Recently, there has been an extreme moral revolution in society. Moral guidelines and lifestyle expectations have practically vanished. Everything is accepted – and if you don’t accept it, shame on you! And then comes the immediate judgment that you don’t love people that think differently than you. Wait what? You have to agree to love?
The answer is a resounding NO!
You can love the person without loving the decision.
It’s like this. A parent has a child. The child decides she wants to think for herself. She’s had urges and “temptations” and she’s ready to explore them. She’s talked herself into not believing in God anymore, and now she suddenly feels freedom of conscience. She gets into drugs, has multiple sex partners, cuts, and follows all her “natural” urges and desires. Her argument is that she was born with these urges so shouldn’t she be able to act on them?
The parents can love their child without loving her decision, or feeling like they need to vote for legalizing drugs and everything else that her lifestyle entails. She feels like she should be able to act on her urges, but the parents disagree. Does that mean they don’t love her? NO!
Your neighbor deals with same sex attraction and has chosen to act on his urges. He and his partner are kind and love serving others in their community.
You can love your neighbor without loving his decision or feeling like you need to vote or agree with same sex relationships or marriage.
You can love the person without loving the decision.
Now there is a small, minute, minority that will disown their kids in these circumstances, or will judge and mistreat their neighbor, but the majority of people that disagree with the moral decisions of others, can and do love the person making the decision.
I am among those that believe in God’s moral laws. I am among those that love the person without loving their decision. I am among those that will never vote against God’s moral laws.
Recently, there was a story in the news. A man, who is gay, adopted a son. The son is now grown. The father and son now want to get married. Is that okay? Should we allow that?
When we remove God’s laws, all of the sudden there are no definite lines. Lines are drawn and laws are made on public opinion (which is scary), trends (which is even scarier), and twisted and half told issues (which is even scarier)!
If we stick with God’s laws, and the laws of the Constitution (which was God inspired), we know that the father and son should not be able to get married, but if we go off of public opinion, which is “they love each other, they should be able to get married”, then this extremely immoral situation becomes a topic of discussion and possibility. Where do you draw the line if it’s not God’s line? Everyone will have a different opinion, and those opinions will change with time and before we know it, our society is morally corrupt.
Christ is our perfect example. He led a perfect life, loving everyone, whether a sinner or a believer, but he NEVER changed God’s laws to make others feel accepted or comfortable.
You can love the person without loving the decision.
The media can and will continue to manipulate and distort this and other topics, making me, fellow Christians, and those that believe in God’s moral laws, out to be haters and discriminators, but try as they may, there are eternal laws they can never change.
God’s unchanging moral laws, should be our unchanging moral laws.
There are two things I’m sure of, despite the moral trends, I will never back down from defending God and His laws, that were and will always be; and I will never stop loving those with and without my beliefs.
-Lindsey
This article appeared first on Real Imprints.
Well said!! Thank you for raising your voice in defense of truth!
Thanks Mary! It seems like some are trying to hush and even do away with God’s truths, and I just can’t sit back and let it happen! I checked out your blog and love it! What a great idea! I can’t wait to implement some of your fun ideas!
Just want to point out that a gay man and his adopted son marrying is not so ‘out there’. May I remind you that Woody Allen did the exact same thing, in the process destroying his marriage. The decision is not morally right no matter the orientation of the person. Choosing to retell the story of the gay man and his son wasn’t needed when everyone knows who Woody Allen is. Anyway, having said that…
I’m no longer religious but I spent most of my life as a Catholic. I made a (big) mistake before entering the convent, caving to peer pressure to at least date before committing to that life, and I got pregnant. My father’s family disowned me, on moral/religious grounds; my Mother’s family embraced me and supported me, on moral/religious grounds. I can understand both sides of the argument I suppose.
I think most people have a problem with the fact that religious people don’t just sit idly by and allow them to make independent decisions, they try to ‘educate’ them and bring them back to God. At some point, religious people need to understand, that there are many people out there who do not want to be brought back to a God that won’t love them as He made them.
I am trying to find my way back to some semblance of belief, but I know that if I do find that, it won’t be with the God I walked away from 3 years ago. There will need to be a new understanding on both my side, and on God’s. If He is all seeing and all knowing, then He will already know the need to learn to compromise. If I’m forced to compromise, and I was made in His image, then I’m sure He can lead by example.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I agree that it doesn’t matter if you’re gay or heterosexual, that decision is morally wrong. I used that example because it was recently in the news when I wrote the article, but I couldn’t agree with you more that no matter what your sexual orientation is, that is wrong.
It makes me sad that part of your family disowned you. I’m so sorry. That should never happen, especially at such a difficult time. I’m so glad you had some family to lean on. I feel like the same thing goes with this principle as mentioned in the previous paragraph. Whether you are religious or not, disowning a family member because they’ve chosen different than you is not right. There are people that are not religious, that disown their children because they have chosen to be religious. Both are wrong and sad.
It’s hard to live in such an imperfect world. It really is, but I’m glad we do or we wouldn’t be here. So many of us have the best intentions, but don’t always act, do, or say what we should, religious or not. I admire you for trying to find a path of belief. It’s not easy.
I’m sure it gets frustrating when everyone is trying to push their beliefs on you. I believe most do it because they want you to be happy, they want to share what has made them happy and what brings them peace. It’s just like when I read a book I love, I want to share it with others! Maybe one of these times it will be the belief that ends up bringing you peace, the belief you’ve been looking for?
I think it would be sad to live in a world where no one said anything about believing or not believing. That is the great thing, we can all say and believe what we want. Some don’t want to hear, but some do. Some feel hopeless and it brings them hope. So that is why I share. I completely understand that not all want to hear it, but what about those that do? If I never said anything, I’d never know who did want to hear about it. If someone doesn’t want to hear about it, I respect that and we remain friends and talk about other things, but I will always share the one thing that brings me peace and happiness on a daily basis.
I have loved reading your thoughts! I read them a few times so I could soak it in and understand your viewpoint. I do believe differently about God’s love. His love is perfect. It’s hard for us to imagine because ours is not. Ours is more circumstantial. He loves us for who we are and for who we can become. There have been countless people I know who are so low and in a dark place and they don’t even love themselves. In a last ditch effort to survive, they pray to know if God knows and loves them and He lets them know he does in a very real and personal way to them. I have no doubt he loves us for who we are right now, no matter who that is. It’s the people in this world that tell us otherwise. You may never have the desire to pray and ask God if He’s really there and if He loves you, but I have no doubt that if you ever do, you’ll know He loves you. There is something powerful about asking that specific question in humble prayer.
I wish you the best in your journey! I admire your will power to push through the hard times you’ve had and find the path that’s right for you.
I really appreciate your reply; thankyou.
I personally have no real issue with people speaking about their faith. I speak about my beliefs freely, and I believe everyone has the right to do so. It is the constant push to indoctrinate that makes me uncomfortable. I acknowledge that this is, again, a small subsection of those who follow any religion. Just as not all Muslim’s are terrorists, neither are all Christians out to convert everyone.
I enjoy discussing religion and beliefs in a respectful manner with others who are like-minded. Obviously, you and I differ in our experiences and our approaches to our faith; I don’t believe either one of us is wrong.
I have spent a great deal of time, throughout my life, in prayer. You don’t consider becoming a nun, without spending a great deal of time in contemplation and prayer. I’ve also been in very dark and low places, feeling abandoned by everyone and everything. I will say that God never showed Himself to me. In fact, I now actively try not to pray because I have an ‘out of sight/hearing, out of mind’ approach to dealing with God. I hope he forgets about me, because every time I prayed, things got worse. It wasn’t until I stopped praying for guidance, support, love etc that I realised if I was going to move forward, I had to do so with the understanding that I had none of the things that my religion had promised me.
I didn’t just pray when things were bad, I prayed when things were good too. I thanked him for all of my blessings, and asked him to bless those who had hurt, betrayed or upset me. I said the rosary, every night, just as my Grandparents did.
I would never want to take someone’s beliefs from them. I don’t want everyone to think the way I do. I just want everyone to be open and honest, and accept that we can all have differences without hating each other for it, or feeling like we have to ‘save’ others by converting them to our way of thinking.
I think respectful discussions, such as this one, are valuable for all involved and for all who read/hear them. We don’t all need to agree, to be able to respect each other.
I completely agree Sarah! I’ve loved this conversation and feel like we (our nation/world) could get so much further in our conversations, and understanding of each other, with respect and love. Thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts! It really is interesting how different everyone’s journeys can be. I can tell you’re an incredible person who wants to do good and live a good life. I admire that! Keep hope and love in your heart and everything will turn out in the end….even if the road gets bumpy.
I’ll be looking forward to hearing more from you in the future!:-) Thanks for the great conversation!