MOHANDAS K. GANDHI DID NOT COIN THE SAYING "LOVE THE SINNER, HATE THE SIN"!
A meme showed up the other day on my FB feed showing a picture of a smiling Mohandas Gandhi with the words “Hate the sin, love the sinner was actually me and Christians quote it as if it was in their Bible.” The reference was to a quote from the second volume of Gandhi’s autobiography, published in 1929, which reads in part: “'Hate the sin and not the sinner' is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.” 1 The meme was produced by a group called “Reformed Life,” that is to say, a Calvinist organization. Is it true that Gandhi coined the saying? No. But in defense of the meme-makers the saying is regularly... very regularly...wrongly attributed to Gandhi. And besides being misattributed it is also regularly...again very regularly...misquoted as well as "Hate the sin and love the sinner." What Gandhi actually said was: "Hate the sin and not the sinner." Gandhi qu