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STAND: No, Rejecting Sin DOESN’T Mean Hate

There is a war going on out there on morality. Today in America, if you stand up for the morals you believe in you risk being labeled “intolerant” or “hateful.”  In some cases, those who want the morality in this country to change drastically for the worse will take your business, legally penalize you, threaten your life and the lives of your family members. The ridiculousness of it is the fact that it’s a lie. It’s all a big, fat lie.

A Christian baker in Oregon found out the hard way that opposing those who want to redefine morality to make themselves guilt free about the decisions they make will cost you everything. Melissa Klein and her husband Aaron are Christians, and they have no problem serving gay customers, unless that service includes making wedding cakes. When they refused to do so for a lesbian couple, the gay mafia went into action. In January 2013 when they declined to make a wedding cake for Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman, the couple promptly responded by filing a civil rights complaint against Sweet Cakes by Melissa. Oregon subsequently ruled that the bakery violated Cryer’s and Bowman’s civil rights. They face fines that could bankrupt them. They were forced to close their bakery. They were and still are harassed via email and phone. The “tolerant” gay marriage supporters threatened their lives and the lives of their children.

Melissa Klein finally took to her Facebook page to reveal what are the “two huge lies” contemporary culture has embraced.

Our culture has accepted 2 huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. Second is that to love someone means that you must agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.

And that’s the bottom line. The choices you make in your life are yours. I don’t have to like your choices any more than you have to like mine. The difference is that as a Christian I am commanded to love you, but I don’t have to love your choices. I can also tell you that your choices are wrong, but not in a way that demeans you as a person, but that lovingly tell you that my caring for you won’t change despite your bad behavior.

To Christians, acceptance and love of people should be unconditional. Loving people should be unconditional. Acceptance, however, doesn’t mean that we must accept their bad behavior. The behavior doesn’t matter. If I said that you MUST accept someone who beats their spouse, meaning that you have to be ok with what they are doing, most people would balk and say no. And they’d be right. If I said you had to accept someone who abuses their body with illegal drugs and say “sure, go right ahead and do that”, most people would say “no, that’s not ok, they need help.” If someone made it a habit to rape women or kill people no one would say it was ok and we have to accept it.

Melissa Klein got it right. I don’t like homosexuality. I think it’s wrong. I think it harms people. I don’t fear or hate people who practice it. I refuse to tell them what they are doing is ok or moral. It’s not. Just stating that in writing will earn me the enmity of many people. To them, my not being hunky-dory with their choices means I hate them. I don’t. Now if they did something that puts me or my family in danger, I can honestly say that my love for them will go out the window!

As Christians we are called to point out sin. We are called to do so in love. We are called to do so as long as we are not committing the same sin. If we are right in our own lives we can point out the bad behavior of others. Christ never said, “Hey, that’s ok that you are sleeping with married men, off with you now” to the woman who was taken to him when caught committing adultery. He told her, “Your sins are forgiven you, now go and sin no more.”

As a parent I have always been in a position where I had to correct the behaviors of my children. If they hit someone, I had to tell them, “No, that’s not acceptable.” If they took something that didn’t belong to them, I had to tell them, “No, that’s no acceptable.” Did I do it in a way that was harsh and unloving? No, I corrected their behavior and told them I love them. Dealing with adults and their bad behavior is no different.

We don’t have to allow those who want morality to fly out the window to control how the rest of us deal with the world. It’s time to put a stop to letting the immoral bullies win.

Image: http://www.foodista.com/recipe/2C8G3CQB/stand-up-chicken

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Suzanne Olden

Suzanne Reisig Olden is a Catholic Christian, Conservative, married mother of two, who loves God, family and country in that order. She lives northwest of Baltimore, in Carroll County, Maryland. She graduated from Villa Julie College/Stevenson University with a BS in Paralegal Studies and works as a paralegal for a franchise company, specializing in franchise law and intellectual property. Originally from Baltimore, and after many moves, she came home to raise her son and daughter, now high school and college aged, in her home state. Suzanne also writes for The Firebreathing Conservative website ( www.firebreathingconservative.com) and hopes you'll come visit there as well for even more discussion of conservative issues.

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