Which are more important, actions or words?

I was reading this blog entry and had some thoughts about it.  If you have a chance, give it a read before going on any further.  Also read this one which is brilliant and very well written.

First, I want to say that what those people wrote to him was incredibly wrong (it seems to have in reference to this blog post, although I could be wrong).  I do have to wonder if the person honestly meant it or was just blowing off steam.  Not that that excuses anything, but it always needs to be considered.  Secondly, I am stunned at his hypocrisy.  On the second page of the post, he says

                    But what about me? Do I have hate of my own? Yes, I do. Sometimes
                    we should feel hatred. It’s just that progressive hatred is often the
                    wrong kind. Your hatred is for individuals, whereas mine is for certain
                    actions and ideas.

In other words, my hate is ok and yours is not.  While I do understand his point, what Mr. Walsh seems to fail to realize is that there are times when hatred for actions and words becomes hatred for the person who holds the idea or commits the action.  Look at almost any reply thread to different news articles or blog posts and you'll see people (on both sides of an issue) making gross generalizations and demonizing the other side.

This leads me to the thing I wanted to talk about.  Before I write more, I want to include a fairly lengthy excerpt from Mr. Walsh's blog post:

                    Perhaps this is the root of our massive communication failure. I’ve
                    noticed that many liberals don’t understand how it’s feasible to detest
                    an action without detesting the actor, or how one can possibly hate an
                    idea without hating (and wanting to punish or censor or kill) the person
                    who articulated it. They laugh hysterically when a Christian suggests
                    that it’s possible to condemn the homosexual act without hating the
                    homosexual person. I’ve attempted to make this clarification so many
                    times, and, on every occasion, I’m told that such a distinction is
                    impossible. Hate what a person does, hate the person. It’s that simple.

                    Progressives are so insistent on this point because this is how they operate.
                    They make no delineation between the individual and the action, and they
                    project that thought process onto everyone else.

                    You hate my beliefs, so you hate me. I hate certain beliefs and actions, so
                    you assume I hate the people behind those beliefs and actions. Only, if you
                    asked me, and if you were open to the answer, you’d find that your
                    assumptions are baseless....

                    The point is, I don’t hate these people. I want them to be successful and
                    happy. I want them to be healed of the psychological and spiritual
                    affliction that causes them to be so lost, confused, and consumed by
                    horrible feelings of animosity towards strangers they’ve never met.

I agree with him that we do need to separate the person from what they believe and that not everyone who is against something is necessarily a bigot (and I 've stated this time and again on my political blog).  That being said, what Mr. Walsh fails to grasp is that actions do speak louder than words.  It is very easy to lie with words, particularly written words on a page (or computer screen).  It's harder to lie with actions.  If someone says that they love all people, but then proceeds to tell a whole group of people that they are suffering from "psychological or spiritual affliction[s]" or that they are going to hell, you've shown that you don't really love the person.  Part of the issue is that people like Mr. Walsh view things such as sexual orientation as a choice and therefore something that is wholly under the control of the person involved.  They don't get that these are intrinsic parts of a person that cannot be given up or changed if a person's will is simply strong enough.  This in turn causes them to not realize that by attacking someone because they of what they are causes an immense amount of damage.  Basically, people like Mr. Walsh think that they are merely attacking actions or ideas, but they end up attacking the person because what they are attacking is a large and important part of who that person is.