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Old 07-19-2005, 07:50 AM   #23 (permalink)
martinguerre
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Location: New England
Quote:
Maybe but it's not you for you to decide that their interpretation of salvation is wrong, that's tantamount to someone saying that your lifestyle choices are wrong.
I disagree with the implication there...in a certain sense, Ustwo is right...Christian religion is not just supposed to be warm fuzzies. The kind of love that founds this faith is one so radical it will embrace the very worst violence we have to offer as human beings, confront it, show it to be a dead idol that is powerless, and forgive the practicioners. there is judgement....but the judgment and the mercy are the same.

what i'm saying here is that it is my calling as one who has been loved by God is to respond to that love. Jesus, when asked what commandments summed up the law, he replies with the Shema, that God is One, the One who has loved and saved because it is the nature of this unique God to do so. After that, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Encountering God is to know love...and to me, this is salvation. Entrance in to relationship and freedom from the idols that consume our lives. This is why i contested the summation that Ustwo posted. He's right that a lot of people beleive that, but i wanted to point out that there are other traditions of theology and practice that have existed in the church. ideas of Christian freedom, that each is endowed by the love of God in Christ with the ability and right to be in relationship with God, dictate that i show respect and love for those i disagree with. but it does not mean stopping the conversation, or ceasing to proclaim what i hold to be true. and i expect to listen to them, as well...

which brings me here. to love and to be in relationship even and especially with the stranger and the other is not just a test to see if you're "good" enough. IMO, it is salvation being incarnated. Which is all to say...if i am in trusting and loving relationship with someone, my first priority is to love, to respond to God's love. But it is not to forgo judgement entirely, it is to know God's judgement is the mercy, and to act accordingly. i have come to accept that same sex relationships can be holy and display God's grace in human life. why i have come to judge reparative therapy is not becuase i hate the people who practice it...but because i have only seen it lead to harm and ruin. i do not sense any life in such teachings, and i should hope that someday all might be free from it.
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For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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