Thanks. I think love and tolerance is a great good. But it cannot be to the exclusion of justice and truth, as I'm sure you already know. In fact, Christ Himself, was both infinite love (cf. John 8, the woman caught in adultery, or His "come to me all you who labour and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest," YET at the same time made a whip of cords, called the Pharisees whitewashed tombs, said Mt. 10 "“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Here, of course, speaking about moral issues, but the point still is that there is the "hard" part). God is both 100% love and 100% just. We, as humans, can only approximate that, but still must try. And judging, such as citing God's ideas on homosexual marriage, does not violate love; rather, it calls people to their higher selves. In the EXACT same discourse, Mt. 7, where Jesus says "do not judge," he also says "“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." How do we know what is holy or not unless we do a form of judging? This is in the EXACT SAME discourse Jesus tells us to judge and not judge. Of course, this is easily resolved, where the latter is discriminating (I believe the Greek word is krinos, but I"d have to check) vs. the former being where we do not judge out of a sense of superiority. Scripture interprets scripture. The ex. from homosexuality would be that, yes, I can tell a person "judging them" if you will; while at the same time being VERY aware that even if homosexuality is not my temptation, lust, greed, unforgiveness, etc ARE. The fact is, just like you or I want what we say taken in context, just so should we do so with the words of Scripture.
I saw the USA lose its backbone with 9/11. So clearly,"the writing on the wall"!
For those at the back of the class who haven't been paying attention so far:
The "carbon" they want to reduce (and ideally eliminate altogether) is US!
Thanks. I think love and tolerance is a great good. But it cannot be to the exclusion of justice and truth, as I'm sure you already know. In fact, Christ Himself, was both infinite love (cf. John 8, the woman caught in adultery, or His "come to me all you who labour and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest," YET at the same time made a whip of cords, called the Pharisees whitewashed tombs, said Mt. 10 "“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Here, of course, speaking about moral issues, but the point still is that there is the "hard" part). God is both 100% love and 100% just. We, as humans, can only approximate that, but still must try. And judging, such as citing God's ideas on homosexual marriage, does not violate love; rather, it calls people to their higher selves. In the EXACT same discourse, Mt. 7, where Jesus says "do not judge," he also says "“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." How do we know what is holy or not unless we do a form of judging? This is in the EXACT SAME discourse Jesus tells us to judge and not judge. Of course, this is easily resolved, where the latter is discriminating (I believe the Greek word is krinos, but I"d have to check) vs. the former being where we do not judge out of a sense of superiority. Scripture interprets scripture. The ex. from homosexuality would be that, yes, I can tell a person "judging them" if you will; while at the same time being VERY aware that even if homosexuality is not my temptation, lust, greed, unforgiveness, etc ARE. The fact is, just like you or I want what we say taken in context, just so should we do so with the words of Scripture.