jharvey’s answer is not the one I was talking about. I’m talking about the people who say that your actions or beliefs are not separate from who you are. I’ve seen it pop up in many threads, albeit not in a while. Usually it pops up in civil rights type threads, where it’s impossible to like someone who is homophobe, for example. I hate homophobia, but I don’t hate homophobes. I’ve been told repeatedly that this is a meaningless distinction.
Plus, when taken to extremes, “hate the sin, not the sinner” forbids hating any person. You aren’t going to hate someone for just existing. It’s their actions that are going to lead you to hate them. But a wrong action is just another word for “sin,” making them “sinners.” It’s an ideal I have a hard time living up to, so I was very surprised that many don’t bother.
So the soft version of the belief I’ve heard disclaimed occasionally, but the hard version is almost completely foreign to how most dopers think. The idea that it’s okay to hate someone is not something I’d encountered until this messageboard.
Having explained that, I don’t really want this thread to get bogged down with any explanations. Please limit explanations to a single response and move on. If you have more questions about an assumption, please start a new thread.