I was reading some of the comments at leanleft about Bush's statement on Santorum, when I came across one by jang1108 who was suggesting that Santorum's remarks were reflective of the Christian 'Love the sinner, hate the sin' philosophy.

This (as I commented on leanleft) is one of the more ingenious, deceitful, and nonsensical phrases in the Gay Rights debate. It is the conservative way of dehumanizing the gay rights discussion. It's not gay people they hate, it's gay sex. They love gay people. They wish them nothing but the best, as long as it is never mentioned that they're gay, nor fall in love, nor certainly engage in sex. Admittedly, it a tough sort of love.

Would they use this line of thought with any other group? If the pope said "Well, we love our Jewish brothers, but we just don't want them to 'practice' being Jewish", would people just nod their heads and say "Well, it's okay, because it's not the Jews he hates - it's their religion. Not them." Of course not.

I'm not saying that religious people and gay people can't co-exist, or that Santorum (or others) need to accept gay sex as 'normal'. Certainly, I'm all for agreeing to disagree on the topic, but it should stop short of legislative 'hating the sin'.

Shouldn't it?