The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, over faith and hope, it is the greatest of virtues. But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the very essence of love, ascribing yourself for the sake of another.“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.13.NIV
Instead of God is love, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
the implicit definition notion of love in these statements is, love is affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, or however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to ethic of our day: “You do you.”
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, over faith and hope, it is the greatest of virtues. But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the very essence of love, ascribing yourself for the sake of another.“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.13.NIV
Instead of God is love, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.” Latching on to a popular slogan, Rob Bell wrote Love Wins.
the implicit definition notion of love in these statements is, love is affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, or however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to ethic of our day: “You do you.”
Published studies and government statistics have a long track record of often being intentionally or unintentionally unreliable, and yet they are often used to bully and shame as a part of an argument. Citing studies and statistics can be an inappropriate appeal to authority.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Benjamin Disraeli
Examples
FBI Revises Guesstimated Statistics after Fact Check
When the FBI originally released the “final” crime data for 2022 in September 2023, it reported that the nation’s violent crime rate fell by 2.1 percent. This quickly became, and remains, a Democratic Party talking point to counter Donald Trump’s claims of soaring crime. But the FBI has quietly revised those numbers, releasing new data that shows violent crime increased in 2022 by 4.5 percent. The new data includes thousands more murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults.
Published studies and government statistics have a long track record of often being intentionally or unintentionally unreliable, and yet they are often used to bully and shame as a part of an argument. Citing studies and statistics can be an inappropriate appeal to authority.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Benjamin Disraeli
Examples
FBI Revises Guesstimated Statistics after Fact Check
When the FBI originally released the “final” crime data for 2022 in September 2023, it reported that the nation’s violent crime rate fell by 2.1 percent. This quickly became, and remains, a Democratic Party talking point to counter Donald Trump’s claims of soaring crime. But the FBI has quietly revised those numbers, releasing new data that shows violent crime increased in 2022 by 4.5 percent. The new data includes thousands more murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults.
