they just started watching, and immediately you see these comments tearing them apart because they haven't read the manga, or they skip the light novels, or they're asking basic questions.
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It's intense, right?
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And I kept thinking about this, and I realized something that actually terrified me a little bit, because I recognized a pattern that goes way deeper than just anime gatekeeping.
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It's actually something Jesus spent his entire ministry calling out, and we can learn so much about our own hearts by looking at this issue through both a fandom lens and a spiritual one.
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So today we're talking about fake fans, real Pharisees, and the gatekeeping instinct that lives in all of us.
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Here's something I've observed being part of anime communities for years, and I think it's worth saying out loud.
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There's this incredibly human tendency to gatekeep knowledge, access, and validation around the things we love.
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And it usually comes from a place that actually seems righteous at first.
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When you've invested hours into a story, when you've studied the source material, when you've been following a manga since it first started serializing, there's this voice that says, I've earned the right to decide who's a real fan and who's not.
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I get it, I do.
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Because if you've been reading a series since the beginning, and suddenly thousands of people are into it because of the anime adaptation, yeah, there's a feeling there.
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There's something that wants to protect the thing you love, to make sure people understand it the way you do, to maintain some kind of standard.
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That protective instinct makes sense.
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It's human.
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We all have things we care about deeply, and we want them to be appreciated the way they deserve to be appreciated.
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But here's where I want to be really honest with you.
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That instinct to gatekeep, it's never actually about protecting the thing you love.
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It's about protecting yourself.
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It's about maintaining a hierarchy where your knowledge, your commitment, your early adoption puts you at the top and everyone else is below you.
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And when I started thinking about that spiritually, it hit me like a freight train because that is literally the definition of what Jesus called the Pharisees out for doing in Matthew 23.
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These were people who had studied the law, who had devoted themselves to it, who had structured their entire lives around religious correctness.
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And they used that knowledge not to help people understand God, but to position themselves as the arbiters of righteousness.
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They created tests for who was in and who was out, who understood and who was ignorant, who was pure and who was unclean.
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And when someone didn't measure up to their standards, they didn't help them.
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They mocked them, they excluded them, they made them feel small.
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That's gatekeeping, that's spiritual gatekeeping.
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And it looks exactly like anime gatekeeping, comic book gatekeeping, gaming gatekeeping, any space where people have accumulated knowledge and decided to weaponize it.
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I think about communities I've been part of where someone new asks a question, and instead of getting an answer, they get mocked.
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How do you not know that?
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You call yourself a fan.
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And the person asking is already probably nervous, already probably unsure if they belong, and that response confirms it.
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They don't belong.
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They're not enough.
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And the thing is, the person doing the gatekeeping probably doesn't even realize what they're doing.
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They're not intentionally being cruel, they're just protecting what they perceive as theirs.
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But intent doesn't matter when the result is someone feeling excluded and small.
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This is the danger of the gatekeeping instinct.
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It becomes this invisible permission structure, where we police communities, we maintain hierarchies, and we do it all in the name of caring about quality or authenticity or something.
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But really, we're just scared.
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We're scared that if everyone can access this thing, then our knowledge doesn't make us special anymore.
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We're scared that our devotion doesn't matter if other people care about it too without the same level of commitment.
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And that fear turns into gatekeeping.
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It becomes a defense mechanism, a way to protect our ego from the threat of irrelevance.
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What's even more interesting is when you look at actual fan communities that thrive, they're almost always the ones that don't gatekeep.
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They're the ones that celebrate new fans, that answer questions patiently, that make space for people who are just discovering what they already know.
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Places like good anime subreddits or healthy Discord communities, or fan pages run by people who genuinely get it, they welcome you in.
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They say, hey, I'm so glad you found this show.
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Do you want to know more?
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They treat newcomers not as tests to pass, but as people who just discovered something beautiful.
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And those communities end up stronger.
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They end up with deeper conversations because everyone feels safe enough to participate.
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They end up with more passion and more longevity because people actually feel welcome.
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But gatekeeping communities, they feel like a lot of energy going into policing instead of celebrating.
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And maybe that's the first signal that something's off.
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Maybe when we feel that urge to gatekeep, that's our heart telling us there's something in there that needs attention.
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There's some insecurity, some fear, some need to be special that's looking for validation.
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And if we can recognize that in ourselves, in those moments when we want to make someone feel small for not knowing enough, or not caring enough, or not being in the community long enough, that's when we can pause and ask ourselves, what am I really trying to protect here?
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What am I really afraid of losing?
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Because the honest answer is usually about us, not about the community at all.
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It's about our fear that we won't matter if we're not special.
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It's about our terror that someone could do what we do, know what we know, without the investment we made.
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And that's human, that's real.
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But it's not a good enough reason to make someone else feel bad.
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It's not a good enough reason to keep someone out.
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It's not a good enough reason to build walls around something that should be open.
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I want you to think about the last time you felt that gatekeeping impulse.
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I want you to remember what it felt like, and I want you to trace it back.
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What was I really afraid of in that moment?
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Was I afraid of being less special?
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Was I afraid of losing status?
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Was I afraid that my knowledge wouldn't matter anymore?
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Because once you identify the real fear, once you drag it into the light and look at it, it loses some of its power.
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You realize that most of our gatekeeping fears aren't actually rational.
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They're not based on anything real, they're just ghosts we carry around.
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And the moment we can name them, we can start to let them go.
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Let me talk about the Pharisees for a minute, because they're actually really instructive here.
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These weren't bad people, that's the thing we miss.
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They were people who genuinely loved God.
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They studied Scripture, they wanted to live righteously.
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They created rules and structures because they actually thought they were protecting God's people.
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They built these massive frameworks of law on top of the original law, like safety rails, so nobody could accidentally break the important stuff.
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And I'm sure at the start there were some good intentions there, but over time it became something else.
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It became a system where righteousness was measured by external compliance.
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It became a hierarchy where Pharisees sat at the top because they understood all the rules, and everyone else was beneath them.
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And the further you were from their standard of purity, the less your voice mattered, the less your questions mattered, the less sound familiar?
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It should, because we're all doing versions of this, and here's where Jesus comes in and essentially says, This is wrong, this is backwards.
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Look at Matthew 23, where Jesus is speaking directly about the Pharisees.
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He says, The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, so you must be careful to do everything they tell you, but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
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So Jesus isn't saying the knowledge is wrong.
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He's not saying studying scripture is wrong.
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He's saying the gatekeeping is wrong.
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He's saying using knowledge to establish dominance is wrong.
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He's saying building systems where some people are inside and some are outside, where some people are acceptable and some are not, is wrong.
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And then he says something that just cuts to the heart of it.
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He says the Pharisees tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
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They've created these standards that are impossible to meet, and they police everyone else for not meeting them, but they're not actually living it either.
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They're just using the standards as a tool for power.
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They've built a system where they benefit and everyone else carries the weight.
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That's gatekeeping.
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That's exactly what gatekeeping is.
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You set a bar that's really hard to reach, you position yourself as the one who gets to decide whether someone has reached it, and you use that power to separate people into categories, to make some people feel less than, to maintain your position at the top.
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And it shows up everywhere.
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It shows up in anime spaces, where someone says they're a Dragon Ball fan but they've only watched the anime, and someone tears them apart for not having read the manga.
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It shows up in gaming communities where people get mocked for playing on easy mode.
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It shows up in comic book stores where longtime readers make new people feel stupid for not knowing the entire publication history of a character.
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It shows up in churches where people who aren't as knowledgeable about scripture feel like they can't ask questions without being judged.
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It shows up in workplaces, in friend groups, and families.
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And what Jesus is saying is that this impulse to gatekeep, this need to separate people into categories of worthy and unworthy, acceptable and unacceptable, is fundamentally opposed to the kingdom of God.
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It's the opposite of his vision, it's the opposite of what he came to establish.
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Because here's the thing about Jesus: he didn't gatekeep, he was surrounded by people who weren't qualified.
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He called fishermen with no theological training.
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He spent his time with tax collectors and prostitutes, and people who were considered the least righteous by the standards of his day.
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And the Pharisees were scandalized by this.
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He's eating with sinners, he's breaking the Sabbath, he's not following the purity laws.
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And Jesus essentially said, Yeah, I know, and that's the point.
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He was actively breaking down the gatekeeping structures that the Pharisees had built.
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He was saying that righteousness isn't about meeting external standards that someone else set.
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It's about transformation, it's about what's in your heart, it's about intention and love and relationship with God.
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And he made a point of doing this publicly, of embarrassing the gatekeepers, of showing people that the emperor had no clothes.
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When a woman caught in adultery was brought to him, about to be stoned because of the law, he didn't debate the law with the Pharisees.
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He asked them, which one of you is without sin?
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And suddenly the gatekeeping machinery stopped working.
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Because gatekeeping only works when the gatekeeper can position themselves as qualified, as pure, as deserving of the power to judge.
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And Jesus just took that away.
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He said, Everybody's a sinner, everybody's disqualified.
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So the gates come down, everyone gets access, everyone gets invited in.
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And that's revolutionary, that's countercultural.
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That goes against every human impulse to protect territory and maintain hierarchy.
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That's why it took Jesus coming in person to model it for us.
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That's why it's radical inclusion, because inclusion isn't our default setting as humans.
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Exclusion is, hierarchy is.
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Gatekeeping is natural to us, but Jesus said no, that's not how the kingdom works, that's not how love works, that's not how grace works.
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And he proved it by surrounding himself with the least qualified people, the people the religious establishment had marked as unclean, unworthy, illegitimate.
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He proved it by eating with them, by spending time with them, by treating them like they mattered.
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And he proved it by his death and resurrection, by saying, if you've done this, if you've closed doors on people, if you've used your knowledge to make yourself feel superior, I'm dying to open those doors again.
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I'm dying to break down those walls.
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I'm dying to show you that there's another way.
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I want to go deeper into what's actually driving the gatekeeping instinct, because I think if we don't understand the route, we're just going to keep doing this to ourselves.
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And I think the root is fear.
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Specifically, I think it's the fear that if we're not special in some way, we don't matter.
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If everyone can have access to what we have access to, then what makes us different?
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What makes us valuable?
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If being a fan doesn't require the level of devotion that I've invested, then what was all that devotion for?
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Was I wasting my time?
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Did I make a stupid choice?
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These are the questions that live underneath gatekeeping, and they're painful questions.
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That's why we gatekeep instead of asking them directly.
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It's easier to make someone else feel bad than to look at our own fear.
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Think about the person who spent hundreds of dollars buying manga volumes, who woke up early to watch episodes as they aired, who engaged with the community online, who invested real time and real money and real emotional energy into a story, and then suddenly the anime comes out, and it's massively popular, and new fans are everywhere.
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And some of these new fans don't care about reading the manga.
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They don't care about the deep cuts.
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They just watched the anime and they enjoyed it.
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And for the longtime fan, that can feel threatening.
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It can feel like their investment didn't matter.
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Like the thing they love is being cheapened somehow by people who aren't appreciating it the way it deserves to be appreciated.
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And that's a real feeling, that's legitimate.
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The problem is when we respond to that legitimate feeling by making the new people feel bad about themselves.
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We're trying to protect our own emotional space by destroying someone else's joy.
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And that's not okay, that's not the person we want to be, because here's the thing, and I say this with all the love in my heart, your worth as a fan doesn't diminish because other people are fans too.
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Your experience of a story doesn't become less valid because someone else's experience is different.
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Your knowledge doesn't become useless because someone else doesn't have it.
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But gatekeeping comes from a place where we genuinely believe these things are true.
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Gatekeeping comes from scarcity thinking.
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It comes from the belief that there's only so much value to go around, and if other people get access to it, there's less for us.
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And that's not true.
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It's not true about fandom, it's not true about spirituality, it's not true about anything worth having.
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Community gets bigger, it gets richer.
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Knowledge shared doesn't diminish.
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Stories told to new people don't become less meaningful to the people who love them first.
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That's actually the opposite of how it works.
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When you share something you love with someone who's just discovering it, and you see their eyes light up, that's one of the best feelings in the world.
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But gatekeeping keeps us from ever experiencing that.
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Gatekeeping keeps us isolated with our treasures, guarding them instead of enjoying the joy of sharing.
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I think about something that happened in the anime community recently with Demon Slayer.
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That show exploded, absolutely exploded.
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And it could have gone one of two ways.
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People who had been reading the manga for years could have gatekeeped it.
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They could have said, oh great, now all these fake fans are everywhere who don't understand the source material.
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They could have treated the anime as inferior, dismissed the new fans as casual, created a two-tier system where manga readers were the real fans, but instead, a lot of the fandom celebrated it.
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They made content welcoming new fans.
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They answered questions.
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They shared their excitement with people who were just discovering the story.
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And you know what?
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The manga community didn't get smaller.
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The people who read the manga still read the manga.
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The anime brought new people in, and some of those people ended up reading the manga too.
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The whole thing grew.
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Everyone won.
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That's what happens when you don't gatekeep.
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That's what happens when you choose generosity over protection.
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That's what happens when you recognize that there's enough to go around.
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And I think that's the invitation here.
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When we feel that gatekeeping impulse rising up in us, when we feel that urge to quiz someone, to make them prove their fan credentials, to exclude them because they're not doing it the way we're doing it, that's an opportunity.
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That's actually a moment of grace.
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That's God or the universe or whatever you believe in tapping us on the shoulder saying, What are you protecting here?
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What are you afraid of losing?
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And the answer is always something about ourselves.
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It's always some belief we have about our own worth being tied to our exclusivity, our knowledge, our seniority, our early adoption.
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And if we can identify that, if we can say, Oh, I'm scared that if I'm not the expert, then I'm not valuable, then we can start to dismantle that belief.
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We can start to understand that our value doesn't come from gatekeeping.
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Our value comes from who we are, and who we are is reflected in how we treat people.
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It's reflected in whether we make space for people or whether we make them feel small.
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It's that simple and that profound.
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Let me break down the actual mechanics of gatekeeping because I think understanding how it works makes it easier to recognize when we're doing it.
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And we're probably all doing it in some form, so this is important.
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The first move is establishing the standard.
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Someone needs to decide what makes a real fan, what makes a legitimate member of the community.
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And usually this person is someone who has invested a lot in the thing.
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They've been here longer, they know more, they've dedicated themselves.
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So they get to decide.
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They say real fans have read the manga, or real gamers don't use assists, or real Christians know their Bible.
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And the standard gets established, and it makes sense on the surface, right?
00:15:37.990 --> 00:15:41.350
Like, shouldn't people who are passionate about something know the source material?
00:15:41.509 --> 00:15:42.709
Shouldn't they be dedicated?
00:15:42.870 --> 00:16:30.060
But here's where the gatekeeping starts the standard gets enforced.
00:16:30.220 --> 00:16:32.700
And enforcement is where the spirituality dies.
00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:36.940
The moment you move from having standards to weaponizing them, you've crossed a line.
00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:40.060
Once you've got a standard, the next move is testing people against it.
00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:43.500
Someone new shows up and says, Hey, I just watched this show and I loved it.
00:16:43.659 --> 00:16:45.340
And the gatekeeper asks questions.
00:16:45.580 --> 00:16:46.700
Have you read the manga?
00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:49.659
Do you know who the main character was before the adaptation?
00:16:49.820 --> 00:16:53.019
Are you aware of the differences between the light novel and the anime?
00:16:53.180 --> 00:16:55.420
And the new person probably doesn't know the answers.
00:16:55.580 --> 00:16:57.659
They're just excited about a story they watched.
00:16:57.820 --> 00:16:59.180
But now they're being tested.
00:16:59.340 --> 00:17:05.740
And if they fail the test, they're going to be marked as a fake fan, as someone who doesn't really understand, as someone who's not legitimate.
00:17:05.899 --> 00:17:08.139
And here's the thing that's so insidious about this.
00:17:08.379 --> 00:17:10.059
The new person didn't ask for the test.
00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:11.980
They were just sharing their enthusiasm.
00:17:12.139 --> 00:17:16.539
But the gatekeeper has decided that to be part of this community, you have to pass their test.
00:17:16.700 --> 00:17:17.980
You have to meet their standard.
00:17:18.139 --> 00:17:20.619
This is a power move disguised as quality control.
00:17:20.779 --> 00:17:22.059
Then comes the exclusion.
00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:25.819
Once someone has been marked as not meeting the standard, they're treated differently.
00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:27.019
Maybe they get mocked.
00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:28.779
Maybe their opinions are dismissed.
00:17:28.940 --> 00:17:33.259
Maybe they're told to go back and read the manga before they're allowed to have thoughts about the anime.
00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:35.420
Maybe they're excluded from conversations.
00:17:35.579 --> 00:17:38.539
Maybe the space just feels hostile to them, so they leave.
00:17:38.619 --> 00:17:41.420
And that's the goal of gatekeeping, whether conscious or not.
00:17:41.579 --> 00:17:48.059
It's to maintain the exclusivity of the space, to keep it small, to keep it for the people who are serious enough to meet the standard.
00:17:48.139 --> 00:17:51.579
And this is where I want to connect it back to what Jesus said about the Pharisees.
00:17:51.819 --> 00:17:54.940
He said they shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.
00:17:55.180 --> 00:17:59.099
You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
00:17:59.259 --> 00:18:02.379
They weren't just maintaining standards, they were actively closing doors.
00:18:02.539 --> 00:18:04.299
They were making it harder for people to come in.
00:18:04.460 --> 00:18:08.139
They were using their knowledge and their position to exclude rather than to invite.
00:18:08.299 --> 00:18:12.059
And the tragedy is, the people being excluded didn't do anything wrong.
00:18:12.220 --> 00:18:13.180
They just showed up.
00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:15.099
They just wanted to be part of something.
00:18:15.259 --> 00:18:18.700
And the worst part about this is that it's usually dressed up as care.
00:18:18.940 --> 00:18:21.740
The gatekeeper usually believes they're protecting something.
00:18:21.899 --> 00:18:27.420
They believe they're protecting the integrity of the community, the quality of the conversation, the purity of the fandom.
00:18:27.579 --> 00:18:31.900
They're like, if we let anyone in who hasn't done the work, we're gonna dilute what this community is.
00:18:32.059 --> 00:18:33.259
But that's not what happens.
00:18:33.420 --> 00:18:40.539
What happens is you create a closed, insular community where people are more focused on policing each other than on experiencing the thing together.
00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:46.620
You create an environment where people are afraid to ask questions, afraid to admit what they don't know, afraid to be themselves.
00:18:46.779 --> 00:18:51.579
You create a culture of shame and suspicion, and ironically, that makes the community worse.
00:18:51.819 --> 00:19:01.180
Because the best communities are the ones where people feel safe, where people can be honest, where people can ask dumb questions without getting mocked, where people can be new and still feel welcome.
00:19:01.259 --> 00:19:02.860
That's where real connection happens.
00:19:03.019 --> 00:19:04.380
That's where people actually grow.
00:19:04.539 --> 00:19:12.460
I've been in fandoms that were run by gatekeepers, and I've been in fandoms that were run by generous people who saw their role as helping others discover what they loved.
00:19:12.620 --> 00:19:14.539
And the difference is like night and day.
00:19:14.700 --> 00:19:22.460
The gatekeeping communities have all this energy going into maintaining boundaries, into proving who belongs and who doesn't, into hierarchies and status.
00:19:22.700 --> 00:19:32.460
The generous communities have that energy going into deeper engagement with the thing itself, into creating content, into having conversations, into supporting each other, into making something beautiful together.
00:19:32.700 --> 00:19:37.420
One community is built on scarcity, on the assumption that there's only so much coolness to go around.
00:19:37.579 --> 00:19:42.620
The other is built on abundance, on the belief that more people loving something just means more love in the world.
00:19:42.779 --> 00:19:46.860
And I know which one I'd rather be part of, and I know which one Jesus would have chosen.
00:19:47.019 --> 00:19:50.460
The generous one, the welcoming one, the one that makes space for everyone.
00:19:50.620 --> 00:19:54.380
And I know which one actually makes people happier, more fulfilled, more connected.
00:19:54.539 --> 00:19:56.380
Because gatekeeping is a lonely business.
00:19:56.460 --> 00:20:00.860
It's isolating, it requires constant vigilance, constant policing, constant maintenance.
00:20:01.019 --> 00:20:04.140
It requires you to care more about who's out than about what's in.
00:20:04.299 --> 00:20:05.980
But generosity is the opposite.
00:20:06.220 --> 00:20:10.620
Generosity opens you up, it connects you to people, it makes you feel good about yourself.
00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:17.900
And it actually strengthens the community because people feel like they belong, they feel like they're contributing, they feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves.
00:20:18.059 --> 00:20:20.140
That's what communities are supposed to feel like.
00:20:20.299 --> 00:20:22.059
Not like clubs, but like family.
00:20:22.220 --> 00:20:24.140
Not like institutions but like homes.
00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:32.860
Here's where I want to get vulnerable with you because I think this is the section where we stop talking about other people and we start looking in the mirror, because I have absolutely gate-kept.
00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:33.660
I've done it.
00:20:33.819 --> 00:20:41.099
I've had a conversation with someone about anime or games or books, and they said something that was slightly off, or they hadn't seen something I had seen.
00:20:41.259 --> 00:20:50.539
And I felt that little twinge, that little feeling of superiority, that little urge to correct them, to make sure they knew that I knew more than they did, and I didn't always resist that urge.
00:20:50.700 --> 00:20:52.220
Sometimes I went ahead and did it.
00:20:52.299 --> 00:20:54.860
I made someone feel dumb for not knowing something I knew.
00:20:55.019 --> 00:20:57.819
I positioned myself as the expert and them as the novice.
00:20:57.900 --> 00:20:58.779
I gatekeeped.
00:20:58.860 --> 00:21:01.339
And what's funny is I didn't even feel bad about it at the time.
00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:02.460
I felt justified.
00:21:02.539 --> 00:21:04.299
I felt like I was just sharing information.
00:21:04.460 --> 00:21:06.700
I was just making sure the conversation was accurate.
00:21:06.860 --> 00:21:08.220
I was maintaining standards.
00:21:08.380 --> 00:21:09.740
But that wasn't what I was doing.
00:21:09.900 --> 00:21:11.740
What I was doing was protecting my ego.
00:21:11.900 --> 00:21:19.180
What I was doing was making sure that person knew that I was smarter, or more dedicated, or more legitimate than they were, and I did it without even thinking about it.
00:21:19.339 --> 00:21:26.779
And I think about that now, and I think about all the times I made people feel small in the name of accuracy or dedication or community standards.
00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:33.819
I think about conversations where someone brought up a theory about a show, and instead of engaging with it, I shot it down because they got some detail wrong.
00:21:33.980 --> 00:21:36.620
I think about people I dismissed because they were newer fans.
00:21:36.860 --> 00:21:40.380
I think about the invisible walls I built that told people they didn't belong.
00:21:40.539 --> 00:21:43.099
And I think about how that's the opposite of what Jesus did.
00:21:43.339 --> 00:21:45.420
Jesus spent his time making people feel big.
00:21:45.579 --> 00:21:50.059
He spent his time telling people you're forgiven, you're worthy, you belong, you matter.
00:21:50.299 --> 00:21:53.420
He invited people in, he made them feel included, he lifted people up.
00:21:53.579 --> 00:21:56.299
And the Pharisees spent their time making people feel small.
00:21:56.460 --> 00:22:04.860
They spent their time pointing out what you got wrong, what you weren't doing right, how you didn't measure up, they tore people down, and here I was, doing the exact same thing in miniature.
00:22:05.019 --> 00:22:12.299
I was being a Pharisee about anime, and that's ridiculous when you say it out loud, but it's also real, and it's something I've had to repent of and change.
00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:15.339
And I think a lot of us are doing the same thing without even realizing it.
00:22:15.500 --> 00:22:22.700
We gatekeep at work, where we protect our knowledge and make it hard for new people to come up, because if they know what we know, they might take our position.
00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:28.140
We gatekeep in our friendships, where we hold grudges and make people prove themselves before we let them back in.
00:22:28.299 --> 00:22:32.380
We gatekeep in our families, where we judge people for not living the way we live.
00:22:32.539 --> 00:22:38.140
We gatekeep in our churches, where we make people feel like they're not spiritual enough or knowledgeable enough to participate.
00:22:38.299 --> 00:22:45.660
We gatekeep in our hobbies, where we make people feel like they're not real fans or real gamers or real musicians because they're not as dedicated as we are.
00:22:45.819 --> 00:22:52.299
We gatekeep online, behind the safety of a screen, where we can tear people apart for their opinions without ever having to see their face.
00:22:52.460 --> 00:22:55.259
And we do it all the time, and we usually have a good reason.
00:22:55.420 --> 00:22:57.660
We usually have a story about why it's necessary.
00:22:57.819 --> 00:23:01.180
We're protecting quality, we're maintaining standards, we're being realistic.
00:23:01.339 --> 00:23:04.539
But the story is usually a lie we tell ourselves to protect our ego.
00:23:04.700 --> 00:23:06.940
The story is usually a rationalization for fear.
00:23:07.099 --> 00:23:09.740
The truth is that gatekeeping comes from insecurity.
00:23:09.900 --> 00:23:17.099
It comes from a fear that we're not actually that special, that anyone could do what we do, that our value is contingent on other people not having what we have.
00:23:17.259 --> 00:23:19.660
And that's a terrible foundation to build anything on.
00:23:19.819 --> 00:23:21.579
It's exhausting to have to constantly prove that your.
00:23:22.140 --> 00:23:23.259
Better than everyone else.
00:23:23.420 --> 00:23:28.140
It's exhausting to be threatened by new people, by people asking questions, by the community growing.
00:23:28.299 --> 00:23:30.059
It's exhausting to maintain walls.
00:23:30.220 --> 00:23:34.059
It's exhausting to be always checking who's in and who's out, and it's unnecessary.
00:23:34.220 --> 00:23:36.620
Your worth isn't threatened by other people's growth.
00:23:36.779 --> 00:23:38.860
Your knowledge isn't diminished by sharing it.
00:23:39.019 --> 00:23:42.539
Your love for something doesn't become less real if other people love it too.
00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:52.299
And the moment you can genuinely believe that, the moment you can really internalize it, the moment you can look at a new fan and feel happy for them instead of threatened by them, that's when you're free.
00:23:52.460 --> 00:23:53.819
That's when the burden lifts.
00:23:53.980 --> 00:23:57.579
That's when you can actually be part of a community instead of just guarding it.
00:23:57.740 --> 00:24:01.579
That's when you can enjoy the thing you love instead of being paranoid about protecting it.
00:24:01.740 --> 00:24:03.500
You know what the most joyful fans are?
00:24:03.660 --> 00:24:05.180
They're the ones who share freely.
00:24:05.339 --> 00:24:06.779
They're the ones who don't gatekeep.
00:24:06.940 --> 00:24:10.220
They're the ones who are excited to see other people discover what they love.
00:24:10.380 --> 00:24:11.980
Because they've realized a secret.
00:24:12.220 --> 00:24:14.940
Gatekeeping isn't the way to keep something pure or valuable.
00:24:15.099 --> 00:24:16.539
If anything, it tarnishes it.
00:24:16.700 --> 00:24:18.860
It turns something beautiful into something bitter.
00:24:19.019 --> 00:24:22.299
It turns a love that should be about joy into a love that's about control.
00:24:22.460 --> 00:24:25.019
And that's not the energy you want flowing through your passions.
00:24:25.180 --> 00:24:31.579
You want your loves to be about celebration, not protection, about invitation, not exclusion, about growth, not stagnation.
00:24:31.740 --> 00:24:38.299
And the moment you let go of gatekeeping, the moment you open your hands and your heart, that's when you actually get to experience that.
00:24:38.460 --> 00:24:40.779
That's when fandom becomes what it's supposed to be.
00:24:41.019 --> 00:24:43.579
That's when spirituality becomes what it's supposed to be.
00:24:43.740 --> 00:24:45.980
That's when community becomes what it's supposed to be.
00:24:46.140 --> 00:24:47.740
So what does the alternative look like?
00:24:47.900 --> 00:24:50.940
What does it look like when we stop gatekeeping and we start inviting?
00:24:51.099 --> 00:24:54.860
What does it look like when we choose the Jesus way instead of the Pharisee way?
00:24:55.019 --> 00:24:57.019
I think it looks like radical generosity.
00:24:57.259 --> 00:25:03.900
I think it looks like someone new showing up to an anime community and being welcomed, not tested, not quizzed, just welcomed.
00:25:04.059 --> 00:25:06.539
Someone saying, oh man, you just started watching that show?
00:25:06.620 --> 00:25:07.180
That's so cool.
00:25:07.339 --> 00:25:08.299
What do you think so far?
00:25:08.460 --> 00:25:15.099
And actually listening to the answer, actually caring about their experience, not about whether their experience is valid according to their standards.
00:25:15.259 --> 00:25:17.019
This is what hospitality looks like.
00:25:17.180 --> 00:25:18.940
This is what the kingdom of God looks like.
00:25:19.099 --> 00:25:21.740
I think it looks like mentorship instead of gatekeeping.
00:25:21.900 --> 00:25:27.579
When someone asks a question about the manga versus the anime, instead of making them feel dumb, you get to be the guide.
00:25:27.740 --> 00:25:29.500
You get to say, oh, that's a great question.
00:25:29.660 --> 00:25:30.620
Here's what's different.
00:25:30.779 --> 00:25:33.900
And you get to share what you know with someone who's genuinely curious.
00:25:34.059 --> 00:25:34.779
And you know what?
00:25:34.940 --> 00:25:36.940
That's actually way more fun than gatekeeping.
00:25:37.099 --> 00:25:38.220
That's way more rewarding.
00:25:38.380 --> 00:25:42.299
Because you get to be the expert, but not in a threatening way, in a generous way.
00:25:42.460 --> 00:25:44.460
You get to help people discover what you love.
00:25:44.620 --> 00:25:47.099
You get to be part of someone else's journey with the thing.
00:25:47.259 --> 00:25:49.500
You get to watch them fall in love with it like you did.
00:25:49.579 --> 00:25:50.460
And that's beautiful.
00:25:50.539 --> 00:25:52.539
That's community in the way it's supposed to be.
00:25:52.620 --> 00:25:54.380
That's how knowledge is meant to be shared.
00:25:54.539 --> 00:25:56.059
Not hoarded but offered.
00:25:56.220 --> 00:25:58.059
Not weaponized, but given freely.
00:25:58.220 --> 00:26:01.099
I think it looks like creating space for people at every level.
00:26:01.339 --> 00:26:06.220
Real communities have room for people who are just discovering something and people who've been devoted for years.
00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:10.460
They have room for people who engage deeply and people who just like it casually.
00:26:10.620 --> 00:26:14.860
They have room for people asking basic questions and people discussing advanced theory.
00:26:15.019 --> 00:26:21.420
They have room for the person who watches the anime dubbed and the person who reads the manga in the original Japanese and everyone in between.
00:26:21.579 --> 00:26:24.460
And the gatekeepers aren't the ones controlling the conversation.
00:26:24.620 --> 00:26:33.180
The guides are the people who remember what it felt like to be new, who want to help people discover, who understand that diversity of engagement makes the community stronger.
00:26:33.420 --> 00:26:35.740
These are the people who build communities that last.
00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:37.660
These are the people who change culture.
00:26:37.819 --> 00:26:40.460
And here's the spiritual truth that underpins all of this.
00:26:40.620 --> 00:26:43.099
Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 11, 28.
00:26:43.180 --> 00:26:47.019
He says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
00:26:47.180 --> 00:26:48.700
Not come to me if you've done the work.
00:26:48.860 --> 00:26:50.299
Come to me if you meet my standards.
00:26:50.460 --> 00:26:52.620
Come to me if you've read the Torah enough times.
00:26:52.779 --> 00:26:56.220
Come to me if you've been righteous enough or faithful enough or spiritual enough.
00:26:56.380 --> 00:26:57.019
Just come.
00:26:57.180 --> 00:26:58.860
That's the radical nature of the gospel.
00:26:59.019 --> 00:27:00.299
It's open, it's inclusive.
00:27:00.460 --> 00:27:03.259
It's not a members-only club where you have to prove yourself to get in.
00:27:03.339 --> 00:27:06.059
It's an invitation to anyone, to everyone, to come as you are.
00:27:06.220 --> 00:27:07.099
Come broken.
00:27:07.259 --> 00:27:07.980
Come lost.
00:27:08.140 --> 00:27:09.019
Come confused.
00:27:09.180 --> 00:27:11.420
Come with your questions and your doubts and your mess.
00:27:11.660 --> 00:27:12.299
Just come.
00:27:12.460 --> 00:27:21.660
And the moment you try to gatekeep access to Jesus, the moment you start saying, well, you're not spiritual enough, or you haven't read enough scripture, or you don't go to church enough, you've become a Pharisee.
00:27:21.740 --> 00:27:24.539
You've taken an open invitation and you've put walls around it.
00:27:24.700 --> 00:27:27.019
You've done the opposite of what Jesus asked you to do.
00:27:27.180 --> 00:27:34.299
And I think about what the world would be like if every fandom space, every community, every gathering of people who love something operated like that?
00:27:34.539 --> 00:27:38.059
What if when someone new showed up, they were met with, come, welcome.
00:27:38.140 --> 00:27:39.420
We're so glad you found this.
00:27:39.500 --> 00:27:40.940
We can't wait to share it with you.
00:27:41.099 --> 00:27:45.259
Instead of here's the test, here's what you need to know, here's whether you're really qualified to be here.
00:27:45.420 --> 00:27:48.299
What if instead of gatekeeping, we practice hospitality?
00:27:48.539 --> 00:27:58.779
What if instead of judgment, we practice welcome, I think we'd have stronger communities, I think we'd have more joy, I think we'd have deeper conversations, I think people would feel safer being themselves.
00:27:58.940 --> 00:28:01.740
I think we'd experience more of what community is supposed to be.
00:28:01.819 --> 00:28:04.140
And I think that's what Jesus was always pointing toward.
00:28:04.299 --> 00:28:09.019
Not gatekeeping, not hierarchy, not systems where some people are in and some people are out.
00:28:09.180 --> 00:28:14.220
Just radical, generous inclusion, just people gathering around something beautiful and saying, come check this out.
00:28:14.299 --> 00:28:15.180
You're gonna love this.
00:28:15.339 --> 00:28:17.019
I can't wait to see your reaction.
00:28:17.180 --> 00:28:19.180
Because that's real, that's genuine.
00:28:19.339 --> 00:28:23.900
That's not about protecting anything, it's about sharing joy, it's about connection, it's about love.
00:28:24.059 --> 00:28:25.339
And that's what the gospel is.
00:28:25.500 --> 00:28:30.779
It's not about gatekeeping access to God based on how much you know or how much you believe or how long you've been faithful.
00:28:30.940 --> 00:28:32.860
It's about radical, extravagant love.
00:28:32.940 --> 00:28:38.779
It's about God saying, I made you, I love you, come as you are, and I'll help you become who you're meant to be.
00:28:38.940 --> 00:28:40.779
That's the invitation, that's the good news.
00:28:40.860 --> 00:28:45.500
And when we gatekeep in fandom or spirituality or anywhere else, we're saying no to that invitation.
00:28:45.660 --> 00:28:47.579
We're saying, actually, you need to earn this first.
00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:50.140
We're saying, actually, you need to be more like me.
00:28:50.299 --> 00:28:52.220
We're saying, actually, you're not good enough yet.
00:28:52.380 --> 00:28:54.860
And that's not just un-Christian, it's anti-Christian.
00:28:55.019 --> 00:28:56.620
It's the opposite of what Christ taught.
00:28:56.700 --> 00:28:58.140
So let's not do it anymore.
00:28:58.299 --> 00:28:59.420
Let's choose differently.
00:28:59.579 --> 00:29:00.940
Let's be the people who welcome.
00:29:01.099 --> 00:29:02.299
Let's be the people who guide.
00:29:02.460 --> 00:29:03.819
Let's be the people who celebrate.
00:29:03.980 --> 00:29:06.779
Let's be the people who say, yes, you belong here, come on in.
00:29:06.940 --> 00:29:09.900
And I think that's the invitation God is extending to all of us.
00:29:10.059 --> 00:29:18.700
Not just about fandom, but about everything, to come as you are without needing to prove yourself, meet impossible standards, study all the theology, or have read all the source material.
00:29:18.860 --> 00:29:23.259
Just come be yourself, contribute your perspective, ask your questions, and love what you love.
00:29:23.420 --> 00:29:32.539
Because when we choose generosity and inclusion over gatekeeping and hierarchy, we build healthier, more joyful communities that look a lot more like the kingdom of God where people genuinely belong.
00:29:32.700 --> 00:29:38.220
That's the version of fandom, spirituality, and community I'm working toward and believe Jesus wants for all of us.
00:29:38.380 --> 00:29:46.620
So if you want to dive deeper into these conversations, get involved, or check out what we're building, head over to Ironforge Syndicate at the Compass Collective.nyc.
00:29:46.779 --> 00:29:50.140
Thank you for listening, sharing your time, and being part of this journey.
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Until next time, take care, be generous with one another, keep making room at the table, and this is Javier signing off.