Thanks…

In trying to find common ground on many of the issues we discuss, I am trying to make the point (repetitively) that we share in common intolerance of narcissism.

Narcissism which devalues and neglects a person because of his or her orientation or a disease which is avoidable.

Narcissism which endorses indulging behaviors which are reckless to the self and to others (and to minors).

Narcissism which elevates my rights over the best interests of the culture and the society.

Narcissism which seeks to create a hierarchy of basic human rights which some people can enjoy and others are excluded.

David Blakeslee….. It appears that patient O helped researchers prove a human carrier to the virus…not that he was the original transmitter of the virus from Africa to the states.

Without looking at your article I remember that it was a French-Canadian flight attendant who told some he had sex with, ‘I have gay cancer and now so do you.’

There were others. In St Louis, Missouri, about 1968 or so a young girl who had emigrated from Africa became ill and died from a disease similar to ‘the thins’ in Africa. Early in the 1970s a Scandinavian commercial sailor visited Africa and evidently became infected. Later his wife and subsequent children would also be diagnosed with diseases which were later tied to AIDS. But I think it was in the 1950s that a man in Africa first presented with diseases which later came to be associated with HIV/AIDS.

The word sin has too many dimensions and meanings for me to use it definitively. What do you mean by it?

For me, it would be anything that violates the Two Great Commandments:

(1) Love God — more than anyone or anything else. (2) Love others — more than myself.

Any thing that takes the place of God in my life is idolotry. He alone is God. Nothing else should take primary place in my life. Putting, people, or sex, or money, power or any other thing or person in place of God is sin. Denying God is sin. Acting like I am God is sin.

Treating other people as anything less than God’s children is sin. Lying to them, stealing, murder, robbery, false witness,etc. Anything that says “I matter and you don’t” is sin.

Treating my body with disrespect is sin — because it His temple. Overeating, smoking, drug use, promiscuity, etc., are sins against that temple. We are supposed to be grateful for our bodies and use them for God’s glory, not abuse them.

For me, enabling, embracing, or encouraging someone to continue doing something that I know could cause them harm is not an act of compassion, it is an act of cruelty. I believe there is a huge difference.

I completely agree. To condone or ignore behavior that I believe could harm them is sin — it says they don’t really matter to God or to me. For me that would be a sin against them — not true compassion — because I would not be treating them as I would want to be treated.

I was using “sinful sick” to refer to those who made themselves ill by their own sinful behavior and the “innocent sick” to refer to those who became ill through no fault of their own.

That is what I thought you meant but how can one quantify sinful behavior?