Loving One Another?

[Orogeny]

Many of my Christian, homosexual friends would disagree.

Would that make them intolerant, hateful and judgmental?

Also, when we say that according to what MY religion teaches, YOU cannot live according to who you are (as a person who is not objectively harming anyone else) it IS intolerant, it IS based on my own judgements, and in many cases, hateful.

Did Jesus teach that we should live a certain way? In doing so, was He intolerant, judgmental and hateful?

Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Not a trick question. I’m really interested in what you think.

Peace

Tim

 

[marimagi]

Would that make them intolerant, hateful and judgmental? Did Jesus teach that we should live a certain way? In doing so, was He intolerant, judgmental and hateful?

Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Not a trick question. I’m really interested in what you think.

Peace

Tim

Tim,

Disagreement is not synonomous with intolerance, judgement or hatefulness. But when disagreement seeks to impose upon, or block another’s ability to live in a way different from one’s own, it is no longer pure disagreement.

As for your second question. I do believe in absolute truth. BUT, I believe that that Truth resides in God. As earnestly as those of us who in good faith seek to understand it perfectly, we are human. We get it wrong SO often. Most of us are trying to ascertain in all good faith, what is right. I believe that as I read the Gospels, the clearest teachings of Christ are on the side of love. To me, Jesus seemed to be saying most certainly, that we are not here to focus on what others are doing, but to examine our own situations and our own consciences. That seems like quite a task to keep me busy for a very long time. I can only hope that if I ever find myself before Him, I can say that I tried to understand and I tried to love.

Tim, I don’t want to argue with you. I don’t want to argue with anyone. I’m just going to let this go, okay? Love, peace and blessings.

 

[bzkoss236]

Throughout history, Christians have done a lot of evil in the name of hating the sin, but loving the sinner. Remember burning heretics at the stake? History is full of such examples where it was better for people to die than to continue in what one group or another defined as a sin. We get into very dangerous territory when we think we are doing good by denying others of life, or a life that mature, consenting persons who do not hurt, force or abuse others, to live.

Heretics were killed as punishment by the state. Since most people in the state were Christian (Catholics), heresy was considered treason because it could introduce disunity within the state and cause chaos and riots (just look at the fighting between Catholics vs Protestants in Scotland and various other places in the UK today). To prevent this, heretics were arrested and if they did not forgo their heresy, they were punished, which at the time the acceptable punishment was death. So, the killing of heretics wasn’t so much emotional or opinionated, but rather political. You have to remember how far the majority of the world has relaxed punishments for crimes in the past number of years. In the times of the OT, and likely the NT as well, you could loose your hand for stealing. Many places didn’t have prison systems. Some places at least had dungeons, but you couldn’t keep someone there for life. So the only way to separate someone harmful to society was death.

The world is obviously different now. And we are called to love each other. I do feel that most Catholics do follow the “love the sinner, hate the sin” (as I myself try to follow), but it may just so happen that those who are more judgmental have louder voices and are more outspoken.

 

[ccmcmg]

I suppose I’m lucky so far; I’ve not seen the same, and I’ve read many threads, even on the homosexuality. I’ve seen love and acceptance mostly, but condemnation of sin. Are we not to show our brothers (with love) when they are sinning and lead them the right way? There are many ways to do that. When people express a dissenting view, it can be easy to fight or take things the wrong way on the internet. However, it’s kind of like accounting; on some things, there is no gray area. It’s black or white. There is tolerance and love for one another, but there is also respecting opposing views, especially when one’s beliefs are backed by the very forum that they are on, and the Faith represented. Does everyone do it with love here? No. Does everyone do it for love in the world? No. This is a microcosm and we encounter hundreds or thousands of people here every day. That is rarely true in life; we don’t have a soapbox to stand on where so many people hear our words, let alone dissect them.

I hope that you aren’t painting all Catholics or members here with the same brush, or judging others, or everyone.

God bless,
Christina

 

[marimagi]

I suppose I’m lucky so far; I’ve not seen the same, and I’ve read many threads, even on the homosexuality. I’ve seen love and acceptance mostly, but condemnation of sin. Are we not to show our brothers (with love) when they are sinning and lead them the right way? There are many ways to do that. When people express a dissenting view, it can be easy to fight or take things the wrong way on the internet. However, it’s kind of like accounting; on some things, there is no gray area. It’s black or white. There is tolerance and love for one another, but there is also respecting opposing views, especially when one’s beliefs are backed by the very forum that they are on, and the Faith represented. Does everyone do it with love here? No. Does everyone do it for love in the world? No. This is a microcosm and we encounter hundreds or thousands of people here every day. That is rarely true in life; we don’t have a soapbox to stand on where so many people hear our words, let alone dissect them.

I hope that you aren’t painting all Catholics or members here with the same brush, or judging others, or everyone.

No. I’m glad to see that cooler heads prevail.

 

[Orogeny]

Tim,

Disagreement is not synonomous with intolerance, judgement or hatefulness. But when disagreement seeks to impose upon, or block another’s ability to live in a way different from one’s own, it is no longer pure disagreement.

That is a very dangerous position. We set boundaries on behavior all the time in society, but for some reason this particular topic becomes one of hate if any boundary is set.

As for your second question. I do believe in absolute truth. BUT, I believe that that Truth resides in God. As earnestly as those of us who in good faith seek to understand it perfectly, we are human. We get it wrong SO often. Most of us are trying to ascertain in all good faith, what is right. I believe that as I read the Gospels, the clearest teachings of Christ are on the side of love. To me, Jesus seemed to be saying most certainly, that we are not here to focus on what others are doing, but to examine our own situations and our own consciences. That seems like quite a task to keep me busy for a very long time. I can only hope that if I ever find myself before Him, I can say that I tried to understand and I tried to love.

Where do we learn God’s will? Scripture? Does the Church have any role in our understanding God’s will, including the interpretation of scripture?

Tim, I don’t want to argue with you. I don’t want to argue with anyone. I’m just going to let this go, okay? Love, peace and blessings.

I hope you reconsider. I refer back to my original post about nuance. I don’t consider this an argument at all, I thought we were just having a discussion. Having different positions in an discussion does not make an argument. Please re-consider backing out of the discussion.

Peace

Tim