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  • You should never judge a religion or a person or a philosophy by its abuses.

  • You should always honor it by letting it put its best foot forward.

  • When you hold forth the abuses of something, it is not compelling.

  • It's terrible. It feels like it's- it is very narrow-minded and restrictive,

  • but on the other side, if you would look at the places where

  • the Christian faith has been lived out, taken to its logical conclusion

  • or embodied with a true discipleship and practice, you will find some of the

  • most beautiful, compelling

  • generative, life-giving people, practices,

  • and cultural goods that have existed - period.

  • A lot of people are unaware of the fact that

  • in the - in just after the time of Jesus, it was Christians who came up with the

  • really value of human life. They believe that because people are made in the image of

  • God,

  • that humans were intrinsically worth something. So there were some of the

  • first to set up hospitals so that the sick could be healed.

  • They opened orphanage to care - orphanages to care for the unwanted

  • children in the Roman Empire who abandoned to the practice of

  • infanticide. They've had a story that's impacted

  • the arts. Many of the great painters and music composers from human history

  • produce some of the most

  • compelling, rich works of art that have existed.

  • Many of the justice issues that have been led - the greatest abolitionist that's

  • ever lived

  • not pushed to end slavery not in spite of his Christian faith but because of

  • his Christian faith.

  • And so we need to look at a philosophy or religion based on the people who

  • practice it truly rather than people who are abusing its teachings, and

  • because there's been some quite strong and horrific

  • accidents in church history and incidents, people have chosen to focus on those

  • rather than some of the other compelling ways that people have practiced their faith.

You should never judge a religion or a person or a philosophy by its abuses.

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