Love Is Not Love<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By which the writer, William Luse, means "love" is not love. Writing in Christendom Review, which he edits, he tells of responding to a student who asked\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love Is Not Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By which the writer, William Luse, means "love" is not love. Writing in Christendom Review, which he edits, he tells of responding to a student who asked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"David Mills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-17T15:05:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-17T19:23:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Mills\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Mills\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/\",\"name\":\"Love Is Not Love\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-17T15:05:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-17T19:23:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#\/schema\/person\/5f2a56234185b5e0c643a1fc41257ac7\"},\"description\":\"By which the writer, William Luse, means \\\"love\\\" is not love. Writing in Christendom Review, which he edits, he tells of responding to a student who asked\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Love Is Not Love\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/\",\"name\":\"David Mills\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#\/schema\/person\/5f2a56234185b5e0c643a1fc41257ac7\",\"name\":\"David Mills\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/author\/dmills\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Love Is Not Love","description":"By which the writer, William Luse, means \"love\" is not love. Writing in Christendom Review, which he edits, he tells of responding to a student who asked","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Love Is Not Love","og_description":"By which the writer, William Luse, means \"love\" is not love. Writing in Christendom Review, which he edits, he tells of responding to a student who asked","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/","og_site_name":"David Mills","article_published_time":"2014-07-17T15:05:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-17T19:23:05+00:00","author":"David Mills","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Mills","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/","name":"Love Is Not Love","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-17T15:05:35+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-17T19:23:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#\/schema\/person\/5f2a56234185b5e0c643a1fc41257ac7"},"description":"By which the writer, William Luse, means \"love\" is not love. Writing in Christendom Review, which he edits, he tells of responding to a student who asked","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Love Is Not Love"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/","name":"David Mills","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#\/schema\/person\/5f2a56234185b5e0c643a1fc41257ac7","name":"David Mills","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/author\/dmills\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1863"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":497,"date":"2014-07-17T11:05:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T15:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/?p=497"},"modified":"2014-07-17T15:23:05","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T19:23:05","slug":"love-is-not-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/love-is-not-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Is Not Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

By which the writer, William Luse, means \u201clove\u201d is not love. Writing in Christendom Review<\/em><\/a>, which he edits, he tells of responding to a student who asked him to define love and then having gotten his definition, said \u201clove is love.\u201d No, it\u2019s not, said Bill.<\/p>\n

The assertion that \u2018love is love,\u2019 I went on, is the thing that is \u201cjust a perception.\u201d In fact, it\u2019s probably less than that. It\u2019s a deliberate attempt to redefine reality, and is more accurately called a lie. I know that people say it all the time, but they usually have some ulterior motive for doing so, since it plainly is not the case.<\/p>\n

I do not love my parents in the same way I love my children. I do not, and cannot, love my best male buddy or my sister in the same way that I love my wife. And my love for my grandparents is different from these other loves, conditioned by a solicitude for the weakness that comes with age, a reverence for the wisdom that accompanies it, and gratitude that they have a place in my ancestry, for I would not be here without them. These are not merely perceptions; they are \u201cfacts on the ground,\u201d as people say; they constitute reality. I would have to lie to myself to say otherwise.<\/p>\n

. . .\u00a0To say that \u2018love is love\u2019 (I told my student) is like saying that \u2018God is God.\u2019 It seems to me that the second half of the definition ought to add something to the first, to say something\u00a0about<\/em>\u00a0it, rather than eat its own tail. Only in God (I went on, pressing my luck) can we imagine a Being in whom love is a single, indivisible, and eternally unwavering phenomenon; of such power unrelenting that we can also imagine it giving birth to the universe, to all life, to us; of such intensity unceasing that we cannot admit of any fluctuation, corruption, or tendency toward dissolution in this Being\u2019s exercise of it, as we see among human beings; such that we are compelled to confess that it must, in this Being, constitute His very essence. Hence the reasonableness of the common expression \u201cGod is love.\u201d Or, put another way: Love is a Being.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"