[Jesus sits on a rock, speaking]
A new command I give you:
Love one another

[an angry character talks back to Jesus]
What if they’re something bad like gay, trans, brown, or communist though?

[Jesus is facepalming on his rock]
I don’t want to be a messiah anymore

https://thebad.website/comic/gospel_of_love

  • bss03@infosec.pubEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    Contrariwise, you are also commanded to love racists, homophobes, transphobes, and authoritarians. You can certainly try to convince them away from those stances, but you are still supposed to be kind, even generous, to the persons.

    Unconditional love can be heartbeatingly hard.

      • bss03@infosec.pubEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        Yeah. I still think we owe the intolerant subsistence, but because of the Paradox of Tolerance, I think intolerance could be grounds for denial of political power–any of the 4 boxes (soap, ballot, jury, ammo)–at least for the duration of the intolerance. (But also, there should be some method to “rehabilitate” a person’s access to political power after they are no longer intolerant.)

        I also think it might be difficult to adjudicate “intolerance” in some cases, but in the most necessary of cases it is quite clear.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      1 month ago

      Compassionate love does not require kindness and generosity in the way you mean those words. It does not require making yourself vulnerable to danger, it does not require giving material or emotional support. You should still be able to recognize and respond to the humanity in a flawed person.

      • bss03@infosec.pub
        0·
        1 month ago

        I believe if you are following the words of Jesus, then yes, it does require kindness and generosity, with their standard meanings. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Jesus

        I agree that it doesn’t require sacrificing your safety.

        • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.caEnglish
          0·
          1 month ago

          While Jesus is an authority and primary source on a number of things, He is neither of those things for compassionate love. I think in this decontextualized instance, “thy neighour” actually has a specific meaning that is being stripped, possibly referring to the other tribes of Israel, such as in his parable about the good Samaritan that people commonly misunderstand. I wouldn’t be willing to draw much from it without a much deeper reading.

          I’m not making a dogmatic argument, I’m making a much more grounded claim about psychology and spirituality. Compassionate love is a real thing that we know stuff about.