JWR: --- Hate the sin and love the sinner. I understand that. But why do I have to be accepting of a false church in order to be loving towards its deluded, lied to, and oppressed members? I can love a Catholic without loving his church. The same goes for a Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Buddhist or Moslem.
Reading 2 Nephi 28 and then reading these Internet email discussion lists, Zion included, causes me considerable cognitive dissonance. --- Yes, I suppose the bottom line is that today we must make an extra effort to distinguish between the people who belong to other churches and the formal institutions that constitute those other churches. This is definitely more of a challenge than simply blasting everyone who differs from us. While we continue to unequivocally condemn false and vain and foolish doctrines, yet we recognize those people as our brothers and sisters, prospective converts to the true Gospel of Christ, potential Latter-day Saints. We don't seek to antagonize or alienate these potential members of the true Church by focusing primarily on their faults. I guess the thinking is that we can win the hearts of more men by gentleness, meekness, and love unfeigned. Perhaps, as the scriptures suggest, this has always been the right approach. Apparently the "sword of truth" can be a soft touch at appropriate times, in contrast to more heavy-handed "dividing asunder" kind of action. ;-) ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^----------------------------------------------------------------
