Just As You Are

'God loves me(us) just the way I am (we are) is a common refrain. It is also a shallow and rather silly phrase.

Ok, so He loves Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, Ivan the Terrible and the Salem witch hunters, just as they are?

Well, no, Marty. But you know what I mean.

By the weight of your words, I can't say that I do. Either it is as you say and He indeed loves us exactly as we are, at which point there is no difference between the philanthropist and the miser, the humble and the arrogant, the fellow who kicks dogs and the one who rescues them, or you don't really mean what you say. The trouble at that point becomes that I might actually have a clue as to what you indeed mean.

What you mean I think is that you believe you're all right just as you are. You needn't bother about introspection, about questioning your motives and beliefs, about considering that you might be wrong about who you are or what you do, because God loves you just the way you are. At least, that's what your words actually imply.

That's a rather convenient interpretation of things, don't you think?