Empathy

[partinobodycular]

Laws do not judge character. Laws judge acts.

Which is exactly my point. As Jesus pointed out in Matthew 5:28 it's actually lust that's the sin, but the law can't tell what's in a person's heart and so it judges them according to the act alone, and not according to what's in their heart. Homosexuality is thus universally condemned because of the act itself, regardless of whether that act was born out of lust or love. Therein lies the law's flaw... it cannot judge hearts. But God can, and hopefully the members of His church can, and it's this ability to judge people by what's in their heart that allows divorced people and homosexual people to be welcome in God's church.

 

[zippy2006]

Your argument, that attributing our highest aspirations to transcendent figures is just projection...

If we're just doing strawmen then I'll say that your argument that no one ever projects their personal beliefs on cultural heroes is naive.

 

[zippy2006]

As Jesus pointed out in Matthew 5:28 it's actually lust that's the sin, but the law can't tell what's in a person's heart and so it judges them according to the act alone, and not according to what's in their heart.

You imply that Jesus thinks the act of adultery may or may not involve lust, and we just can't know. That's not true at all.

Homosexuality is thus universally condemned because of the act itself, regardless of whether that act was born out of lust or love. Therein lies the law's flaw... it cannot judge hearts.

You are trying to say that the law is insufficient because breaking the law might actually be a good thing. That's a form of antinomianism, a Christian heresy. It has nothing to do with Jesus, who said that "not even the smallest part of the law will be abrogated." The point about judging the heart has to do with those, like the Pharisees, who fulfilled the letter of the law but did not fulfill the spirit of the law. It did not have to do with people who outright break the letter of the law. Laws literally exist so that vice can be rooted out. Your notion that we can't enforce laws because laws concern behavior but we should judge the heart rather than focusing on any particular behavior is rather crazy. Again, Jesus is a rigorist. He is not saying, "Don't worry about adultery. Feel free to commit adultery all you like as long as you don't lust therein." He is saying, "Adultery is a terrible sin of lust, but just because you have avoided that terrible sin of lust does not mean that you have avoided the sin of lust."