*DISCLAIMER* I am in no way saying that everyone who is a Christian behaves in this way. In fact, the majority of the Christians that I personally know do not act in the way I am describing.
There are, however, a group of Christians that do act in this way, and those are the people I am speaking of. I am not trying to lump all Christians into one group, and I am not saying that all Christians hate in this way. I am simply describing how I have seen some groups act, and why I think it is ridiculous.
Additionally, this article is nowhere near encapsulating all the different facets of this issue, and I am certainly missing many important aspects of this problem. I am attempting to tackle it as best I can in this short article, but there is much much more to be said about it aside from what I am saying here.
In today's society, many of the hate and bigotry towards minorities in America comes from the far right, many of them being conservative Christians. This simply doesn't make sense, as one of the most important commandments in the Bible is to love your neighbor as yourself. However, some Christians seem to not take this commandment to heart when it comes to people different than them, such as Muslims, immigrants, and people in the LGBT community.
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Some Christians believe that it is okay to have hate towards people that are sinners because they think that the Bible condones it. For example, some Christian people hate members of the LGBT community, sex workers, or illegal immigrants because the Bible in some way says that all of these things are sins.
However, this attitude is pretty easily proven to be wrong and against God's law. Matthew 7:1-5 says, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (NIV) It is pretty clear that, as we are all sinners, we are really in no place to judge others' lifestyles.
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However, truly loving someone (as God commands us to) goes beyond just not judging them. Truly loving someone is accepting them as they are, despite any flaws or imperfections that you see, and seeing them as a human being, as you would your Christian friends. Romans 13:10 says, "Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (NIV) A common Christian ideal is to "Love the sinner, hate the sin." This may make sense to some, however, most people that I have seen who live by this mentality often use it to put barriers on their relationship with people who they peg as living "sinful lifestyles," or instead simply try to change them.
These people often times would not become as close with someone who is gay, or divorced, or lives some other supposed "sinful lifestyle," and not truly understand the people who identify in these ways. This attitude also causes people to unnecessarily try to "fix" someone and get them to stop practicing their supposedly "sinful" lifestyle. This is very damaging both to the relationship between the two of them, and the person they are trying to change. If they would simply get to know someone who was gay, for example, they might be able to understand that it really is not a choice, and their whole view on homosexuality may be changed. Getting to know people and set aside your preconceived notions about them will open up your world.
It IS possible to set aside the hateful mindset that many have been fed for their whole lives. Open yourself up to others. Put aside your preconceived ideas and hatred, and spend some time with people you have been judgmental of. Meet people raised differently than you. Interact with those whose opinions you don't agree with. If you lead with love and have an open mind, you might just find yourself learning new things and loving people more fully.
