excerpts from an email

So here's another thought to explain how I feel about sin as a whole. It is not our job to judge. While we are told what is sinful in the scriptures, we are also told not to judge others for that sin. In our relationships to others, especially those who are cast out on a high level, such as homosexuals, our job, I believe is to err on the side of love and compassion. We then continue to love the lord our god with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. We also are then able to love our neighbors (all others) as our selves. When we do this, we show others what god is like, and we allow god to do his job. And don't step on god's toes. And of course as with anyone, as we build relationships with others we may have the opportunity to help them move from sinful things to a deeper relationship with Christ. We cannot do that without getting to know, getting to know their story, spending time with them. However, I am not able nor do I think I would ever want to be able to judge. I feel like our role as Christians is to help draw others near to god. God is here and available to all despite our sinful nature or sinful acts. Christ paid the price for us and homosexuals, prostitutes, pre-marriage sexual acting people, and everyone else just the same. It is hard for us to accept god's ability to love all people the same. It is great when we know that we are loved, but it is difficult to understand that the rapists or the sexual offenders who were on the board at the park on Sunday are loved by god just the same. We have a job to not let people hurt others however, I do believe that hell is full of people that god loves. I also think that god is willing to redeem all people. Can we grasp to fullness of that? Not likely in our limited ability to love and our conditional ways of loving. We must make an effort to love all people, no matter what walk of life they come from. It is easy to love our friends and those we agree with and those who think like we do and those who are like us. But the scriptures call that fake, if we don't love our enemies too. Now, don't mistake kindness for weakness or tolerance. However, first and before anything else we must love.