Poet and Artist:Douglas Polk

For the Love of God: An Opinion
By Douglas Polk
      I perceive that, through the years, a misunderstanding about God's love for mankind has developed in our culture . This little rant is my attempt to address this misunderstanding, because I find it very irritating, and false.
      When discussing Christianity the concept of God's unconditional love is used by both believers and non-believers to make points about their views of religion and Christianity. Lately it seems that because  of the way we perceive God's unconditional love for us, He has to love us regardless of what we do, or how we live. I quite frankly believe this to be bullshit. God does want to love us unconditionally, but the choice isn't up to Him, it depends, EXACTLY on what we do and how we live our lives.
     Becoming or being Christian, and accepting Jesus Christ as our savior is a choice we must make. God attempted and attempts to stage interventions in our lives all the time. A kin to the addict, we sinners must accept the wrongfulness of our actions, and agree to attempt to make changes in our lives, before we can truly feel and live in God's unconditional love. God knows we are likely to continue to make mistakes and screw up, but that is where His unconditional love comes in. He is always willing to forgive and forget about past offenses, and the door to His love is always open, as long as we are willing to attempt to live by His word.
     That doesn't mean redefining sin, or what sin is or isn't. It means attempting to trust in the Lord that He has shown us the way and will continue to show us the way, through the Bible, and traditions handed down through the generations.
     Most of the social conflicts of today, bashing Christianity,  are argued from false premises, when advocates for change, attempt to change the definition of words or concepts, such as sin, and the social norms. They purposely misrepresent concepts of love, inclusion, and responsibility, and again argue from false premises. (An example: Love doesn't equate with sex . . .  God doesn't forbid men to love men, or women to love women, or  men to love women, but God does forbid sex . .in all the categories mentioned. Love and sex are not the same thing. . . .We are called to love our neighbor, regardless of race, religion or gender, but loving our neighbor doesn't equate with making judgements regarding their race, religion or gender. Loving someone doesn't imply agreement with, for example, their religion or life style. We are called to love . .unconditionally . .even people we disagree with.)
      In my humble belief, sin equates with death, and or the prevention of life, because love equates with life, and God is Love . . . .there my rant is done . . .Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.