Tip #60 Remember Imperfection

In the previous tip, I referenced a defense of biblical slavery. The love-based defense operated on the notion that a slave owner that loved his slave as himself could do all that the law of the time allowed, including the beatings and commanding sex from a slave woman, and not have wronged any slave in any way, because said slave owner would not have acted to harm the slave.

A single word to cover that and similar arguments is "intent."

Intent is invoked, if not named, in other arguments. Spanking children or eschewing medicine in favor of faith-based treatment are both claimed to be not abusive if done in love, not meaning to abuse. "Complementarian" is the self-adopted name of a cultural movement that believes that husbands and wives have natural positions within a marriage, in which the man is decision maker, yet both are equals. They, too, will say that a good, Christian husband would never abuse this position or do wrong to his wife, because, in keeping with Jesus's most important law, he would love her as himself.
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