Sin

"…To treat [people] as less than subjects [peers, as opposed to objects] is an expression of our sinfulness, rather than a corrective for theirs."

—

Thomas H. Groome, from Christian Religious Education: Sharing our Story and Vision

This is from a text on Christian Religious Education (obviously), but I think this rings true outside of classroom contexts.  

I think, in particular, of many religious folks’ tendencies to demean the identities of people who identify as LGBTQ.  People justify “mistreating” people or talking down to them because of their “beliefs.”  It says in the Bible that blah, blah, blah, so your lifestyle is blah, blah, blah.

This kind of self-righteousness (we’ll leave alone the ignorance), this tearing-down of identity– which is what treating anyone as “less than” effectively does– is reflective of sin.  

Treating anyone as “less than” is my sin, not theirs.  God calls me to Love, not to judgment.  To sin is to miss the mark, to act in ways that are not reflective of my own divine spark.  Any time I don’t give someone their full respect as a beautiful, God-filled person, I am not respecting God’s world.