{"id":4911,"date":"2015-06-30T08:24:48","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T12:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4911"},"modified":"2015-06-30T09:11:53","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T13:11:53","slug":"lovewins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4911","title":{"rendered":"#LoveWins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/photo-1430747562296-5556d17a15a5.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4912\" src=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/photo-1430747562296-5556d17a15a5-300x207.jpeg\" alt=\"photo-1430747562296-5556d17a15a5\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" \/><\/a>So let\u2019s run with social media\u2019s perceived favorite new mantra: #LoveWins. I agree. Nothing is bigger, better, more poignant or powerful. Above all things, there is love. My question is if we know what love is.<\/p>\n<p>I am not attempting to be flippant or ambiguous. I just think we\u2019re wavering in our definition and inconsistent in our application.<\/p>\n<p>In Sunday\u2019s post, for example, I referenced those way too many who followed their hashtags of \u201cLoveWins\u201d or \u201cSinWins\u201d with a self-justified \u201cTakeThat.\u201d My solemn sense is that any who embrace that style of communication have both a limited comprehension of the unspeakable depth of love in addition to the true depravity of sin. There is no place for a \u201cTakeThat\u201d\u2026 by any of us.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t know what love is.<\/p>\n<p>Love is not selective. Love is not oppressive. Love is not limited. Love means all lives matter.<\/p>\n<p>It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.<\/p>\n<p>Love means no \u201cin your face\u201d style of communication \u2014 a style, which unfortunately, immediately diminishes the credibility of our point. We can\u2019t say \u201cI don\u2019t care if I offend you,\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t care if you don\u2019t feel respected,\u201d or simply an \u201cI don\u2019t care\u201d and truly comprehend what love is. Friends, that is not love.<\/p>\n<p>There is no place for these self-justified, rhetorical slams\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>against our LGBT friends who\u2019ve felt oppressed for far too long<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>against our Christian friends who genuinely believe homosexuality is wrong<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>against Pres. Obama<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>against Bristol Palin<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>against the 2016 Presidential candidates<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>against the black community<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>against the white community<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>(&#8230; against\u2026 against\u2026 against\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Let me be clear; it is <em>completely ok<\/em> to disagree with someone, and it is <em>completely ok<\/em> to disagree passionately with their opinion and\/or behavior. What\u2019s not ok is to embrace such hate-filled rhetorical slams. That\u2019s not love. We can\u2019t preach hate against any group and expect to be a non-hypocritical voice in regard to what love really is. Love is the only thing on this planet that prevails, but our inconsistent application shows we don\u2019t really know what it is.<\/p>\n<p>In one of the early weeks of the Intramuralist \u2014 geepers, some seven sweet years ago \u2014 we posted the following, <em>(in my semi-humble opinion)<\/em> exceptionally clever but true insight:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe live in a culture where all we need is supposedly love, yet still, at times, it seems rare indeed. There exists way too much oppression, bigotry, and worship of man-made concoctions an earring short of a golden calf. Too many leaders have embraced a leadership style that values speaking louder (more than listening), subduing dissenting opinion (more than learning), and surrounding self with like thinking (more than being sharpened by another). To me, those contradict a love that makes the world go round.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>What is real love?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s a splendored thing; it\u2019s a verb; and it will keep us together. They say you can\u2019t buy it, can\u2019t hurry it, and some will stop in the name of it. Others question how deep it is, if it will still exist tomorrow, and what it really has to with anything. Some love rainy nights. Some rock \u2018n roll. Be careful, though, as several will say it stinks, bites, and claim you\u2019ve lost it. Yet as I ponder the wisdom in knowing the power of love, I am spurred on by something that\u2019s real.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>May we each be spurred on by what\u2019s real&#8230; by a splendored and powerful thing.<\/p>\n<p>Respectfully\u2026<br \/>\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So let\u2019s run with social media\u2019s perceived favorite new mantra: #LoveWins. I agree. Nothing is bigger, better, more poignant or powerful. Above all things, there is love. My question is if we know what love is. I am not attempting to be flippant or ambiguous. I just think we\u2019re wavering in our definition and inconsistent &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4911\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;#LoveWins&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[524],"class_list":["post-4911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","tag-lovewins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4911"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4917,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions\/4917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}