Satan's lover
Posted: December 14th, 2005, 12:36 pm
…Trying to wrap my head around why we seem to think we can find ways to justify killing as a moral punishment for crime.
I blame it on a general acceptance and approval of hating Satan from the people honestly trying to be good Christians (and since I'm one of them, I'll claim the right to talk smack about them). But if it's ok to hate Satan, then bad people just have to be identified as Satan's spawn/Satan worshipers/etc in order to be morally justified for righteous hatred.
And the ‘religious right’ [total insert of my favorite bumper sticker: 'the religious right is neither'] seems to have no trouble identifying satanism in everything it doesn't like—so hate is not only an acceptable, but the appropriate, response for all that Satan stuff against God.
But if a person is to love God with the whole heart/mind/soul/strength...where is there room for any hate? Wouldn't a total love of God require love for everything else—including the old accuser? Love your enemy, right?
So what do you do when you wake up one day and realize that your faith in God somehow led you to fall in love for Satan? Are they viable theses: "a true lover of God is a lover of Satan; a true worshiper of God is not a worshiper of Satan"?
So then if to love God forces a love for Satan, hating Satan loses its justification. And if Satan-hatin’ isn’t justified, what room is left for any hate?
To tie back to my original problem, where is there any room (and I’m addressing this from a specifically Christian hermeneutic) for moral justification in capital punishment when:
1) total love of God means no room for anything else, including hate?
2) lacking room for hate due to love of God removes possible justification for Satan-hatin’?
3) only having room for love of God means only approach to Satan is one of love (and that a divine-focus love)?
4) loving God = loving Satan = loving everything in between = loving all humanity?
5) (and here’s the new issue I guess: is this true?) it cannot be ‘loving’ to kill someone?
I blame it on a general acceptance and approval of hating Satan from the people honestly trying to be good Christians (and since I'm one of them, I'll claim the right to talk smack about them). But if it's ok to hate Satan, then bad people just have to be identified as Satan's spawn/Satan worshipers/etc in order to be morally justified for righteous hatred.
And the ‘religious right’ [total insert of my favorite bumper sticker: 'the religious right is neither'] seems to have no trouble identifying satanism in everything it doesn't like—so hate is not only an acceptable, but the appropriate, response for all that Satan stuff against God.
But if a person is to love God with the whole heart/mind/soul/strength...where is there room for any hate? Wouldn't a total love of God require love for everything else—including the old accuser? Love your enemy, right?
So what do you do when you wake up one day and realize that your faith in God somehow led you to fall in love for Satan? Are they viable theses: "a true lover of God is a lover of Satan; a true worshiper of God is not a worshiper of Satan"?
So then if to love God forces a love for Satan, hating Satan loses its justification. And if Satan-hatin’ isn’t justified, what room is left for any hate?
To tie back to my original problem, where is there any room (and I’m addressing this from a specifically Christian hermeneutic) for moral justification in capital punishment when:
1) total love of God means no room for anything else, including hate?
2) lacking room for hate due to love of God removes possible justification for Satan-hatin’?
3) only having room for love of God means only approach to Satan is one of love (and that a divine-focus love)?
4) loving God = loving Satan = loving everything in between = loving all humanity?
5) (and here’s the new issue I guess: is this true?) it cannot be ‘loving’ to kill someone?