"Love the sinner but hate the sin...."

"Love the sinner but hate the sin...."

.....WAIT!  Stop right there.  Unless you are Hindi, that isn't about what you are called to do at all.  If you are Christian, why are you latching onto another religions "commandment"?

Just yesterday, I spent the day educating a lady who wanted to play the victim on a facebook page specifically setup for gay Christians and their supporters called, "Believe Out Loud".  Tierra, the lady I engaged in conversation, was adamant that she can hate homosexuality yet love homosexuals because "Love the sinner but hate the sin" is the Christian thing to do.  Nope; it's the Hindi thing to do.  Actually, if you are going to follow TODAY'S interpretation of the Bible (and boy are there a LOT of mistranslations!), it says to stone a "man who lies with a man".  It says nothing directly or specifically about loving them (we will get to what Jesus says about all this in a little bit...patience!).  I called her (and several others) out on this fallacy.  That is when her "victimization" kicked in. 

I mentioned the color of her skin (she is black) to see the best way to engage her about how prejudice hurts.  It took her a while. I let her stew in her anger that I would mention her skin color.  Then I lowered the boom (I am paraphrasing here): 

"What if I went to a Facebook page, specifically for African Americans, and I said, 'I love blacks, but I hate that they are from Africa', how would you feel?  You claim homosexuality is a sin and it's Biblical, yet the Bible talks about my right to own slaves.  Does that give me the right to own you and therefore, if I did, you cannot be outraged that I would, right?" 

There was a long pause before she answered again.  But she finally came to the realization that prejudice is prejudice and that words ARE hurtful.  She also realized that we are now a much more mature and advanced society and we understand that humans - all humans - hold value (again, I paraphrase our conversation).  She was still upset that I continued to engage her and no one else throughout the day, which I pointed out was incorrect.  I actually did engage others that were spreading hate on the page (and reported those that were using vulgarity and hate speech - which we will get into in a little bit).  They were smart enough to leave, she was enthralled enough and determined to be a victim so she wanted to still engage.  That was the difference.  She wanted to know why though.  The answer is simple.  I saw a chance at her redemption from spreading hate.  People with a redeeming quality will ALWAYS be engaged by a person like me.  It's what we do.  We might need to tear someone down to build them back up, but it works.  Old school Army trick.

Folks, when there is a space that should be considered 'protected' (a Facebook page, a gay bar, gay pride, someone's personal home), why would anyone go there deliberately to engage in conversation that was hateful, mean, cruel, degrading against those who the 'protected space' is intended for?  Do they not realize that if a gay teen were to see some of the hateful posts that they could further damage an already fragile soul?  Do they not realize that their words could be the 'final straw' that leads to that teens death?  Or even an adult who is already struggling with their sexuality and emotionally on the edge?  Personally, I find them responsible for the persons death.  I've said this before and received a lot of eye rolling.  You may think that is a stretch, but it isn't.  When you spread hatred that hurts someone mentally, you ARE fully responsible for that persons actions.  Freedom of speech?  Yes.  With responsibility and the acceptance of repercussions due to your words.  

Or do they think that engaging them and being cruel will some how 'convert them' to being straight?  That doesn't work.  Not even a little.  Case in point:

As the evening wore on, a person by the name of Joey Sanbrotti from new Jersey came on the page, claiming that he saw the picture of the minister holding a sign saying "God is not homophobic" in his news feed and felt that he needed to chastise me (this picture is what stirred so many haters to come on the page).  His post is in this blog as a picture.  All he served to do was make a fool of himself.  I bring this up for the same reason I engaged Tierra.  His words, while they did not anger me (at 46 years of age I have faced hatred and I have won that battle), they could be EXTREMELY damaging to a fragile mind.  It brought home the realization that even in the "northern states" where we are suppose to be so liberal, that cruelty is *still* very much alive and well.  It reminded me that hatred is still a part of the human condition.  Most disconcerting is that Joey tries to lead you to believe he is somewhat of a Christian.  But look at the language he uses.  How is that Christian?  How is that loving?  How is that not judging?  He, as so many like him, hi-jack a loving God and turn the Bible and the Lords love into something that is vicious and hateful.  They are the "wolves in sheep's clothing" that we are warned about in the Bible.

Here is Joey's post:

Moving on from the ignorant:

Now, for those of you that are Christian, let's talk about hatred and judgment.  There are immediately two verses that come to my mind:

Luke 6:37: "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

and

1 John 4: 11: "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

Why is it so important to fundamentalists and evangelicals to engage the "man lying with man" verses but they forget these two things about judgment and love? (There are handful of "man with man" verses, but they are a reference to prostitution in the temple - but never mind that... why "study to show yourself approved" when condemnation and cruelty are so much more easy?). Does it say anywhere that you should hate the sin but love the sinner? No. It says "WE ALSO OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER". It doesn't leave room for judgment and as Luke points out, as a Christian, you are not to be in the judgment seat.

Fundamentalists and Evangelicals get extremely haughty when you remind them that Christ never mentioned homosexuality at all according to the Bible. Not once. He addressed love a lot more than he addressed anything else. Why is that not important? (They also forget that before 1872, the word "homosexual didn't exist in the Bible... check it out). They also like to throw in a little destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the homosexuals... forgetting that EVERYONE of BOTH genders in those towns wanted to bang the Angels of God - and that Angels, Biblically speaking, are neither male nor female except in name. Of course, they like to skip over the fact that Lot offered up his two virgin daughters for the raping. Why would homosexual men want to have sex with a female virgin? Such inconsistency in our outrage and our thoughts. Homosexuality = bad * Rape of young ladies = Godly and good... This will be addressed in later blogs, of course.

"BUT WAIT!" you might say. Doesn't II Chronicles 19:6 say "...Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment." 

Let's examine that for a minute. What does it say in the verse before? 

"He appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah" (II Chronicles 19:5). 

And the verse after? 

 "Now let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery" (II Chronicles 19:7). 

 This is not about you and I. This is about the APPOINTED judges of God among the Hebrews. This is about *law & order*. This is God telling the judges to judge appropriately and fairly. This is not a free rein to be barbaric and hateful as a Christian. Any minister who leads another to believe it is should be banned from the pulpit. It is actually a *chastisement* from God to be CAREFUL in judgment. One thing I admittedly can't stand is "cherry picking" Christians.

And what is interesting, is if you put all of this together (Luke, I John and II Chronicles) you get a good picture of the loving and wondrous heart of God:

"Do not judge. Love others as you are loved by God Leave it to the judges to decide - not yourself - and the judges should pass judgment carefully and with love."

Now, let's move this from being about gays and lesbians. Let's apply this to everything. Watch what you say, how you say it, tender your words with kindness, love and compassion. Evaluate, yes, but do not pass judgment, for that is not your call as a Christian (unless, of course, God has appointed you to be a judge of the people of Israel).

Most importantly? Love your neighbor, even when you are hated, as you would yourself.