beautiful, i just want you to know. awhile back, the idea came up of "accepting" versus "receiving" people. ask yourself, do you receive a friend or do you accept a friend? the reason it came up was because somebody had been trying to describe how they combined the strict negative christian view on homosexuals versus their own personal views and interactions. the answer that was given was that they "accepted" the part of a person that was homosexual and thus was able to accept the entire being. babbs however, posited that by using the word "accept," it implied that the part that was being accepted was, in a sense, only tolerated or allowed. it may seem like semantically splitting peas, but i thought that there was something to the idea that "accept" is not as fully embracing as it may seem.



in contrast to accepting, "receiving" an individual might mean that you take them all, lock stock and barrel. by receiving someone, you are looking at the whole and accepting everything as a single unified unit, as opposed to only taking in parts of them and then accepting the rest, like some piece of excess baggage. how much of a difference does this make? it makes a world of difference. receiving someone is taking all their faults, all their contradictions, all their insecurities, all their inadequacies together with all their positive attributes. accepting someone is picking bits and pieces that you like and tolerating the rest but perhaps hoping that the extra luggage could be jettissoned to create a better person. maybe it's a subtle difference in word use and language but it's something to think about.



in that same conversation, a question that i had always had about how homosexuals fit into a christian framework was finally adequately answered. at least for my peace of mind and rationale. the answer was simple, but nobody had broken it down for me quite like this. the answer was that even if the bible perceives homosexuality as a sin, it is no worse than any other sin. and if we are all born into sin, and accept christ to absolve those sins, then homosexuality is no different than lying or cheating. all sins are equal after all, in the big scheme of things. so if we are all sinners, there is no incompatability between what the bible says is wrong and what it's framework can accept. because if jesus is love, and his role is to accept everyone despite their sins, then homosexuals and homosexuality can find a place and can seek solace in god. and that finally made perfect sense to me.



in any case, i strive to receive everyone for who they are. and not to just accept. i'm not sure if i do this well or not, but at least now i can define what it is i'm heading towards in my relations with people and in particular, friends.