Paradise Under Your Feet — Page 183
Appendix 5: Talking About Homosexuality 183 grounding in our world-view they hopefully will continue to remain sure and confident. We should be careful to teach our children not to denounce any person not following our ideal of a family value, but differentiate between the person and his/her actions. Our children should be taught not to hate anyone; our motto after all is: Love for all, Hatred for None. We should only dislike what they do. The distinction is crucial. We should always be polite and courteous. We only pray for those who we feel are not acting according to God ’ s laws and pray for our own protection. In his Sermon of May 9 th , 2014 Hazrat Khalifatul- Masih V (aba) explained that: The meaning of Love for All, Hatred for None is not that we love the activities of all people. Otherwise, how could we condemn murderers, rapists etc. The meaning of Love for All, is that we seek the best for all people. Thus, if we believe the acts of someone are contrary to what God likes then we seek to reform and guide them so that they are not recipients of God ’ s anger or punishment. It is our love for humanity, which is the basis for why we preach the true message of Islam - so that all of mankind can benefit from God ’ s bounties. This is the true meaning of “ Love for All, Hatred for None. ” Middle School Years As the children get older and enter middle school, we need to keep the conversation going, and continue to be open to questions. Conversation starters could be a television show or newspaper article or some discussion in class. Parents ideally should be the ones to take the lead in discussing homosexuality in the larger context of family