Looking at "Wrong" by Susan L.

Who or what defines "wrong"? I am talking emotional responses, not laws. Culture, upbringing, relationships and faith often clash in trying to grasp what is right or wrong. It gets confusing. What is right in one sense is wrong in another. When did our carefully shaped social conscience become the sole determiner of how we express ourselves emotionally? This is the biggy: hate. It's a powerful four letter word. It needs to be logically illogical. We need to be able to set aside our cultural teachings about who or what to hate. (Prejudice, suspicion) In Christian circles we are taught to hate the sin yet love the sinner. For some reason the ideology has percolated up that all hate is wrong. I guess a sign of growing emotional maturity is being able to separate the two, sin and sinner. Another is being honest with God about how I feel as I walk through the process of letting go. There are good days when I can reach this point of hating the sin and find within my heart the love towards those who have hurt me. Some days I can only get as far as having compassion for them. It's a process. How I feel is never wrong. And here's the crux of my own historically defined sense of wrong: Ugly emotions are bad. Happy, touchy-feelie emotions are good. Denying either is living only half a life. Denying any of it leaves no place to grow as a person. Thank You, Lord, for all my emotions! None of which fit the "wrong" classification. Amen! "For I am fearfully and wonderfully made." PS 139:14