Jeff Jacoby raises a dilemma for people of faith. I don't know what I think of his argument yet. I'd be interested in hearing some other reactions.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Tom, since you asked for comments, I guess I will oblige. This is a tricky subject and while reading the column, I had a lot of thoughts on it. With some people, it is hard not hate them. Though you are supposed to hate the sin and not the sinner, sometimes it is hard to separate the two. With a person like Arafat or Hitler or Hussein, the atrocities for which they are responsible can make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the sin from the sinner. As a Catholic, I grew up learning that you should never hate some one, you may not like them, but hating someone can make you a bad person. I grew up learning that you should forgive someone for their sins, and that even if they do bad things, it is not for us to judge someone to damnation; that's God's job. However, it is sometimes difficult not to look at the Auschwitz's, or the mass graves in Iraq, or the bombings and terrorist acts that Arafat planned and want nothing more than for them to die and go to hell. Like I said earlier, this is a tricky subject and can seriously bring into question someone's faith and their values. Slightly off subject, but something else that I would like to bring up about faith and hate, since Jacoby brings up Pat Buchanan, are what I call the extreme Christians. The Pro-Life crowd that is so pro-life that they kill people. (Huh?) This is something that I have not understood for sometime. How can someone feel so righteous and preach how we need to love everyone, that every life is precious no matter what, and in the next breath pull out a bolt-action sniper rifle, or a pound of C-4 and kill someone. Personally, I still have some of the residuals of the lessons I learned growing up Catholic, and everytime I say I hate someone, I can still hear the "Don't hate anyone, you may not like them, but you shouldn't hate anyone". But, how can you not hate some people? Why should I care about them when the have such a blatant disregard for any human life but their own? By not hating someone does it make me better than them? Does it make me ignorant? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers and again I have successfully babbled an entire comment without a clear thought. Well, you asked for comments, so there you go.
Tom, since you asked for comments, I guess I will oblige. This is a tricky subject and while reading the column, I had a lot of thoughts on it. With some people, it is hard not hate them. Though you are supposed to hate the sin and not the sinner, sometimes it is hard to separate the two. With a person like Arafat or Hitler or Hussein, the atrocities for which they are responsible can make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the sin from the sinner. As a Catholic, I grew up learning that you should never hate some one, you may not like them, but hating someone can make you a bad person. I grew up learning that you should forgive someone for their sins, and that even if they do bad things, it is not for us to judge someone to damnation; that's God's job. However, it is sometimes difficult not to look at the Auschwitz's, or the mass graves in Iraq, or the bombings and terrorist acts that Arafat planned and want nothing more than for them to die and go to hell. Like I said earlier, this is a tricky subject and can seriously bring into question someone's faith and their values. Slightly off subject, but something else that I would like to bring up about faith and hate, since Jacoby brings up Pat Buchanan, are what I call the extreme Christians. The Pro-Life crowd that is so pro-life that they kill people. (Huh?) This is something that I have not understood for sometime. How can someone feel so righteous and preach how we need to love everyone, that every life is precious no matter what, and in the next breath pull out a bolt-action sniper rifle, or a pound of C-4 and kill someone. Personally, I still have some of the residuals of the lessons I learned growing up Catholic, and everytime I say I hate someone, I can still hear the "Don't hate anyone, you may not like them, but you shouldn't hate anyone". But, how can you not hate some people? Why should I care about them when the have such a blatant disregard for any human life but their own? By not hating someone does it make me better than them? Does it make me ignorant? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers and again I have successfully babbled an entire comment without a clear thought. Well, you asked for comments, so there you go.
Tom, since you asked for comments, I guess I will oblige. This is a tricky subject and while reading the column, I had a lot of thoughts on it. With some people, it is hard not hate them. Though you are supposed to hate the sin and not the sinner, sometimes it is hard to separate the two. With a person like Arafat or Hitler or Hussein, the atrocities for which they are responsible can make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the sin from the sinner. As a Catholic, I grew up learning that you should never hate some one, you may not like them, but hating someone can make you a bad person. I grew up learning that you should forgive someone for their sins, and that even if they do bad things, it is not for us to judge someone to damnation; that's God's job. However, it is sometimes difficult not to look at the Auschwitz's, or the mass graves in Iraq, or the bombings and terrorist acts that Arafat planned and want nothing more than for them to die and go to hell. Like I said earlier, this is a tricky subject and can seriously bring into question someone's faith and their values. Slightly off subject, but something else that I would like to bring up about faith and hate, since Jacoby brings up Pat Buchanan, are what I call the extreme Christians. The Pro-Life crowd that is so pro-life that they kill people. (Huh?) This is something that I have not understood for sometime. How can someone feel so righteous and preach how we need to love everyone, that every life is precious no matter what, and in the next breath pull out a bolt-action sniper rifle, or a pound of C-4 and kill someone. Personally, I still have some of the residuals of the lessons I learned growing up Catholic, and everytime I say I hate someone, I can still hear the "Don't hate anyone, you may not like them, but you shouldn't hate anyone". But, how can you not hate some people? Why should I care about them when the have such a blatant disregard for any human life but their own? By not hating someone does it make me better than them? Does it make me ignorant? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers and again I have successfully babbled an entire comment without a clear thought. Well, you asked for comments, so there you go.
Tom, since you asked for comments, I guess I will oblige. This is a tricky subject and while reading the column, I had a lot of thoughts on it. With some people, it is hard not hate them. Though you are supposed to hate the sin and not the sinner, sometimes it is hard to separate the two. With a person like Arafat or Hitler or Hussein, the atrocities for which they are responsible can make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the sin from the sinner. As a Catholic, I grew up learning that you should never hate some one, you may not like them, but hating someone can make you a bad person. I grew up learning that you should forgive someone for their sins, and that even if they do bad things, it is not for us to judge someone to damnation; that's God's job. However, it is sometimes difficult not to look at the Auschwitz's, or the mass graves in Iraq, or the bombings and terrorist acts that Arafat planned and want nothing more than for them to die and go to hell. Like I said earlier, this is a tricky subject and can seriously bring into question someone's faith and their values. Slightly off subject, but something else that I would like to bring up about faith and hate, since Jacoby brings up Pat Buchanan, are what I call the extreme Christians. The Pro-Life crowd that is so pro-life that they kill people. (Huh?) This is something that I have not understood for sometime. How can someone feel so righteous and preach how we need to love everyone, that every life is precious no matter what, and in the next breath pull out a bolt-action sniper rifle, or a pound of C-4 and kill someone. Personally, I still have some of the residuals of the lessons I learned growing up Catholic, and everytime I say I hate someone, I can still hear the "Don't hate anyone, you may not like them, but you shouldn't hate anyone". But, how can you not hate some people? Why should I care about them when the have such a blatant disregard for any human life but their own? By not hating someone does it make me better than them? Does it make me ignorant? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers and again I have successfully babbled an entire comment without a clear thought. Well, you asked for comments, so there you go.
4 comments:
Tom, since you asked for comments, I guess I will oblige. This is a tricky subject and while reading the column, I had a lot of thoughts on it.
With some people, it is hard not hate them. Though you are supposed to hate the sin and not the sinner, sometimes it is hard to separate the two. With a person like Arafat or Hitler or Hussein, the atrocities for which they are responsible can make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the sin from the sinner. As a Catholic, I grew up learning that you should never hate some one, you may not like them, but hating someone can make you a bad person. I grew up learning that you should forgive someone for their sins, and that even if they do bad things, it is not for us to judge someone to damnation; that's God's job.
However, it is sometimes difficult not to look at the Auschwitz's, or the mass graves in Iraq, or the bombings and terrorist acts that Arafat planned and want nothing more than for them to die and go to hell.
Like I said earlier, this is a tricky subject and can seriously bring into question someone's faith and their values.
Slightly off subject, but something else that I would like to bring up about faith and hate, since Jacoby brings up Pat Buchanan, are what I call the extreme Christians. The Pro-Life crowd that is so pro-life that they kill people. (Huh?) This is something that I have not understood for sometime. How can someone feel so righteous and preach how we need to love everyone, that every life is precious no matter what, and in the next breath pull out a bolt-action sniper rifle, or a pound of C-4 and kill someone.
Personally, I still have some of the residuals of the lessons I learned growing up Catholic, and everytime I say I hate someone, I can still hear the "Don't hate anyone, you may not like them, but you shouldn't hate anyone". But, how can you not hate some people? Why should I care about them when the have such a blatant disregard for any human life but their own? By not hating someone does it make me better than them? Does it make me ignorant? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers and again I have successfully babbled an entire comment without a clear thought. Well, you asked for comments, so there you go.
Marine II
Tom, since you asked for comments, I guess I will oblige. This is a tricky subject and while reading the column, I had a lot of thoughts on it.
With some people, it is hard not hate them. Though you are supposed to hate the sin and not the sinner, sometimes it is hard to separate the two. With a person like Arafat or Hitler or Hussein, the atrocities for which they are responsible can make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the sin from the sinner. As a Catholic, I grew up learning that you should never hate some one, you may not like them, but hating someone can make you a bad person. I grew up learning that you should forgive someone for their sins, and that even if they do bad things, it is not for us to judge someone to damnation; that's God's job.
However, it is sometimes difficult not to look at the Auschwitz's, or the mass graves in Iraq, or the bombings and terrorist acts that Arafat planned and want nothing more than for them to die and go to hell.
Like I said earlier, this is a tricky subject and can seriously bring into question someone's faith and their values.
Slightly off subject, but something else that I would like to bring up about faith and hate, since Jacoby brings up Pat Buchanan, are what I call the extreme Christians. The Pro-Life crowd that is so pro-life that they kill people. (Huh?) This is something that I have not understood for sometime. How can someone feel so righteous and preach how we need to love everyone, that every life is precious no matter what, and in the next breath pull out a bolt-action sniper rifle, or a pound of C-4 and kill someone.
Personally, I still have some of the residuals of the lessons I learned growing up Catholic, and everytime I say I hate someone, I can still hear the "Don't hate anyone, you may not like them, but you shouldn't hate anyone". But, how can you not hate some people? Why should I care about them when the have such a blatant disregard for any human life but their own? By not hating someone does it make me better than them? Does it make me ignorant? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers and again I have successfully babbled an entire comment without a clear thought. Well, you asked for comments, so there you go.
Marine II
Tom, since you asked for comments, I guess I will oblige. This is a tricky subject and while reading the column, I had a lot of thoughts on it.
With some people, it is hard not hate them. Though you are supposed to hate the sin and not the sinner, sometimes it is hard to separate the two. With a person like Arafat or Hitler or Hussein, the atrocities for which they are responsible can make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the sin from the sinner. As a Catholic, I grew up learning that you should never hate some one, you may not like them, but hating someone can make you a bad person. I grew up learning that you should forgive someone for their sins, and that even if they do bad things, it is not for us to judge someone to damnation; that's God's job.
However, it is sometimes difficult not to look at the Auschwitz's, or the mass graves in Iraq, or the bombings and terrorist acts that Arafat planned and want nothing more than for them to die and go to hell.
Like I said earlier, this is a tricky subject and can seriously bring into question someone's faith and their values.
Slightly off subject, but something else that I would like to bring up about faith and hate, since Jacoby brings up Pat Buchanan, are what I call the extreme Christians. The Pro-Life crowd that is so pro-life that they kill people. (Huh?) This is something that I have not understood for sometime. How can someone feel so righteous and preach how we need to love everyone, that every life is precious no matter what, and in the next breath pull out a bolt-action sniper rifle, or a pound of C-4 and kill someone.
Personally, I still have some of the residuals of the lessons I learned growing up Catholic, and everytime I say I hate someone, I can still hear the "Don't hate anyone, you may not like them, but you shouldn't hate anyone". But, how can you not hate some people? Why should I care about them when the have such a blatant disregard for any human life but their own? By not hating someone does it make me better than them? Does it make me ignorant? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers and again I have successfully babbled an entire comment without a clear thought. Well, you asked for comments, so there you go.
Marine II
Tom, since you asked for comments, I guess I will oblige. This is a tricky subject and while reading the column, I had a lot of thoughts on it.
With some people, it is hard not hate them. Though you are supposed to hate the sin and not the sinner, sometimes it is hard to separate the two. With a person like Arafat or Hitler or Hussein, the atrocities for which they are responsible can make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the sin from the sinner. As a Catholic, I grew up learning that you should never hate some one, you may not like them, but hating someone can make you a bad person. I grew up learning that you should forgive someone for their sins, and that even if they do bad things, it is not for us to judge someone to damnation; that's God's job.
However, it is sometimes difficult not to look at the Auschwitz's, or the mass graves in Iraq, or the bombings and terrorist acts that Arafat planned and want nothing more than for them to die and go to hell.
Like I said earlier, this is a tricky subject and can seriously bring into question someone's faith and their values.
Slightly off subject, but something else that I would like to bring up about faith and hate, since Jacoby brings up Pat Buchanan, are what I call the extreme Christians. The Pro-Life crowd that is so pro-life that they kill people. (Huh?) This is something that I have not understood for sometime. How can someone feel so righteous and preach how we need to love everyone, that every life is precious no matter what, and in the next breath pull out a bolt-action sniper rifle, or a pound of C-4 and kill someone.
Personally, I still have some of the residuals of the lessons I learned growing up Catholic, and everytime I say I hate someone, I can still hear the "Don't hate anyone, you may not like them, but you shouldn't hate anyone". But, how can you not hate some people? Why should I care about them when the have such a blatant disregard for any human life but their own? By not hating someone does it make me better than them? Does it make me ignorant? Unfortunately, I don't have any answers and again I have successfully babbled an entire comment without a clear thought. Well, you asked for comments, so there you go.
Marine II
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