If someone you loved was discovered to be molesting children, would you love child-molesting?

Question

That is my question for those who have trouble grasping the "love the sinner, hate the sin" concept.

Get to the Chopper wrote, "I think you're using a sledgehammer to crack a nut here to make your point."

Perhaps, but when dealing with nuts with thick shells, sometimes a sledgehammer is required!

Answer 1

Good example.

And yes, we do, and we should, separate our support for a human-being and our support for their choices. We can support and love a person, even if we hate what he/she is doing.

And for those who have said, "I would hate not only the behavior, but also the person", I would suggest that if it was your adult son or daughter guilty of child molestation, that most of you would continue to love them, even though you hated what they had done.

Answer 2

I know this is very hard for non-believers to grasp, and even some who call themselves Christians. No matter what a person has done we are to forgive them, no matter what!

1 John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a lier: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.

We are to love the sinner, but hate the sin. A person that does this kind of thing was more than likely molested as a child also. It isn't right, but that is why Jesus Christ died on the cross for. There will be people in hell who couldn't love a bad person, when the bad person who asked for forgiveness will be in heaven.

Answer 3

Love the sinner hate the sin?

Below please find some of the writting of the Bahai Faith in relation to this subject.

As a mother I would love my child no matter what, from both prespectives I could love my sinning child and my child that has been sinned against.

It is NOT my job to judge , Its God will be done.

If you condone the sin then its accomplitory, and you are sinning aswell.

Writtings:

To praise the sinner is the worst of sins.

(Marzieh Gail, Dawn Over Mount Hira, p. 15)


We are all sinners, and Thou art the Forgiver of sins, the Merciful, the Compassionate

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 176)

The revelation
of Moses was not like the revelation of
Abraham, as the revelation of Jesus was unlike
the revelation of Moses. The Revelator is
thereby over all preceding commands, as is
shown when Jesus said to the woman that was
a sinner, who bathed His Feet, "Thy sins be
forgiven thee," although the sin of adultery, according
to the law of Moses, was one of the
gravest. Although the prophet gives laws and
commands to the people, he is not bound by
the laws, because he is lord and maker of the
laws.

(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers 9, p. 61)

O SON OF MAN!

Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner. Shouldst thou transgress this command, accursed wouldst thou be, and to this I bear witness. (Hidden Words, #27 from the Arabic) He [the true seeker] should forgive the sinful, and never despise his low estate, for none knoweth what his own end shall be. (Íqán, p. 194)

(Compilations, NSA USA - The Baha'i Faith and Homosexuality)

41. Bahá'u'lláh prohibits confession to, and seeking absolution of
one's sins from, a human being, and enjoins the sinner, when
alone, to repent before God, for it is He Who forgives.

(Baha'u'llah, Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 64)

Answer 4

Hate = negative
Love = positive

Remember that - hatred brings hatred, love brings love.

Love the child-molester and forgive him for something that is probably a product of a horrible upbringing. What does it matter about the "sin"? The act of child molestation is an act - how can you love or hate an inanimate object?

FP

Answer 5

Yes, I would love the sinner and hate the sin. I always pray for those who go astray. and believe that with God's help they will change their ways. There is something terribly wrong with child molesters and with professional help they may change.

Answer 6

Love the sinner...not the sin. The child molester is the sinner. Child molesting is the sin.

Answer 7

Don't think you're gonna get a yes to this
I think you're using a sledgehammer to crack a nut here to make your point

Answer 8

I would be furious with them but probably still love them deep, very deep down. Shame on anyone harming children in that way.

Answer 9

ok! come on, to be christian should not be necessarily to be completely stupid and try to convince with weird reasons...So in that case it means that you love the child molester but hate what he does??? So why is it possible that in the us you still have death penalties being as it is a christian country???

Answer 10

thats not quite what is meant by that.
But to answer your question, of course not. That's just stupid, and if you understood the "love the sinner,hate the sin" you would know that. I couldn't love someone whom I could not trust with my own children.