"Hate the sin but love the sinner"...I've heard that quite a bit recently, 
often in the context of discussions about Christianity and homosexuality...
but the context really isn't that important. My question is whether that
statement is consistent with Christianity. I would think not.

Hate begets more hate, never love. Consider some sin. I'll leave it unnamed
since I don't want this to digress into an argument as to whether or not 
something is a sin. Now lets apply our "hate the sin..." philosophy and see
what happens. If we truly hate the sin, then the more we see it, the 
stronger our hatred of it will become. Eventually this hate becomes so 
strong that we become disgusted with the sinner and eventually come to hate
the sinner. In addition, our hatred of the sin often causes us to say and 
do things which are taken personally by the sinner (who often does not even 
believe what they are doing is a sin). After enough of this, the sinner begins
to hate us (they certainly don't love us for our constant criticism of their
behavior). Hate builds up and drives people away from God...this certainly
cannot be a good way to build love.

In the summary of the law, Christ commands us to love God and to love our 
neighbors. He doesn't say anything about hate. In fact, if anything, he 
commands us to save our criticisms for ourselves. So, how are Christians
supposed to deal with the sin of others? I suppose that there is only one
way to deal with sin (either in others or ourselves)...through prayer. We
need to ask God to help us with our own sin, and to help those we love 
with theirs. Only love can conquer sin...hatred has no place. The best way to
love someone is to pray for them. 

- Scott