We know that the Bible, and probably every other book of scripture, tells us to love our neighbor, to love our fellow man, to love all of humanity. Even if the person is a rapist, a child molester, or a murderer, we are told to love him. Our human nature makes it difficult to do that.

    When criminals are arrested, we often see parents sticking by them despite all the evidence against their child and despite the horrific nature of the crime. It is not so much that the parents truly believe the child to be innocent, though occasionally they do, it is really more that, since the parents know the person better than the rest of us, they are able to separate the person from the deed. They agree that the crime is horrific, but they don't see the crime as defining their child, as telling them what that person is. That is what we all must do in order to love each other as Jesus and others have told us to.

    I remember when I was a teenager, a teenage boy in our neighborhood raped an eight-year-old girl, a horrendous crime to be sure. People who didn't know this boy would have been ready to burn him at the stake. Those of us who did, knew that the boy was mentally deficient and not really aware of the wrongness of his act, so we agreed with the authorities who sent him off to live out his life in a mental institution. Others who didn't know him disagreed.

    The point is, we usually don't know enough about other to judge them so we shouldn't. We can hate the act, but shouldn't hate the person. It is a difficult attitude to develop, but worth the effort.