I haven’t really talked much about religion here before. I mostly stick to technical or fun themes. But I ran across this great post earlier today when I was surfing Eric Meyer’s blogroll:
I’d like you to imagine something for a moment. Take a relatively close loved one – not your closest loved one, or your best friend, but someone who you like a lot and have affection for. It could be your brother, it could be someone you really like at work. Hell, it could be your mom or your daughter.
Okay. I hate to break it to you, but they’re on heroin.
Not really, of course… But take a moment to imagine that you’ve just discovered this person has been snorting drugs whenever you’re not around. They have a real problem with H – one you can’t imagine that they should have, since he or she seems like an intelligent person. You like them, maybe even love them.
[….]
Think about what you’d do. This is a serious question. How would you handle someone who was endangering their life (and possibly the lives of their children) and refused to admit that they had a problem? Where do you draw the line between respecting someone’s boundaries and leaving them to die?
Okay. Got your answer?
Now, replace the word “heroin” with the Christian sin of your choice – “gay,” “pagan,” or any other non-traditional way of living. And replace the word “life” with “soul.”
Read the whole thing. It’s good.
I’m a Christian, myself, but even I can get annoyed when people proselytize at me. If you’ve ever been mad at somebody for “preaching” to you, try to keep theferret’s words in mind. This is a really good analogy for why Christians will try to get you to “change your ways” if they think that you’re going down the wrong road.
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