Desmond Tutu: "Hate Has No Place In The House Of God"

[kpete]

In Africa, a step backward on human rights

By Desmond Tutu
Friday, March 12, 2010

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity -- or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.

................

Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.

"But they are sinners," I can hear the preachers and politicians say. "They are choosing a life of sin for which they must be punished." My scientist and medical friends have shared with me a reality that so many gay people have confirmed, I now know it in my heart to be true. No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And does any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?

The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.

The writer is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031103341.html?nav=hcmoduletmv

[saltpoint]

1. Desmond Tutu is one of the class acts of the universe.

Excellent post.

Recommended.

[EFerrari]

8. Pieter-Dirk Uys, South African comedian, did a wonderful Tutu impression

complete with that great laugh in "Darling!"("Give us this day our anti-retro virals") and Tutu, who was in the audience, nearly died laughing. Link runs this documentary sometimes. It's gorgeous.

Some hate group put up this video as proof that Pieter is the anti-Christ but in reality he is a lovely comedian and AIDS educator that goes to schools and tries to help the kids avoid AIDS. It gives a taste of how he works. :hi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq28ACWYMEk

[saltpoint]

9. Hi, EFerrari. And thank you for the link. I'd never heard of that

guy, so you are doing good work bringing me into the light.

Tutu is a world treasure. I'm a fan from a long while back.

:hi:

[warrior1]

2. You want to make a bet on that

http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/DarkBibleContents.htm

[SidDithers]

3. Recc'd...

but that horse has already left the barn.

Sid

[LiberalFighter]

4. Hate has no place in the world. PERIOD

[State the Obvious]

5. And this quote is a GIFT from Desmond Tutu to us.

.....simple and powerful.

Recite this quote to every faux Christian who CLAIMS to love God.....but also embrace those HATEFUL vipers like Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity etc. How can they reconcile their blatant hatefulness with their claims of loving God?

"Hate has no place in the house of God."

(Oxymoron.... Hateful Christian?)

[Igel]

6. Yeah, but the implication isn't nice.

There's no place for hate in the house of God.

In God's house, you must accept everybody, regardless of income, race, sexual orientation, etc., etc., for communion and fellowship in God's house--and reject nobody.

*Therefore*, in like manner you must accept everybody for heath care. The problem is that the analogy that's set up either is void, there's no basis for positing similarity beyond the trivial, "I think so"; or he's left out most of the assertions needed to establish the analogy.

He needs to say is that there's no room for hate in the state, and that we have to accept everybody in the state as an equal--regardless of yada-yada. However, while there's an injunction from above concerning fellowship in the church, there's no injunction from above for health care in the state or as a formal church function. So then he needs to state that the providing of health care is a proper function of the state.

Instead, he wants his analogy to bear the burden of the assertions in my previous paragraph. But the analogy, as stated, has to be: church: state :: fellowship : healthcare. The only way you get that without the extra stipulations is to make them equivalent: church is responsible for health care, state is responsible for fellowship, and vice-versa. In other words, in a Xian society Xian principles must guide the state, the state and church are inseparable.

This is the POV of two current "Xianity-compatible" philosophies: liberation theology and its near cousin, Dominionism. The different in the more impatient forms of dominionim mirror those of liberation theology, they just have different goals (picking and choosing different bits of ancient text to make their narrow, predetermined points).

[Bluenorthwest]

7. I notice that Tutu does not seem to think that any measure of

hate preaching is acceptable, not even a McClurkin's worth. I notice he did not say 'except in tight races in bigoted areas'.

[ck4829]

10. K&R