love & acceptance

So I was watching ER last night, a show i haven't watched in a long time....when an interesting concept about love and acceptance came up. dr. weaver had just told her Christian mother that she was a homosexual, to which the mother responded (understandably) in a shocked manner. I say understandably not because that's the kind of reaction one would expect from a christian, but because i think any mother ... christian or not ... would respond similarly. Anyway, the doc asked her mother if she could still be accepted, to which the mother responded, I will still love you...or something like that. hmmmm....interesting. the episode brought up some issues about the church vs. homosexuality that the producers obviously felt needed to get across, like that there are all these horrible things going on in the world, so why are christians jumping on this homosexual issue. point taken. i was watching it with other christians who shared their opinion that the episode painted all of christianity with one anti-gay brush. i would agree with them on that stance, however, the unfortunate truth is that those christians who speak the loudest are the ones who the homosexual community hears. and unfortunately, too many Christians are willing to just sit back and allow that voice speak for fear of getting involved in the issue at hand....

back to the love and acceptance thing. is it possible to love somebody and NOT accept them? i had never thought of this concept previous to last night's episode. a common christian cliché is 'love the sinner, hate the sin'. unfortunately, i think christians apply that philosophy to everyone but the christian community...which in reality is a community of sinners (who, hypothetically, are a community of individuals who have recognized that yes, in fact, I am a sinner...and therefore the only way to accept that fact is to admit it, accept forgiveness for my sinful nature, and commit myself to a life of learning what it takes to be a forgiven sinner in a world of sinners needing forgiveness). hence, my new cliché will be 'love the sinner.' period. that means Christians are (i am) called to love every single person they (i) come in contact with....the greedy, the proud, the selfish, Christian, the non-Christian, the homosexual, the heterosexual, etc. you get my drift.

once again, back to the love and acceptance thing. you understand where i'm coming from on the love issue now. about the acceptance thing. does love automatically mean acceptance? take last night's episode of ER, for example. Weaver's mother could love her daughter, but not accept her for who she was. maybe this is where the cliché should come in....'accept the sinner, don't accept the sin'. is there a difference here between this and the love cliché? or could it be that we are just called to love and accept the sinner, and let God take care of the sin in others while we worry about the sin that is 'crouching at our door'. If, as Christians, we are living up to our calling, will it not follow that our life, our example, our faith, our words, our God will open the eyes of those who haven't recognized the sin in their life to their need of forgiveness as well? i'd like to think so ... anything more could cause us to be proud of those whose lives we've changed, when 'we' have only played the smallest of roles in the mystery that is God.