08_08_02 'hate, Not Love, Tolerates Evil'

Hate, not love, tolerates evil (by Dr. Ted Baehr) Posted: August 02, 2008 Tolerating self-destructive or socially destructive behavior in our children is not a sign of love, but hate, as well as parental neglect. If a child has a propensity to beat themselves or beat other children, the parents are required by love to intervene and help the child get over such abhorrent, intolerable behavior. To do anything less is a sign of child abuse! Our narcissistic society is on the brink of stewing in the vile juice of its own selfdestructive behavior. Consequently, it seems to have forgotten what love entails. God calls us all to love our neighbor as ourselves, both Jew and Gentile. That entails helping ourselves and our neighbors get over intolerable destructive behavior, such as violence against the innocent, alcoholic stupors and perverting our children's innocent hearts and minds by frankly intervening and correcting such behavior in a manner that brings about significant change or repentance (see Leviticus 19:17-18). Distracted by the cruel shibboleth of tolerance, even our judicial system seems confused about some very basic values. For instance, in Germany recently, a man put an ad in the paper asking if anyone wanted to be killed and cannibalized. Surprisingly, several people answered his ad. He chose one, slaughtered and ate him. The court in Germany was hard-pressed to find a reason to convict him since both men were "mutually consenting adults." What kind of moral idiots and mental midgets are we breeding here? How do these people even get high school diplomas, much less college degrees? There, but for the grace of God, go we! This case and many others show how low a culture can sink when it rejects the love of God and the love of its neighbor. True love refuses to tolerate such evil. True love affirms life. True love gives. True love shares. True love does not tolerate evil or sinful behavior, including extra-marital lust. Lust, on the other hand, consumes. It takes without permission. And, it is never satisfied. We have moved from a society of love to a society of lust where we tolerate evil in the name of self-gratification, or in the name of trying not to "offend" another person. This is exactly what is happening when many of our leaders, including church leaders, are asking us to tolerate rampant gang crime in our inner cities, rampant illegal 1

immigration that flouts the nation's laws, and rampant prostitution and perverse lust on our public streets. As a result, our culture faces economic, moral and spiritual collapse, and God is warning us to turn back from the brink of self-destruction by removing His blessing and allowing the alarms of natural and social disasters to sound to wake us from this nightmare. Sadly, like Pharaoh at the time of Moses, the warning alarms of a series of plagues screaming out "let my people go" may be falling on such hardened hearts and tone deaf ears that our current governing powers will not heed the warnings, but will persist in America and Western Civilization's continued self-destruction. To stop this descent into the personal hell of an intolerable evil and lustful narcissism that destroys body, mind, soul and spirit, those who still love their neighbor must take a stand. That stand includes: * Praying for an awakening, for the gift of a fear of judgment, and for a knowledge of the love of God as manifested in the free gift of new life offered by God Himself, Jesus Christ, the prophesied messiah for both Jews and Gentiles. * Reclaiming the role of the church and the family, not the state, in the rule of all matters of faith and values, including Godly education and marriage. * Exposing the fruitless works of darkness and excommunicating those in the church who pretend to be faithful while espousing a politics of "I don't care what you do" tolerance instead of love. Because they are leading others astray, these callous pretenders need to be reprimanded by a new 95 theses nailed on their doors declaring them unfit for preaching, teaching, discipling, or fellowship. * Excommunicating those in the church and government who tolerate evil. If they persist, legal action must be brought against them in the church and against government leaders in the courts for violating the inalienable rights of people, for distorting God's Truth and for violating the Constitution of the United States of America. We need to stand for God's Law in the face of the abuse of power to inflict harm by those in civil authority who know no restraints. Doing anything less is a form of secular, if not demonic, tyranny. The vast majority of people have faith and values. Now, they need to exercise love by refusing to tolerate the evils destroying our culture and jeopardizing the future of our children and grandchildren. It's time to love others enough to stop tolerating evil! Note: Dr. Tom Snyder contributed to this column.

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