Originally posted by Knight:]
Open to anyone???
Really??
How far do you take your own train of thought? Do you love pedophiles, rapists, murderers? And if so... how do you demonstrate that love? Curious minds want to know.
It ain't easy. Who said it was? Did Jesus say it was going to be easy to follow him? I know Paul talked about how hard it was for himself to do the right thing...
You continue...How "inclusive" do you assert that Jesus wants us to be?
ALL inclusive.
Again... should our love and acceptance include pedophiles, rapists and murderers?
That's our dilemma, isn't it? The power of "forgiveness" is different in quality from "love" and "acceptance." The last two come later, if at all, after the hard work of the first word is finished.
Or were you simply using "inclusive" in regard to homosexuals? If you were... how to you determine just what Jesus wanted us to be "inclusive" about?
Searching for his authentic voice in the Bible is one way. Prayer--not to impose my agenda, but to find God's. Jesus helped people meet their needs. In ancient Palestine, as now, people get addicted to ineffective strategies for meeting those underlying needs. Rape is an ineffective strategy for tenderness, pedophilia is an ineffective strategy for something normal and human (I don't think we know exactly what right now) and homosexuality is just part of nature. There are a lot of books now for curious minds about homosexuality's evidence and prevalence in the animal world--including "transgendered bears"--believe it or not! Acts of murder or agression are usually masking underlying fear--this includes both civil life and wartime, but only the latter form is "forgiven."
There were a lot of relatives of 9/11 victims who forgave the attackers and stood up publicly against the war on Afghanistan but those few voices were muted in the swell of patriotic us vs. them feelings. Imagine how difficult it must be to forgive on a scale like that!
So-called "curious minds" sometimes would rather NOT know. Most of us (speaking for myself) are usually superficial and aren't interested in what the underlying intention of a particular action is--especially if that person is a social outcast or an enemy. But everyone has good intentions. Osama bin Laden, Hitler or our spouses. We just have to make the effort to look behind and underneath their troublesome behavior and find the good, underlying intention. When you find that, then you can understand, have empathy and perhaps teach them how to satisfy that good intention using a better action.
"God makes his sun to shine both on the evil and the good and sends his rain on the just and the unjust."
Open to anyone???
Really??
How far do you take your own train of thought? Do you love pedophiles, rapists, murderers? And if so... how do you demonstrate that love? Curious minds want to know.
It ain't easy. Who said it was? Did Jesus say it was going to be easy to follow him? I know Paul talked about how hard it was for himself to do the right thing...
You continue...How "inclusive" do you assert that Jesus wants us to be?
ALL inclusive.
Again... should our love and acceptance include pedophiles, rapists and murderers?
That's our dilemma, isn't it? The power of "forgiveness" is different in quality from "love" and "acceptance." The last two come later, if at all, after the hard work of the first word is finished.
Or were you simply using "inclusive" in regard to homosexuals? If you were... how to you determine just what Jesus wanted us to be "inclusive" about?
Searching for his authentic voice in the Bible is one way. Prayer--not to impose my agenda, but to find God's. Jesus helped people meet their needs. In ancient Palestine, as now, people get addicted to ineffective strategies for meeting those underlying needs. Rape is an ineffective strategy for tenderness, pedophilia is an ineffective strategy for something normal and human (I don't think we know exactly what right now) and homosexuality is just part of nature. There are a lot of books now for curious minds about homosexuality's evidence and prevalence in the animal world--including "transgendered bears"--believe it or not! Acts of murder or agression are usually masking underlying fear--this includes both civil life and wartime, but only the latter form is "forgiven."
There were a lot of relatives of 9/11 victims who forgave the attackers and stood up publicly against the war on Afghanistan but those few voices were muted in the swell of patriotic us vs. them feelings. Imagine how difficult it must be to forgive on a scale like that!
So-called "curious minds" sometimes would rather NOT know. Most of us (speaking for myself) are usually superficial and aren't interested in what the underlying intention of a particular action is--especially if that person is a social outcast or an enemy. But everyone has good intentions. Osama bin Laden, Hitler or our spouses. We just have to make the effort to look behind and underneath their troublesome behavior and find the good, underlying intention. When you find that, then you can understand, have empathy and perhaps teach them how to satisfy that good intention using a better action.
"God makes his sun to shine both on the evil and the good and sends his rain on the just and the unjust."
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