This is just as unbelievable as ever. I am
constantly told "we don't hate the people, but we
do hate their sin!" But ultimately, these same people accuse their gay brothers and sisters of being "incapable" of having loving relationships, calling them liars and god-haters, and throwing around words like "pervert" and "sodomite" - things which seem to me to be the
antithesis of all that is loving and kind. They are free to claim to "love" the sinner - but I see nothing loving about their words or actions.
Allow me to quote something I'd written in another thread:
WorldFriction said:
A very dear friend of mine, who is Jewish and refers to Jesus as "just another false Moschiach," once told me, "we don't hate the attraction, we just dislike the action." This one sentence sent us spiraling into a thelogical argument up epic proportions. I asked my friend questions. And to him, I'm not just some random debate opponent on a message board with no name and no face. We're accountability partners, we're friends, we love and care for each-other. And so he wasn't afraid to be honest with me.
By the time I got too tired to continue talking and went to bed, he'd told me that he knew it was an irrational belief to hold. Because I was a nontheist at the time, he had started out telling me that I'm not under the same "spiritual slavery" as he is, and I'm not one of "G-d's chosen," therefore he doesn't expect me to support all of "G-d's rules." But the conversation progressed. Eventually he told me that he feels these are, in his words, "idiotic decrees" from "some dude in the sky," and that it troubles him to hold such views when he sees how much pain it causes.
Do you understand that when one sets aside the dogma and the doctrine of our religious persuasions, we see each-other in a totally different light? We stop seeing each-other as nothing more than pixels on a web forum, and we finally begin to see one another as human beings. We are sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, parents, lovers, and friends - and in that regard,
we are all the same. And whether one wants to see it or not, we all mean
something to
someone...regardless of religious or political beliefs.
I firmly believe that we are
all capable of loving and being loved. Unfortunately, we all seem to forget this sometimes - I myself am just as guilty of doing so as anyone and everyone else. Still, I cannot help but wonder if we would all continue to be so hostile to one-another if we
all just stepped back and
listened to one another. And by "listen," I do not mean "wait for the others to stop talking so that I can interject my own opinions." By "listen," I mean "try to understand."
That said, I've never really understood what some people hope to accomplish by condemning, and even
denying civil rights to, the LGBT community. Condemnation doesn't win anyone to Christ in the long-term. Reparative therapy fails - eventually - approximately 99.98% of the time. When others are hurt, everybody loses in the end.