The Danger of Discarding ‘Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner’

Yes, it’s cliche, problematic, and often used in a hurtful way — but we must take care before too quickly getting rid of it

A pondering theologian — image generated via MidJourney

Multiple articles here on Medium, including this recent one by

Dan Foster

, argue against the saying: “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” In his article (which, like most of his pieces, is admittedly well-written), he argues that it’s not reasonable, helpful, loving, or even biblical.

He’s not alone. To many critics of “Hate the sin, love the sinner,” the saying is nothing more than a contemptible, dishonest effort to couch hatred of certain people or groups in an expression of sanctimony and condescension.

I’ve written about this controversy myself recently…

In Defense of “Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner”

…so I won’t repeat everything I wrote in that article (see above). Instead, I will focus exclusively on one important aspect of this controversy that is too often ignored.