Theist Equivocation Of "Grace" Used in Combination With The Strategy of Minimization In Dialog.

Equivocate, from Dictionary.com

–verb (used without object), -cat⋅ed, -cat⋅ing.
to use ambiguous or unclear expressions, usually to avoid commitment or in order to mislead; prevaricate or hedge: When asked directly for his position on disarmament, the candidate only equivocated.

A Christian rejoinder at Debunking Christianity
Over at Debunking Christianity, I was making a comparison between the behavior of God and an irresponsible father in the myth of Adam and Eve like so

Twilight Z. Clown wrote: "He's the kind of dad that leaves matches laying around and tells the kid not to play with them, knowing full well they're going to play with them, and he's going to have to punish them."

As I write this I'd add "and critically injure themselves" if I could do it over again.

And my Christian counterpart answered as follows

Keep in mind that the OT writings are without the benefit of Jesus's example of spiritual salvation - so while God's grace allows a well loved enemy to infect the world with danger, God knowing this provides for salvation, not punishment. It is we who are drawn to the temptation to punish and condemn that which we do not love. Link

I ended with something like the following.
"Grace enough to let a well loved enemy infect the world with danger? That's incoherent".

It is incoherent because in this sense "Grace" is either a pardon for some previous act, or in its broadest sense, it is the freely given love of God. But if we go with the most general form, in the theologcial sense, we come up against the defintion of "Love".  Not to mention that fact that she totally ignored the bad consequences of disobeying god in an attempt to minimize the scope of the problem.

So in the sense that the Christian was using it, what we have is
"Gods freely given love permits a well loved enemy to infect the world with danger."

But what about the well loved non-enemies that are the victims of the well loved enemy? Then this must be an equivocation of Love because if I were to forgive a molesting relative and to extend my Grace to permit them to keep molesting my child, is that love or Grace?

No, its a blatant INCOHERENT equivocation, and it is a common strategy used by religious people in combination with "minimization" to try to answer for how a loving God could permit the continuance of unrestricted victimization that goes on in the world.

Now I came back and asked her what she meant by Grace, and she only used it as an example of why I don't understand. It was an evasive speech act. She was avoiding defining in what sense she was using the word.

Below is the complete definition of "Grace" from Dictionary.com. Its not authoritative of course, but its enough to see that the way religious people use the word "Grace" is incoherent.

Grace

–noun
1. elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action.

2. a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment.

3. favor or good will.

4. a manifestation of favor, esp. by a superior: It was only through the dean's grace that I wasn't expelled from school.

5. mercy; clemency; pardon: an act of grace.

6. favor shown in granting a delay or temporary immunity.

7. an allowance of time after a debt or bill has become payable granted to the debtor before suit can be brought against him or her or a penalty applied: The life insurance premium is due today, but we have 31 days' grace before the policy lapses. Compare grace period.

8. Theology.
a. the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.

b. the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.

c. a virtue or excellence of divine origin: the Christian graces.

d. Also called state of grace. the condition of being in God's favor or one of the elect.


9. moral strength: the grace to perform a duty.

10. a short prayer before or after a meal, in which a blessing is asked and thanks are given.

11. (usually initial capital letter) a formal title used in addressing or mentioning a duke, duchess, or archbishop, and formerly also a sovereign (usually prec. by your, his, etc.).

12. Graces, Classical Mythology. the goddesses of beauty, daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, worshiped in Greece as the Charities and in Rome as the Gratiae.

13. Music. grace note.

–verb (used with object)
14. to lend or add grace to; adorn: Many fine paintings graced the rooms of the house.

15. to favor or honor: to grace an occasion with one's presence.
—Idioms
16. fall from grace,
a. Theology. to relapse into sin or disfavor.

b. to lose favor; be discredited: He fell from grace when the boss found out he had lied.


17. have the grace to, to be so kind as to: Would you have the grace to help, please?

18. in someone's good (or bad) graces, regarded with favor (or disfavor) by someone: It is a wonder that I have managed to stay in her good graces this long.

19. with bad grace, reluctantly; grudgingly: He apologized, but did so with bad grace. Also, with a bad grace.

20. with good grace, willingly; ungrudgingly: She took on the extra work with good grace.

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