Professor of Political Philosophy at Notre Dame Patrick Deneen on Twitter opined, “At almost every interview I’m asked, “Wouldn’t public promotion of your religion result in a vision of the good not shared by everyone, and thus exclusion and even oppression?”
wrote this about Gender and Bias.There are many interpretations of love. Here is the objective dispassionate dictionary version.
Dispassionate versions are fine but I wanted to go deeper and look at religious definitions. Many of the ways we go through our lives were rooted in some sort of religious belief. For example, murder, stealing, and other crimes are illegal in civil society, but also an abomination to all religions.
On Freespoke, I searched for the Jewish Torah interpretation of love and I found this.
I also used Freespoke and found this on what the Quran says about love in Islam.
Predictably, the interpretations are not exactly alike, but the sentiment is similar. There is a Divine Being that loves humans. Love is caring. Love is empathetic. Love is selfless and compassionate.
Using Freespoke again I found that Buddhism is a lot different. It is inward. It is individualistic. In Buddhism’s version of love, we discard things that are painful to us. As anyone who has been in love will tell you, relationships come with pain but they are worth it because of the pleasure it brings to our lives.
A Freespoke search uncovered that Hinduism has a different view on why there is love. But, the basic premise behind love is similar to other religious views on love.
This is “Christian” love. Many Christian weddings of all faiths have this reading in their service. If you haven’t been to one, it might be new to you. It’s in the New Testament and it’s Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. They were establishing a Christian church in Corinth, Turkey.
If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Love isn’t just “Love”. Love isn’t lazy. Even in the objective dictionary version, it is not lazy. Love is active. When you say “love is love” it smacks of indifference. It’s lazy.
The above Christian passage applies to all relationships, not just marriage between a man and a woman.
Anyone that has been in any type of loving relationship knows full well that it’s active and always simmering. They ebb and flow and often loving relationships can be painful. Think about the last fight you had with anyone that you love, or when a loved one passes. Think about when something bad happens to them, or they are in pain. You often feel their pain too.
Gay Pride Month is here. I am sure you noticed. I remember when it was just a parade, then a week, but now we need to virtue signal for a month. We are being inundated and constantly reminded. Buildings are lit up in colors and if they aren’t, their owners are stood up and objectified. They are harassed and made to submit on the town square.
I always thought instead of being a freak or comedy show, the Gay Pride parade ought to be solemn. A quiet march. More dignified since what we are really yearning for are tolerance and respect. At least, that’s what I was told a bunch of years ago when gay rights first became an issue.
Instead, it’s been turned into a carnival.
Corporations never willing to miss a beat are in the act too. Check out these different logos for different societies. I pulled this from Instapundit.
Is it hypocritical, or not? In many societies, you will be murdered for being gay.
Ask yourself when someone posts, bumper stickers, or says, “Love is Love” if they are simply asking for empathy or tolerance. Or, are they saying, commanding, not asking? It’s not really tolerance as much as it is submission.
Is it a gong, or a cymbal? Does it delight in evil and rejoice with the truth? Is it boastful? Is it prideful? Is it easily angered?
I am not anti-gay. I have gay friends. I am happy for them when they find someone, just like I am for straight friends when they find someone. Because they are a minority, roughly 3% of the population, life can be tough for them. They deserve every single civil right guaranteed to them by the Constitution the same way that I do, with no exceptions, exemptions, or special categories. They deserve tolerance and acceptance just like anyone else.
But, today I think there is a lot of other baggage that comes with the “Rainbow Coalition”. Speak out against it and you are forced into a public apology. See the Toronto Blue Jays.
I am saying that the pendulum has swung way too far, and if we were a civil society that truly had compassion for one another, there would be no massive media megaphone broadcast with the accompanying virtue-signaling stories. I see lines in the sand being drawn, and the backlash that occurs to the people that draw that line. The reaction is not loving, empathetic, or understanding. It’s angry and violent.
I really don’t care if someone is gay or not. It doesn’t bug me. I just don’t think they ought to get special preferences. I can be accepting and understanding of them, have empathy and compassion for them, and be kind to them, without accepting or agreeing with all the baggage.
If I don’t think that religious organizations ought to sanction gay marriage, it doesn’t make me anti-gay. Civil society is far different than religious society, and it should be. If you don’t agree, then be very wary if religious zealots instill their view of how society ought to run into law. You might not like it.
Right now, it is fashionable to actively discriminate against traditional values, especially the values espoused by Christianity. If you watch the recent Matt Walsh documentary on Twitter, you can see how twisted some of the people he interviews are. It’s scary if it becomes scalable. That’s what the proponents in that documentary want. They aren’t seeking tolerance. They seek domination.
Love isn’t love. It’s an indifferent statement. It’s apathetic. It’s acquiescent. Elie Wiesel who knows a little bit about all of this stuff said, “The real opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.”
Think about that the next time you hear the phrase.
The answer to the professor’s question in the first paragraph is a simple “No.” This is a true straw man argument. Scripture calls Christians to love their neighbor as well as their enemy. How is that oppressive? Ordering the conduct of people in society along the lines of the Commandments, to not steal, covet or murder hardly seems oppressive or exclusionary, and is actually generally universal. In the US, we do not prohibit Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Christians or any other faith to worship. The imagined oppression and exclusion is seemingly in very short supply. Where there is resistance is in cases where some are determined to alter another’s faith and understanding to conform to their own views through force or coercion.
The trans agenda is a Reality denying pedophile sex cult. Its gospel is freedom through bodily mutilation. It’s purpose is power, by any means necessary, comrade. If there’s anything we can learn about love according to the trans ideologues is that their form is neither patient nor kind, nor any other typical religiously derived definition. It’s the kind of love that you might get from a cult. Which incidentally the point of most cults is to find lots of willing sexual partners for the cult leader. Demonic to the core.