disgusting

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=you-disgust-me-bad-behavior

"Regardless of how they may explicitly justify their beliefs on the subject, most people who believe that homosexuality is wrong also experience disgust at the thought of gay sex. Much of this work suggests it is the gut-level feeling of disgust that leads homophobes to reason that the behavior is immoral, not the other way around. In other words, “that which disgusts me must be wrong” rather than “it is wrong, therefore I should be disgusted.”
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"What had been in his far-off youth a merely aesthetic repugnance to realities that were crude or vulgar, had deepened and darkened, year after year, into a fixed refusal of everything that was in any degree other than himself."
--C.S. Lewis

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Thus, through pride, ignorance, and intolerance, arises the notion that personal bigotry and hatred is sanctioned by divine law. Disgust is not the litmus test for sin; it may be reassuring to believe such, but that assumption is merely a convenience of hubris. Repugnance should not lead to abhorrence, especially when it concerns other people, lest contempt be indulged for individual satisfaction; and lives be damaged or ruined.

One of the primary functions of love remains its ability to bridge the gulfs between unique entities; the power to find worthy attributes in even the most dissimilar worldviews and cherish them. Worse still, when the omnipotent power is invoked as justification for worldly revulsion, it unburdens the conscience from the responsibility to treat each other with compassion and charity. Loathing becomes a duty; a mandate that frees up the destructive powers of condemnation and vengeance to annihilate perceived adversaries. This abrogation of moral obligation proves pernicious for both the accuser and the accused; fostering derision on both sides, and leading to violence.

The need to evaluate and govern one's own behaviors can not be taken as license to castigate others for perceived differences; and certainly not as justification for destroying those whose paths vary from our own. Personal prejudice can be effectively mitigated by acknowledging bias and striving to learn from everyone.

There is little more disgusting than a closed heart and mind that opens only to hatred.