Author and Christian

I will amiably disagree with you in specific areas, stranger.

Rapists, racists, and abusers are all human beings. They’re as human as it gets - human beings are wicked at heart, the Bible says. Left to our own devices, we all have the capacity for great evil. (Of course, you have to know where you’re getting the concept of - and standard for - things like “good” and “evil”. What makes it good? What makes it evil? Define them. Where’d you get the definition from?)

The Bible also says redemption is possible for everyone through Christ. Even human beings who have already committed great evil. The idea is, though, that once you’re no longer a slave to sin and evil, you belong to Jesus, and are therefore finally capable of turning away from those evil desires. That’s called freedom! I’m a dirty rotten awful evil sinner, left to my own devices. The only good thing in me is Jesus.

I understand you have a different perspective due to growing up in a different environment and experiencing different things than I did. I’m happy to tell you a little of the ol’ origin story!

By the grace of God, I was raised by two Christian parents. My dad came to Christ as a 19-year-old when I was born. He did not grow up with Christians. His family has been raping, abandoning, killing, and abusing one another for generations - he is the outlier. He’d been a drug dealer since he was 13 years old, persistently immature and careless. My mom, 9 years older than Dad, was raised in a Christian home but had turned away from God and was living in sin and selfishness with my dad until I and my twin sister were born. We were born extremely premature, with my sister having a 50% chance to live. I had a 15% chance. My whole body fit into the palm of my dad’s hand. We were expected to die, and if we lived, we were projected to have all kinds of medical issues.

Decades later, by pure miracle, we’re both alive and healthy, with zero of the foreseen issues doctors predicted. Our birth and the miracle of our continued existence led directly to my mother returning to church, and Christ rescuing my father at age 19. He’s a pastor now. (His whole family is to this day baffled by him.)

Regardless of where you come from, you can discover the truth (the objective truth), turn to Jesus, and because of Him, everything will be different. Not perfectly, but definitively. Ongoing.

I understood Jesus, God, and salvation for the first time between ages 4-5, but I gave my life to Christ at age 13. My parents and church family could preach the truth to me all day long; it was up to me to decide if I believed it, and to choose Jesus over myself.

Now. Moving on. Islam and Christianity are vastly, inherently, totally different from one another. In one example relevant to our conversation: the Qu’ran commands punishment (speficially, torture and/or death) for practicing homosexuals. (Particularly the women doing this, but then, Allah’s not the biggest fan of women, it seems.) The Bible calls homosexuality a sin, but the Bible never commands any Christian to punish, torture or kill those practicing it. Christians are called to love people as Jesus does—and Jesus loves even those human beings actively choosing to practice sin and hate Him. He doesn't love their sin, He loves them, and wants them to be free from sin. He doesn’t want them dead. He wants them to have life, and hope, and real joy.

Unlike the Qu’ran, the Bible details God’s rescue plan through Jesus (who is God), which allows sinners to be free from bondage to sin and to have eternal life, gaining Jesus’ righteousness while He took the eternal punishment for sins He never committed. That includes homosexuality, and the sin of me lying to my husband. Or a kid disobeying their parents. Or a serial killer murdering someone. Sin is sin. (I don’t hate sinners - I am one.) Christians know you don't have to work to earn the true God's love. He loves you already, not because you're worthy, but because He's good. Real love doesn't let you stay in your sin, where you are most miserable, destructive, lost. Real love rescues you, and you don't have to daily strive to earn it. Jesus took care of the gap between you and God.

Every human being is created by God; every human life has value. Every person is unique, made by a divine Creator. That’s what’s wonderful in humans. There is black and white in this world - real good and real evil. Right and wrong. People are evil, and God is good. Anything good in me is not me, it’s Jesus working through me.