Slept on this. Tried to understand my own reaction.

I am not actually familiar, or at least I’m not remembering the quote you mention. Certainly, I do choose to emphasize the most loving quotes of Jesus. They are the most familiar and, I believe, the most famous.

I reacted negatively to the quote about death and Gommorah because to me it sounded out of character.

It sounded to me like a threat. And I don’t think of a threat as a loving thing, nor as very Christian.

But what if it’s not a threat? What if it’s intended as a warning? A warning seems to me to be something that comes from love. A threat does not.

What do you think? Again, I don’t really know the quote or the context.

Whether or not it’s justified, I take anything that makes Jesus appear to promote human weakness as an attack on Him and an insult to good Christians.

I feel that way about so many exploiters of Christ—magachurch preachers who focus on personal wealth, people who exploit him for political or ideological reasons. All that.

I think about a famous (and probably just a fable) story. A young religious Jew asked a scholar what the religion is all about. The student was frustrated trying to learn all the intricacies of the holy books. The scholar told him: “Just be kind. All the rest is commentary.”

I think my view about Christianity is “love one another and love your enemies.” And the rest is commentary.

In any case, I’m thinking you are right. Picking any quote implicitly reveals bias.

My picking “love one another” and not the warning (or threat?) quote exposes mine.