June 24, 2022
I’ll tell you what makes you hate people. And why you should know about it. The real reason you hate. (Or do you?)
And while we’re at it, find out about LOVE!
What Makes You Hate?
Before exploring acts of hate, let’s look at the meaning and the nature of hate.
The meaning of HATE is intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury.
If fear, anger, and sense of injury are mere emotions, HATE is the force that takes those emotions into action.
Assuming this is correct, it could mean:
HATE is a force
of hostility and aversion
driven by
fear, anger, or sense of injury.
We now have HATE in a container, so that it can be examined closely.
Here we are, huddled together in a virtual science lab, surrounded by tidy rows of beakers and Bunsen burners.
We peer into the container to get a look at at this elusive dark presence that underlies our society.
It’s thick and dusky, with ill-defined edges. It appears to have movement, but we can detect it only if we watch for a period of time. Its motion is low and slow.
Looking at Hate.
What Makes You Hate People?
Hate. It implies anger and action.
It implies a bad character, a villain; someone who, fueled by hate, harms another.
It implies a victim, a person who suffers at the hands of another.
It implies that the motivation is not correct. That is, hate is inappropriate.
The hater has an incorrect hostility fueled by emotion, and carries out some sort of attack on the victim.
Before we settle into this dark subject, let’s get something into the light. Then we can go on.
FIRST: I LOVE YOU.
The blog is here because I want to contribute something to your moment, your day, or your life.
No matter where you came from, or what you have done, or your view of things, or your intentions, I don’t hate you. I love you.
And guess what? I can only do that with a resource bigger than me. A love that showed me love so that I can receive it and give it.
But that doesn’t make me perfect, does it? I’m still a struggling person making mistakes and caving to my emotions every single day.
And now, my dark subject:
Now that we’ve established that, I’m struggling with a huge issue:
How can humans do violent things to other humans?
It’s what we will look at today.
And there’s more — Is it a crime?
Is Hate A Crime?
You know that the topic of “hate crimes” has been controversial.
It is assumed that hatred is simply a part of certain interactions, and can be accepted as part of the motivation.
What if it’s not?
There are likely many violent actions that don’t involve hate. They involve some kind of fear or hostility or rash judgment, but not hate.
Maybe that’s part of the controversy, trying to divide the violent acts into their categories;
Are they bad decisions? Or hate?
How do you know if it’s hate?
Is it that routine systematic crimes against certain persons have simply become a display of the underlying hatred?
That’s the thought, right?
And there has to be some allowance for this thought.
After all, if a certain demographic is targeted with violent acts time and time again, shouldn’t we wonder if hatred is a part of that picture?
Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
Either way, there’s a problem.
A sort of societal system that tries to teach us that something is just fine the way it is.
But wrong things are being done.
Shouldn’t someone expose the acts of violence?
Who Helps Expose Hate?
Someone should step out and expose hate, shouldn’t they?
If citizens allow it to continue, it seems like someone should have the courage to say it’s wrong.
Because targeting a certain portion of the population with violent acts (even murder) can’t be the right thing, no matter where your morality originates.
What if the law actually allows it?
Like what if the authorities don’t punish the offenders? It seems like someone should point out the unfairness.
And they are. People definitely are trying their best to declare certain trends inhumane. They are trying to determine the reason it is allowed to continue. Especially when some go so far as to defend the practices that cause harm.
The dignity of each human being is being violated, and onlookers don’t always speak up for the victims.
It seems completely corrupt. It would be hard to argue otherwise.
The Awful Results of Hate
If I say certain words, like “murder” or “decapitate,” those who hear me will usually have a visceral reaction.
You know what I mean:
An instant mind picture appears, and your body reacts with the aversion built in to our thinking.
To dwell even briefly on those words feels innately wrong, because those actions are inhumane.
And yet we know something.
People have lost their lives in those methods, and people have carried out those actions.
What Does Hate Look Like?
If, even for a moment, we can imagine the expressions of these victims and killers, we know their eyes reflect their thoughts.
The eyes of victims show hopelessness and fear.
Killers’ eyes show depraved brutality.
How is it that humans can do these things to other humans?
You read the answer above. I did, too:
Fear, anger, or sense of injury.
But the acts of violence, the acceptance of it. Why?
Depravity exists, crowd activity exists, and suffering exists.
It’s evil. It’s morally wrong.
It’s the opposite of love.
I wanted to get a really good look at hate as the opposite of love. And I did. I’ll show you exactly what I found.
Remember above, we talked about hate being a force?
Here’s the clear description:
“It is the driving force behind much of the wicked action people take. Sometimes it is hating others, hating a process, or hating oneself.”
That line comes from an excellent article at Christianity.com by Bethany Verrett, called “Why Is The Sin of Hatred So Dangerous?”
Here is a quote from that topic:
“The root of evil is rebellion against God, His nature and His will. People cave into their fleshly desires, whether instinctively or intentionally, when they set themselves against God. The Bible makes it clear that God is love; He is the source of love, the giver of true life, and because of that love will continue into eternity, since He is eternal.
Hate is the sinful opposition to that love. It is the driving force behind much of the wicked action people take. Sometimes it is hating others, hating a process, or hating oneself.
God’s Word has much to say on the topic, emphasizing its toxic influence, pernicious nature, and how much it hurts the Lord. It is a selfish emotion that sets man against his creator and his brethren, damaging everything it touches because it allows people to see their fellow man as not also made in the image of God; to know the love of God is to be touched by true love, and embracing that enables people to overcome the fleshly drive to hate, and become more Christ-like.”
That’s a long quote, but it’s important.
It describes what’s so wrong about it.
There’s something else beyond all that, something she describes later in the article:
“In the absence of love, hate allows us to view others as different enough to deserve less consideration. Someone else may even be considered less than human.”
Isn’t that really what’s scary? Another person deserves less consideration than I do?
I can’t say it as well as she does, so I urge you to read her topic. It is truly a beautiful and Biblical explanation of love and hate.
Less than human! How could we declare that — any of us? We’re all human.
The Opposite of Hate: LOVE.
How do we get rid of hate?
Remember this part of the quote above?
“to know the love of God is to be touched by true love, and embracing that enables people to overcome the fleshly drive to hate…”
So, we ask ourselves:
Is hatred a force in my life?
“Hatred of self, of process, or of others?”
A force with money or power or greed competing for my participation in the lives around me?
Can I pray for myself and for you and for others, that love overcomes hate?
My prayer today is that we recognize the absence of love and what it reveals.
I pray that I feel God’s nudge to see the pain around me, the need around me, and to have compassion.
I pray that people are seen as people; not less-than, not different.
I pray that even the most violent offenders would be changed, that compassion would enter their hearts.
I pray that onlookers will have the courage to defend the victims, in particular those who cannot defend themselves.
I pray that the tender infants who live within their mother’s protective body are spared the fate of being snared by a noose, or having their life pressed out of them by metal forceps, spared of having their limbs torn from their tiny bodies and their skulls crushed into bits.
I pray that the love of Christ comes to those who profit from the depraved ability to systematically murder those whom they determine to be less than human.
I pray that those who fall victim to the misleading language of murder will come to know Christ’s love for them.
I pray that the next generation will have a clearer understanding of their own value and the value of their babies.
I pray that God’s love is the abundance of my mind and my heart.
How is it that humans can do these things to other humans?
And what I said at the beginning; It’s still true:
No matter where you came from, or what you have done, or your view of things, or your intentions, I don’t hate you. I love you.
When you see things that are wrong, do you think of Christ’s conquering love?
I confess that often it takes time for me to reach that thought.
That delay is my sin. Turning my attention away, urging me not to look.
The question: Is it hate? Or is it indifference?
Either way, there is a battle for our hearts.
No amount of pubilicity or indignation will conquer the evil around us. No amount of money or power will suffice.
We will be delivered from the evil around us when we turn to God and ask him to act.
When we set our eyes on Him, and learn what is true, we will begin to see the ways we are urged to delay, to ignore, and ultimately to accept evil as good.
And remember what I told you at the beginning: I have received the very love I want to give to you. The forgiveness and compassion I want to share is a gift I was given, one that welcomed me and forgave me and redeemed me.
How Are We Loved?
Sometimes you just need it said in plain words.
GrandDaddy started a tradition of stating our love for our grandchildren to them in this way: “I love you forever, no matter what.”
He didn’t invent that love, he simply shared the exact message that God gave to us.
New holiday, anyone?
How about JuneForth?
Will you wait for others to pray?
Or will you draw closer to God in obedience?
For all the struggles we see in the world, we can pray.
For it is God
who works in you,
both to will and to work
for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13
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