The more ardently I see humanity as a glorious abstract that must conform to my ideal of how the world should be, the harder it is for me to love the person on the other side of the picket line who is holding up progress. I can love the downtrodden in the abstract, but as I shivered under the bridge that night with Jorge, I realized that it's harder to love the illegal immigrant with the bottle-slashed face and the body unwashed for weeks, the workers gathering to eat day-old bread and chicken and rice out of foam containers, the crowd of thousands clamoring for bread and fish and healing, the unclean woman hoping to touch the hem of the Savior's robe. Alisa Harris
About This Quote

Love can be very abstract. We can like something about someone, but it's hard to love someone when you see them every day and sometimes don't like what they are doing. If you are in love with an abstract being, it would be hard to love the person on the other side of the picket line. It's easier to love the people who are protesting for something good, not protesting for something bad. The idea of loving people is very abstract because all people are different.

Source: Raised Right: How I Untangled My Faith From Politics

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