Ken Hutcherson: Rejecting “Loving the Sinner?”

Jim Burroway

January 5th, 2008

There was a very quick article in Thursday’s Christian Science Monitor about the Watchmen On the Walls. Yours very truly was interviewed for the story. The quote they used was a very quick one, about the Watchmen’s militancy and explicitly theocratic leanings. I wish reporter Ben Arnoldy had included my explanation that I am very careful about who I label theocratic. It’s a label that I very rarely use because very few fit it. But many of the Watchmen do. Nevertheless I think Arnoldy captured the gist of it.

Kenneth HutchersonOf course, I wasn’t the only one contacted for the article. Among others, so was Watchman co-founder Kenneth Hutcherson:

The Watchmen is a Christian movement that doesn’t teach hate or seek out violent followers, says Mr. Hutcherson, who is a pastor in Washington State. “God’s word does not allow us to hate. It tells us to stand up for righteousness and call a sin a sin,” he says. He rejects, however, the idea of loving the sinner while hating the sin. “The Bible says when a sinner will not separate himself from a sin then he is condemned with it. The one thing I’m trying to do is get heterosexuals out of the closet. We are the majority,” he says.

If Hutcherson really rejected the idea of loving the sinner while hating the sin, that represents an about-face from fellow co-founder and holocaust revisionist Scott Lively’s band-aide attempt in Riga, Latvia last November:

Scott Lively in RigaSay that with me. “We love the sinner, but hate the sin.” That must be your phrase because that will protect you from being misrepresented.

Presented that way, it sounds more like a magical incantation instead of theology. Understandably, Hutcherson doesn’t believe in magic. I get that. And since he’s won’t even avail himself of that simple fig leaf of a phrase, I guess the rest of the nakedness metaphor becomes appropriate as well.

Erica B

January 5th, 2008

The one thing I’m trying to do is get heterosexuals out of the closet. We are the majority.

Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Hutcherson! I was hiding here in my closet so the gays wouldn’t find me. But now I know that being a member of the majority means I can trample all over minorities! Hurray!

Popsiclestand

January 7th, 2008

Well that’s not surprising! I think we all know that the well used phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” was just a convenient smokescreen for hate. I appreiate Hutcherson for saying it like it is. At least there are no questions about who is really for or against you, huh?

I personally have no problem with bigots like Hutcherson. They can live in their world and me in mine and when we meet at the table, we’ll know where we stand (against one another).

It’s those slimy SOBs who act like friends while killing you over and over again that I can’t stand.

If only more “militant evangelicals” would come out so boldly!

MerlynHerne

July 31st, 2009

People like this make me glad that I am not a Christian. They sully the name of REAL Christians who follow what Jesus had to say.

Any part of a religion that uses its Holy Book to justify hate and violence has given up its right to call itself part of that religion.

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