I was raised Jewish, so I learned the Old Testament. Much later, I studied the New Testament and became a Christian for a while. I tried and finally failed to believe in an afterlife and a Creator who cares about us individually. But various parts of the Bible have stuck with me.

The Bible is full of beautiful poetry, moving stories, and wise ideas. It’s also full of contradictions, nightmares, and ideas impossible to reconcile with science or human nature. It was written by many people over many years. Some insist that it’s all the Word of God, because the Bible says so. Those people act like the Bible belongs to them. But it has helped shape my world, so it belongs to me too.

Take, for example, the story of Jonah in the Old Testament. God told him to preach in the city of Ninevah. He didn’t want to, so he ran away on a ship. God sent a storm, the sailors figured out it was Jonah’s fault, and they threw Jonah into the sea as he instructed them. God sent the famous whale to rescue him from drowning. By the time he got vomited up on shore, he was ready to go preach in Ninevah.

Jonah told Ninevites that if they didn’t change their evil ways, God would destroy their city. He must have been pretty convincing. They changed. God let them off the hook. You’d think this would please Jonah, but he got angry with God for forgiving them. They had done wrong, and Jonah felt they should have been punished as God had threatened. He didn’t think they deserved to live. He stormed out of the city to sulk on a hillside under a little shelter he built. A gourd vine quickly grew up over the shelter, giving Jonah nice shade in which to pout.

But God wasn’t done teaching Jonah yet. He sent a worm to destroy the vine, leaving Jonah to broil in the Mediterranean sun. Knowing Jonah had anger issues, God asked him if he was mad about the vine dying. Jonah said yes. God pointed out that Jonah had not planted the vine, or helped it grow, yet he was upset it had been killed. So Jonah, God says, how do you think I feel about those 120,000 poor people in Ninevah who can’t even tell their right hand from their left, the people I created?

What I get from this story is that if we warn people to change their bad behavior, and they actually listen to the warnings and begin to do better, we might still not forgive them. We might still want them to suffer for what they did. When I see former Trump voters repent online, and liberals scorn them for their former politics, I think about Jonah. He’d be pissed at them too.

But these misguided former Trumpers are just as much children of God as any of us are, if any of us are. If they learn better, it’s cause for rejoicing, not resentment. We need to keep preaching. It might even work.