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Inspired by @RileyG 
Old article but an interesting topic.
Gospel singer Kim Burrell was uninvited from Ellen after a video surfaced of Burrell preaching against "the perverted homosexual spirit" at Houston's Love & Liberty Fellowship Church. According to Billboard, the singer posted a Facebook Live explaining her sermon, claiming her "enemies" only filmed part of her comments. "I love you and God loves you," she said. "But God hates the sin."
Hate the sin, love the sinner. It's a Christian cliché that has been used with increased frequency in recent years because it is often invoked by conservative Christians in debates about homosexuality and gay marriage. Many who use this phrase don’t intend to harm others but wish to express love for another at some level.
But the scriptural reasoning behind this phrase is unclear. Jesus never asked us to “Love the sinner, hate the sin” and neither did any other Biblical writer. The closest phrases to this in Christian history — as pastor and Bible scholar Adam Hamilton writes in Half Truths: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves and Other Things the Bible Doesn’t Say — are a letter from St. Augustine to a group of nuns (encouraging them to have “love for mankind and hatred of sins”).
The clearest use of this phrase actually derives from Mahatma Gandhi in his 1929 autobiography: “Hate the sin and not the sinner.” But Gandhi’s full statement has a bit different flavor: “Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.” Gandhi rightly observed that it is difficult — perhaps impossible — to see someone else firstly as a “sinner” and to focus on “hating their sin” without developing some level of disdain for the person. Perhaps this is why Jesus did not ask us to love “sinners” but to love “neighbors” and “enemies.”
As Hamilton writes:
Continued below.
Old article but an interesting topic.
Gospel singer Kim Burrell was uninvited from Ellen after a video surfaced of Burrell preaching against "the perverted homosexual spirit" at Houston's Love & Liberty Fellowship Church. According to Billboard, the singer posted a Facebook Live explaining her sermon, claiming her "enemies" only filmed part of her comments. "I love you and God loves you," she said. "But God hates the sin."
Hate the sin, love the sinner. It's a Christian cliché that has been used with increased frequency in recent years because it is often invoked by conservative Christians in debates about homosexuality and gay marriage. Many who use this phrase don’t intend to harm others but wish to express love for another at some level.
But the scriptural reasoning behind this phrase is unclear. Jesus never asked us to “Love the sinner, hate the sin” and neither did any other Biblical writer. The closest phrases to this in Christian history — as pastor and Bible scholar Adam Hamilton writes in Half Truths: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves and Other Things the Bible Doesn’t Say — are a letter from St. Augustine to a group of nuns (encouraging them to have “love for mankind and hatred of sins”).
The clearest use of this phrase actually derives from Mahatma Gandhi in his 1929 autobiography: “Hate the sin and not the sinner.” But Gandhi’s full statement has a bit different flavor: “Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.” Gandhi rightly observed that it is difficult — perhaps impossible — to see someone else firstly as a “sinner” and to focus on “hating their sin” without developing some level of disdain for the person. Perhaps this is why Jesus did not ask us to love “sinners” but to love “neighbors” and “enemies.”
As Hamilton writes:
Continued below.
One problem with Kim Burrell's 'hate the sin, love the sinner' argument
The Christian cliché has been used with increased frequency in recent years.
www.usatoday.com
