Re: Of Reason and Faith
I can indeed love the sinner and hate the sin, because that's exactly what I'm doing. It doesn't matter what anyone tells me I can or can't do.
I find myself wondering why humanity seeks, as individuals, to place their experiences upon others, as if they are the only experiences that matter, and that noone could possibly experience or do anything else based on those experiences? Don't worry, I'm pointing at myself here, given what I shared in the other topic.
I have been in similar situations. It's like people think they're the only ones who have seen suffering in the world, and if anyone else speaks up and says they've been there but they have come away from the situation with a different opinion, they just don't get it and they never will. Or perhaps they are just heartless and bigotted.
Do you know what I would have asked that woman? After all the comforting and crying and befriending and loving?
Have you asked God yourself why he thinks it's wrong?
Just because he won't give me the answer doesn't mean he won't do the same for anyone else on this topic, and it will be an answer that makes sense to you in some way, it always is with God. It's always God's people that are the target though. Why does God do this? Why does God say this? God's answer isn't good enough.
We don't know the mind of God any better than anyone else, we're just the messengers. We're just his friends. It would be like being asked, Hey, why doesn't Andrew like salad? I would go and ask him and he might say, well, I just don't. I could bring you that answer and you'd say, that isn't good enough, or he's insane, salad is awesome, or someone should make him like salad. Do I know if Andrew actually likes salad? No, I do not.
I see so many people making judgments about God based on what his people do, and frankly, that� 39;s ridiculous. But then again, our culture does the same thing about people we try to befriend. It's so easy for us to hear something negative about someone: I don't like the way he built his house. I don't like the way he raised his kids. I don't like the type of phone he has. And make an instant judgment of that person based on what we've heard, not knowing the situation and without ever having met them. Maybe noone on this topic has done that, but I've heard it and done it myself too many times from people all over the world to think that it's just some kind of fluke.
I can sit here and present evidence all day that science shows that God exists. I can share all of my emotional and personal experiences with God so far. I can quote scripture at you until I'm blue in the face and tell you what I believe, or think, or know to be true.
In the end though, it just doesn't matter. When humans have made up their mind that they ha te something, or that it's wrong for someone to think the way they do, or that someone is a hatemongering bigot, it's impossible to change anyone's mind with a presented case, especially on the internet. It's impossible, just as it was for me, until God calls us and our hearts are soft enough and our minds open enough to listen.
In a world where morals are becoming more and more subjective, where we're teaching our kids in public schools that it's ok to lie, cheat and steal, and then getting angry when it happens to us, where our kids are being taught that it's ok to murder babies and that sexual experimentation is ok as long as you use protection, despite the fact that pregnancy rate and STD rate is skyrocketing, where self image is far more important than anything else, where marriages and families are falling apart on a daily basis because our pleasure means so much more to us than anyone elses, where money is the god of the world and many will do anything to get massive amounts of it, where rape, mass murder and other crimes are on the rise, where crushing people and stepping on them to get where you need to go in the business world is the cool thing to do, we need God. Are all people like this? Would all people do at least one of the things I said above? No, I doubt that. But all have sinned in some way, and all need God's grace to be righteous once again. This is the conclusion that I have come to, after 25 years of hating God, and it's a conclusion that I hope he will eventually help all of you see as well. Certainly my words will not do it, no matter how many of them I use or how well I compose them.
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