I stated reading this Op with a bit of non-theistic hope, that maybe what caused to the author to dump the quintessential phrase was he dumped religious dogma altogether; I was hoping see an awakening of sorts. Whether this is the so-called first step remains to be seen because in all honesty, what I read was this: I have resolved to not say those words any longer, doesn't mean I don't still believe them.
And despite all my theological disclaimers about how I'm just as much a sinner too, it's not the same. We don't use that phrase for everybody else. Only them. Only "the gays." That's the only place where we make "sinner" the all-encompassing identity.
Then we try to reach them, to evangelize them. We speak of "the gays" in words reminiscent of the "savages" from those old missionary stories -- foreign and different and far away, the ultimate conquest for the church to tame and colonize and save.
Maybe we accept them in our midst. But even then, it's sinners in our midst -- branded with a rainbow-colored scarlet letter. They aren't truly part of us.
Even that word "them" makes me cringe as I speak it, as if my brothers and sisters are somehow other, different from me.
It's a special sort of condescending love we've reserved for the gay community. We'll agree to love them, accept them, welcome them -- but we reserve the right to see them as different. We reserve the right to say "them" instead of "us." We embrace them with arms full of disclaimers about how all the sinners are welcome here. And yet, they're the only ones we constantly remind of their status as sinners, welcome sinners.
Why I Can't Say 'Love the Sinner/Hate the Sin' Anymore | Micah J. Murray
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