Of Love and Dictionaries

I am now completely, totally, fed up. There seems to be a vast number of people who have a wide vocabulary, but little comprehension of what their wide vocabulary actually means.

Allow me to give you a definition of a word from OneLook.com:

Hate
noun: the emotion of hate; a feeling of dislike so strong that it demands action
verb: dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards

Now let me give you a quote:

"Guilty as charged. We are very much supportive of the family -- of the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."

Unless you have been totally out of the loop this past month, you know exactly who I'm quoting: Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A. Could you please point to the part of this statement that suggests Cathy hates homosexuals? In fact, let me broaden that. Could you please point to any of his statements or actions anytime that suggests Cathy hates homosexuals? (Believe it or not, when Cathy made this statement, he actually wasn't talking about homosexuals; he was talking about people who opposed CFA's support of the traditional family.) If you want, you can say that Cathy is discriminatory/bigoted towards homosexuals. Go ahead. But he (and Chick-fil-A) most definitely do not hate homosexuals! Got it? Chick-fil-A serves homosexuals just like they serve heterosexuals and every other kind of sexual of which you can think.

It's true that CFA donates to organizations that are against gay marriage. (For information on the infamous anti-gay Ugandan bill, please read the last paragraph from this article from Snopes.) If that is the reason you want to boycott CFA, that's fine with me. It's a free country. I'm not mad that you want to boycott CFA. I'm mad that you want to boycott CFA because of something that doesn't exist. You can hate homosexuality without hating homosexuals, just like you can hate premartial sex, abortionists, and every other sin, without hating the person themselves.

Not convinced?

Do you hate cancer?

Most people have lost a family member or a friend through cancer. There are several different kinds of cancer in my family. Most recently, I lost my grandfather. However, I did not hate my grandfather.

We bigoted Christians hate sin because it destroys individuals and society and hurts God. That doesn't mean we want sin to be illegal (this is America), but it does mean that we don't want to be forced to recognize sin as something good. (Though, obviously, there are some sins that have to be illegal, and are illegal because their results are so obvoiusly horrific that even we humans usually won't allow them.)

That being said, there are so-called Christians who do hate homosexuals. They're the people with the "God hates f---" and "Kill the f---" signs. There are also Muslims who hate homosexuals. Look back up at the "hate" definition. SHAME ON THEM.

I am against homosexuality. It is sinful and harmful, especially to the homosexuals themselves. If it isn't a lifestyle choice (like most vehemently say), then it's a disease; the brain thinks it can reproduce with a member of the same sex. I understand why people are offended by that; I mean, it's pretty obvious. I would be offended if someone felt sorry for me because I have the disease of religion. Or the disease of liking red. But that doesn't mean they hate me. And I can choose to brush off the offense. The offender doesn't get to choose what offends people. I can get a thicker skin. Nobody should be so sensitive that a pebble feels like a boulder.

I realize that many people don't give themselves thin skins: if somebody has been told all their life that they are worthless, disgusting, or whatever, then it's perfectly understandable when they conclude that everybody hates them. It's obviously an unreasonable claim, but it's an understandable one. Lots of homosexuals go through bullying. That's wrong. But it doesn't make my support of Chick-fil-A and traditional family wrong because it hurts the homosexuals. I'm more at fault for what I don't do in this case than what I do do. If homosexuals think that all Christians hate them, then clearly the Church has not been showing them love.

That's also what allows the pro-abortion movement to claim that pro-lifers hate women. How many protests have YOU seen this week with "stay locked up in your house", "Stupid ****", "Women are worthless" signs?

Apparently actual acts of hate aren't necessary to elicit claims of hate anymore. The lack of (obvious) love is enough.

There is a solution to that, of course.

Showing obvious love.

Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.