"Love the sinner. Hate the sin." How do you feel about this saying?
I have a former coworker who posted this on FB recently. She is huge on oro-life, extremely religious.
It feels judgemental to me. You only call someone a sinner because you are judging their actions to be sinful. Sin itself only seems to apply in a religious context. Close, but not the same as morality.
How would you respond to this? Or would you respond at all? I usually just let her posts go. Once in a while i try to engage in a thoughtful dialogue about right to choose and she gets immediately defensive.
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8 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.If really intended, then like the, anti-religious. "Hate the idea, not the believer." There could be some value in it. But it also, if not genuine, and it rarely is, it can be just a license for the hypocrite and the bully to indulge in hate crimes.
Better to leave hate in the locker, there are other motivations like compassion, pride in achievement, even justified fear, to propel you into action if you need a drive to get going.
Sin, is anyway, in many ways a meaningless word, since the only difference between it and the word crime, is that unlike crime, sin, is supposed to put a stain on your soul that is visible supernaturally, and marks you as an offender. If you don't believe in supernatural souls, then there is no such thing.
Fernapple
Level 9
July 31, 2020
2
It is a bullshit excuse used by hypocritical bigots.
Note the use of the word sin, a sin is simply something a religion disagrees with.
They never never say love the criminal hate the crime, because they aaint gonna love someone who steals from them or kicks them in the goolies.
Love the sinner, Hate the sin is a carte blanche license to be racist, homophobic and sexist and that is all it is ever used for.
LenHazell53
Level 9
July 30, 2020
2
That's kinda where I was leaning with this myself. Playing it off as compassion, while allowing prejudice and judgment.
That's a very good point! No one says "love the criminal; hate the crime", which does suggest that this is more of a judgy, holier-than-thou sort of thing to say.
If this was said by someone I care about, my response might be a snarky "Love the preacher. Hate the sermon."
AmyTheBruce
Level 7
July 30, 2020
4
I would not respond at all. She's trying to say that's part of her religion. I do not love people who do evil things and I bet you don't either.
Lorajay
Level 9
July 30, 2020
3
This is true. I also know she believes women who get abortions would be considered sinners (doing evil things).
If we choose to, it’s not hard to translate “religionese” into generic english. Generically, sin just means missing the mark, whether that mark be a moral one, a legal one or even one of socially accepted manners.
I’m not much into hating anything, but there are some despicable acts that deserve our firm rejection. And I do think it’s a better practice to separate the act from the actor in our disdain. That doesn’t mean not holding people accountable for their crimes. It just means that hating people serves no good purpose. So yes, disparage the act, not the person.
skado
Level 9
July 30, 2020
4
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