Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: hassell@news.colorado.edu (Christopher Hassell) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: the love that is forced Message-ID: Date: 14 Jun 91 03:29:53 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Lines: 68 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu henning@acsu.buffalo.edu (Karl jam Henning) writes: [] Kathleen P. Kowalski writes: [] >In response to your question about why God didn't create us without the [] >ability to sin, it is my own opinion that he chose not to do that [] >because he wanted us to have a choice. He didn't want us to love him [] >because there was no other choice, but because we wanted to. I [] >personally don't think that love that is forced is worth much. [] >Kay [] Love cannot be forced (by the lovee). True by definition. [] When I love someone, and that person does not return my love, [] I have to accept that situation. It is not necessary for me [] to respond vindictively to the person who (for whatever [] reason) cannot, or chooses not to, reciprocate my affection. [] Is god prepared to be that selfless and big-hearted? EEEEEEEEH. Bingo.. found again making God out to be just another Joe bothering us poor harassed humans with his "Undying Love". Sheesh.. this sounds too much like a bad Love Connection. Okay ... okay... cool off I suppose. My point is that the Love Xians speak of.. is not just wow-happy-gee-neat love. It is Love from the most Holy/Pure/Perfect/WISE/ Knowledgeable/Pre-Eminant/ Generally-Cool and even Humble being in the Created Universe itself. It is a love which looks quite DOWN at His children whom he loves. He is very much happy with us as our created design... but not at our own lives and our own sorrows and our own failures and ... need I go on? There is FAR too much "coolness" in the ethos of today. Everyone is basically told and helped to be 1) Apathetic or "mellow" 2) Quite the Downplayer or Naysayer of all that isn't obvious 3) Quite the badgerer to anyone who does not believe the Obvious (specifically whatever Obvious things are adequately accepted) 4) Incredibly Self-Reliant and Detached from Need or Vulnerability It is the fourth ethic which is dripping all over in the earlier passage. The idea that we don't need NUTHIN.. and that we are perfectly happy and fine and cool and you can just go now and leave us alone because we are good and high-spirited.... and fine.... (um.. just as soon as the Utopian Bus comes along). AGAIN!... so much independance.. so much rejection ... so much lifeless arrogance in the face of our own irritatingly embarrassing needs! The Love He offers us is not a Get-Cool-And-Indpendant "energy" ... it is a mushy gross and nice disgusting yet utterly freedom-endowing love. Better than any parent you may have known or feared. So... can we Cut the Love Connection binge? The idea that God just wants to be our date for a while is repulsively dumb philosophically (though no one is suggesting that anywhere). -- If you are getting mail from me, my apologies for confusiong you ############## ### C>H> ### boulder.colorado.edu!tramp!hassell #### "Nietzche is dead." - God