Society today has many problems. One of the most pronounced these days seems to be an inability to get along.

We condemn one another for actions that are objectively wrong and shame one another for condemning objectively wrong behaviors. We are on this Earth to love one another regardless of actions. We are not called to love wrong actions, however.

Christ loves people who do wrong, but that doesn’t mean he loves the wrong we do. We are told to walk away from our actions and impulses and towards him. Society needs to relearn how to separate a person’s behavior from the person. Flawed acts do not indicate a flawed person.

Loving a person’s flawed actions is not a display of love for that person. Your actions do not ever define you. Sometimes, love doesn’t look like love. Acceptance of wrongdoing seems loving, but it is not love. Acceptance is not forgiveness. Acceptance is apathy. Acceptance shows a lack of concern for the other’s well-being.

Love the sinner; hate the sin. Do not conflate the two. Guiding others toward actions that are objectively right is love, not hate. Society has turned the concept of love almost entirely onto its head, and it’s only creating more vitriol among us.

Mark Elfering

Hermiston

The Pendleton city manager has lost control of his staff. There were broken promises by city officials to eliminate “bulb-out” corners on the redesign of Despain Avenue, the over-restrictive rewrite of the sign ordinance eliminating types of signs that have been an integral part of our downtown for decades, and this latest storm trooper approach to force building owners to fill empty storefronts or face punitive action.

We still have chronically homeless sleeping on city sidewalks, derelict buildings, the Edwards Apartments that has been an eyesore for decades and residences such as the infamous house on Southwest Eighth Street that reduce property values in that neighborhood. The deplorable conditions in Sargent City also come to mind. It’s time for the city manager to step up and take control, to address the real problems that continue to plague our city and let the downtown property owners take care of themselves.

Rick Rohde

Pendleton

The Puritan minister Roger Williams in 1644 was the first public official to call for “a wall or hedge of separation” between “the wilderness of the world” and “the garden of the church.” The Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment’s religious establishment clause known as “separation of church and state.”