I've figured it out.

[novapsyche]

Today's Christians strive to be nice to people.

But Christ wanted his followers to be kind.

There is a world of difference.

(I know I'm generalizing. Let me say this is my perception of American Protestantism in the last five years or so.)

Comments

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

wow.
what do you think is the difference?

[droid-1.livejournal.com]

Nice: Exhibiting courtesy and politeness: a nice gesture.

Kind:
1. Of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature.
2. Showing sympathy or understanding; charitable
3. Humane; considerate
4. Forbearing; tolerant
5. Generous; liberal
6. Agreeable; beneficial
Having or showing a tender, considerate, and helping nature.

--
I would say that one can be nice (courteous) to just about anyone, but for most people, you have to love someone to be kind to them. Therefore being nice is simply being civil, while being kind is helping people out and being considerate of their feelings.

Yes? No?

tmi

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

good job. are these webster's definitions? I especially like liberal and tolerant. I myself can say I agree with Christ's teachings of peace and kindness. As for his divinity? I could honestly care less. Eternal reward? If it exists it exists. If I earn it I earn it. I don't think swearing allegiance to anybody here or apologizing publicly for having sex is going to guarantee it. I guess thats why I'm not classified as Christian.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

*nod* This is pretty much what I was going for.

Kindness requires an identification with another. One cannot be kind to someone without empathy. However, you can be nice to someone you don't really care about.

The service industry's foundation is that of being nice to people. It's all about a show of pleasantness, even if that feeling isn't sincere. But service workers take an emotional toll from that. The cognitive dissonance becomes too much.

Intolerant Christianity should be an oxymoron. But it's possible if the Christian is nice--that is, if s/he hates the sin but loves the sinner.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

As an example, the Sprint people (every last stinking one of them) uses the set-phrase "I do apologize for [insert complaint or potential chance of complaint]" in practically every fourth sentence. I thought the first one to do that was just being a little servile, but after the sixth, tenth, fifteenth of them to do so it became clear that it's just corporate policy to apologize profusely even for little things like 20 second delays. They don't actually MEAN the apologies, but it's their job to say it over and over.