It’s called hating the sin and loving the sinner

To some folks – even a few of my readers, from whom I would expect better – it all seems very mysterious – like the height of hypocrisy: Senator Rick Santorum speaks out (a little too forcefully for my taste, but he’s not my senator) about the homosexual lifestyle and agenda, and so – somehow – that makes him a hypocrite for defending his gay spokesman, whom some of the left have “outed.”

“I think it squares very clearly with my public positions on every other issue, which is that I treat people fairly, I treat people equally, I treat people with dignity and respect, and irrespective of what they may or may not do outside of work,” said Mr. Santorum, R-Penn Hills.

In a story last week, the online gay and lesbian publication, PageOneQ, quoted Mr. Traynham as saying he is an openly gay man who supports the senator. The story was picked up by the Knight-Ridder News Service and ran in newspapers across the country.

…

Michael Geer, the president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which has vocally supported Mr. Santorum for opposing gay marriage, said there’s a difference between employing someone who is gay and endorsing the homosexual lifestyle in public policy. He credited the senator for knowing the difference.

Ummm. Yeah. For those who don’t get it, anything less than a willingness to actually “celebrate and endorse” a homosexual lifestyle is “homophobia” and “hate.”

This is nonsense. It is quite possible to disagree with the gay agenda and still treat gays with respect, friendship and love.

If you are a person who has made it a habit to stomp around and declare that “if you don’t agree with me, you’re my enemy” then you won’t understand it. My brother and I did not agree on everything about his lifestyle. But we loved each other dearly, cared about each other, respected each other and – where we could – supported each other. I could not support his unserious and reckless decisions, the ones which – to my everlasting grief – eventually cost him his life. He could not support everything I was about. That did not mean all bets were off.

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual people are to be treated with dignity and respect – and it seems that Rick Santorum does that – certainly he does not exploit his gay staff member – nor does he consider him “unworthy” of respect. That he does not jump through politically correct hoops or subdue his opinions in order to make others “feel good about themselves” is hardly the mark of a hypocrite. Quite the opposite, in fact. But maybe in an era of unbounded euphemisms, hypocrisy means something different than it used to.

Seems kind of ironic. These folks who hate Santorum and are calling him a “hypocrite” because he actually employs someone with whom, on some matters, he might disagree…I wonder if they would ever employ a Christian with whom they disagree, and stand up and defend that employee, in the face of this sort of heat. These same folks who bow to the altar of “inclusion” – I wonder how inclusive they would be. As inclusive as Santorum?

It’s called hating the sin and loving the sinner. It’s really NOT that complicated. It means, “just because I admire and respect you doesn’t mean I have to give up my own values to do so…and you are not diminished by my choice.”

Tolerant…maybe we should call them “classically liberal”… people understand that.

UPDATE: Take a look at the “tolerant progressives” last night. Who is it that makes a big deal, all the time, about gays? WHO?