“Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin”

Something else worth reading: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/waymon-hudson/dominic-sheahan-stahl_b_1456663.html

For once, I was heartened by the comments rather than the opposite. I’m starting to feel more and more optimistic that people are starting to recognize that WWJD is not aligned with the decisions they “justify” with belief and religion. For another example:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/24/paul-ryan-challenged-by-georgetown-faculty_n_1449437.html?ref=fb&ir=Politics&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=820654,b=facebook

Are people, both conservatives and liberals and non-labels, finally “getting it?” And by “it” I mean the rampant misuse of Jesus’s name to defend all sorts of horrors, such as shaming Dominic Sheahan-Stahl and crafting budgets that harm the poor in our communities. 

I sighed in particular at one familiar comment: “we don’t hate you. We dislike and shun the lifestyle you lead. You are always welcome but your way of life is not.” (grammar cleaned up to protect the ignorant J) How can those mutually exclusive propositions ever be true? How can you "dislike and shun" everything that makes me *me* and yet still say you "love" me? I'm not buying it. How would you express that dislike, anyway? By asking me not to come to your home/school/church? By insulting my family, my children? How can you welcome me and love me with all that Christian goodness if you're so busy judging me?

Others defend the “love the sinner, hate the sin” ideology in the guise of “I care about you, so I want you to stop doing what you’re doing so you can go to heaven.” It seems so well-meaning. But what are those people really saying? I hate that excuse: “I have no problem with YOU, just with what you’re DOING.” I’d love to meet a person who really didn’t have a problem with ME and yet would still say that.