One of the analogies I've heard most frequently in terms of the "love the sinner, not the sin," argument is one which equates alcoholism with being gay.
The idea being that it isn't the individual who we are supposed to hold in contempt, but what their addiction, their disease has done to them. You don't hate your brother because he drinks too much. You hate that he drinks too much. The same is said then of the brother who is gay. You don't hate him. You hate that he sleeps with men.
Where their argument falls apart though, I think, is in terms of the reasons for hating these "sins." Being an alcoholic has affect on every one around the individual. There are huge detrimental effects to reaching a point where one's drinking makes one unable to function in regular society. The thing is, my falling love with, or sleeping with, another girl affects no one but my partner and myself. I don't stop feeding my kids. I don't start accosting people on the street. All my money isn't automatically diverted towards porn and sex toys. Being gay doesn't make me depraved or harmful to the general public.
What is most saddening about this whole argument is that all of this is what many people really think Christian love should be. Being gay is viewed as a sin, and yet, in spite of this, they are trying to love us. They are attempting to look past what they feel is a moral failing and show us God's love anyway. What the real problem is though, is that they haven't ever stopped to consider that maybe God made us just the way he wanted us in the first place.
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Date: 2005-06-20 10:06 pm (UTC)The idea being that it isn't the individual who we are supposed to hold in contempt, but what their addiction, their disease has done to them. You don't hate your brother because he drinks too much. You hate that he drinks too much. The same is said then of the brother who is gay. You don't hate him. You hate that he sleeps with men.
Where their argument falls apart though, I think, is in terms of the reasons for hating these "sins." Being an alcoholic has affect on every one around the individual. There are huge detrimental effects to reaching a point where one's drinking makes one unable to function in regular society. The thing is, my falling love with, or sleeping with, another girl affects no one but my partner and myself. I don't stop feeding my kids. I don't start accosting people on the street. All my money isn't automatically diverted towards porn and sex toys. Being gay doesn't make me depraved or harmful to the general public.
What is most saddening about this whole argument is that all of this is what many people really think Christian love should be. Being gay is viewed as a sin, and yet, in spite of this, they are trying to love us. They are attempting to look past what they feel is a moral failing and show us God's love anyway. What the real problem is though, is that they haven't ever stopped to consider that maybe God made us just the way he wanted us in the first place.