Theists often believe that atheists and unbelievers are thinking something along the lines of, "If God isn't real, then I can do whatever I want, even if I hurt other people." Yet those same theists, themselves, are often thinking, "I must do what I believe God wants, even if I hurt other people."
I once had a conversation with a woman who said, regarding marriage equality, that she generally kept her opinions to herself, in order not to hurt people. Yet sadly, she believed that God wanted her to have an opinion that, even when stated in the nicest possible terms, hurt people. She believed that God Himself, who was supposed to be all-loving, held this inherently hurtful position. And she believed that God wanted her to fight against people's equal rights, and thereby hurt them, or at least try to. It was one of the saddest, and scariest, conversations I had ever had. I was grateful that many Christians were nothing like her, in this way.
This idea that it's okay to hurt people if Christians do it, is just an extension of the idea that it's okay to hurt people if God does it--and they do believe that God does hurt people, apparently.
It seems the height of arrogance, though, to believe that they are God's policemen. Jesus himself put a stop to that crap when he rescued a guilty woman from being stoned to death. (And remember, he only told her not to sin AFTER he had just literally saved her life--he earned the right to comment on her life, unlike most Christians who wish to talk about the sliver in their brothers' eyes.)
Christians sometimes seem to think that they're immune to the temptation to look down on others, a temptation that I believe we all share sometimes. They hide behind the phrase "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven," and the idea that since we're all sinners, it's impossible for them to be anything but humble (a direct contradiction of the first phrase, interestingly enough--if they're not perfect, then they're more than capable of arrogance). In other words, than think they can throw stones because of their sin, not because of their perfection.
But being "forgiven" does not make one infallible. Being "forgiven" does not make one humble. And most of all, being "forgiven" does not mean that you're not hurting others.
And loving people does not protect one against these things, either. Everyone has had the experience of accidentally hurting the people they love, or accidentally being hurt by the people who love them.
I know that a lot of Christians will probably be tempted, now, to object that hurting others is sometimes for their greater good, but again, being "forgiven" or loving other people does not make one infallible. They could very well be hurting others, all for nothing. ("But what if you're wrong?!" I would ask them.)
But perhaps some Christians don't wish to answer to God for hurting others--so they make up their own rules, and then pretend that God wrote them.
They pretend that they can ignore the cultural context and original meanings of the bible, in favor of "literal" translations, so that they don't have to answer for their actions. They pretend that their holy book is "clear" on issues that biblical scholars vehemently debate, so that they can get away with doing whatever they wish--even if it hurts others. They pretend that progressive Christians are twisting scripture, but they also pretend that people in the middle ages didn't know how to twist scripture.
In other words, they're only Christians because they want to sin!
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