I'm curious what people think of this quote:
"Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate." -Rick WarrenMy thoughts?
I was tempted to write, "via Rick Warren, in How To Be a Bigot While Still Feeling Good About Yourself!"
For, "lifestyle," of course, is dog whistle for homosexuality, so let's not pretend that we're talking about acceptance in general here.
And, my homosexuality is not a mere "belief" or "action." It's a fundamental part of who I am. And, what Warren is saying here is that someone can still love me even if they disagree with who I am and strongly believe that this fundamental part of me is immoral.
How strange.
Believe homosexuality and "homosexuals" are immoral- disagree with homosexuality all you want. But do not call that love.
We do not merely "tolerate" those whom we love, do we? For love to have any meaningful definition, for me, would require the acceptance of LGBT people as LGBT people and the trust that we, rather than non-LGBT people (or any purported religious leader) knows what is best for our own lives.
Don't call Warren's Big Reveal Of Truths love.
I don't want half of me loved and the other half "tolerated" as though it's disease. That may indeed be tolerance. But, it also constitutes marginalizing a group of people while feeling smug and self-righteous about it. So own it.
1 comment:
Preach it :) ... there's a CHASM of difference between speaking up when you see someone you love perpetrating violence (i.e. you don't have to accept as right and good the murder of a human being because you love the person responsible) and being judgy about someone else's morality and life choices which do not infringe on your, or other peoples', ability to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. That's the slight-of-hand being pulled here.
You don't get to judge someone else a fundamentally lesser human being for being different than you and then absolve yourself of the pain that judgement causes by pretending it's lovingkindness.
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