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The notion that God loves only his own ‘good children’, who rigorously apply his will, and rejects the prodigals and the sinners is very widespread, not only among non-Christians but also among quite a number of Christians themselves. A God who doesn’t love everyone, as his children, however they live, can’t be ‘the God of our fathers’. Such a God isn’t love and if God isn’t love, he doesn’t exist. Speaking to Christians, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says: ‘If he’s the divinity, he’s certainly love’. So when we present God as being almighty and dominant, harsh and rigid in his decisions, opposed to diversity, continually chastising inept and weak people, silent in the face of injustice and exploitation on the part of ...