Saturday, June 20, 2009

Three things

  1. This Father's Day will be especially cool because my Dad is here. Once you are a Dad, you Dadship is never revoked.
  2. We are going to Sea World San Antonio this week. I was a little disappointed to find out that it is a water park/amusement park and not just a super aquarium. If I want rides, I can go to Six Flags. But I want sea creatures in all of their diversity and wonder. Anyone that reads this little blog been to Sea World before? Any advice?
  3. This is an amazing quote that has me thinking: Sadly, it is commonly said among Christians that “God hates the sin but loves the sinner.” This is as stupid as saying God loves rapists and hates rape, as if rape and rapists were two entirely different entities that could be separated from one another. Furthermore, it was not a divinely inspired author of Scripture but the Hindu Gandhi who coined the phrase “Love the sinner but hate the sin” in his 1929 autobiography.The love of God is in fact true but sadly has been so overly emphasized in most Christian teaching that one wonders if God is love or if love is now God.- Mark Driscoll, Death By Love, p. 128

2 comments:

Aaron said...

I went to Sea World several times a long, long time ago. My advice: swim with the dolphins and don't eat wet popcorn.

Amelia Antwiler said...

Aaron has some good advice. :-) I'm too chicken to go to the pool at the park, so Huzzah for you.

#3 got me to thinking to.
I've heard that phrase for years and never really thought who had coined the phrase. I knew it wasn't scripture - but there is truth to it. Jesus walked it out - while he was breaking every religious tradition!

Just like there's truth to Ghandi's other famous phrase (at least it's famous on facebook flair) -- the one about "be the change..." I didn't say it was all truth. :-) Just thinking out loud.

I agree with the title of the book from which you're quoting.

The Methodist church has a slogan that just grates my cheese. (I can say this because I am a refugee from the UMC....) The one about Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. It really serves as an example of the problem we find ourselves in - and maybe the book goes into deeper depth on the topic.

The world has gotten Christians so afraid to CONFRONT sin. So instead, like the slogan suggests, Christians often are taught to think that acceptance is the only way to handle the tough cases.

What we need to do is understand that only IN LOVE can we BOLDLY speak what needs to be spoken about the sin. If we approach the person in a lawful, judgmental, condemning manner then they will often respond in like manner.

We have to get past the fear of being labeled intolerant. We will have to confront some things -- but if we don't do it right, then we're not going to accomplish much more than creating noise.

You made me think.
Thanks for the deep thoughts. :-)

Have fun at Sea World.