About a week ago I commented on Is it okay to hate wickedness? by 
Do I really have anything especially profound to say about this subject? No. Nevertheless, that is not an invitation to ignore this post. It is just an observation that wisdom is not to be found in man. Check out “Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do.” ~Jesus by 
Before we begin, however, let’s define what we mean by hate. Why? We can be quite shallow. Two of us can talk about something, waste a great many words, and never realize we were talking about two different things.
Try googling is it wrong to hate. There is much that seems to be utter nonsense.
- The Importance of Hating People (thecrimson.com): What this guy appears doing is justifying snobbery. It is so absurd I wonder if I missed the joke.
- Why It’s Okay To Hate Your Toddler and It’s Okay to Hate Your Baby (huffingtonpost.com): Really? No. It is not okay to hate your toddler or your baby. huffingtonpost.com is definitely not the place to go for parenting advice. When we need such advice, we should probably talk to someone who has grown children we admire.
- Is it actually wrong to hate? (p2c.com) is actually thoughtful. What I suppose that means is that I agree with what is written.
The next article in Google’s list that I thought interesting is What’s So Bad About Hate (nytimes.com) by ANDREW SULLIVAN (SEPT. 26, 1999). Sullivan wrote about the issue of hate crime. So much of his article dwelt on the difficulty of defining hate crimes and the problem of enforcing hate crime laws. Here is his conclusion.
For hate is only foiled not when the haters are punished but when the hated are immune to the bigot’s power. A hater cannot psychologically wound if a victim cannot psychologically be wounded. And that immunity to hurt can never be given; it can merely be achieved. The racial epithet only strikes at someone’s core if he lets it, if he allows the bigot’s definition of him to be the final description of his life and his person — if somewhere in his heart of hearts, he believes the hateful slur to be true. The only final answer to this form of racism, then, is not majority persecution of it, but minority indifference to it. The only permanent rebuke to homophobia is not the enforcement of tolerance, but gay equanimity in the face of prejudice. The only effective answer to sexism is not a morass of legal proscriptions, but the simple fact of female success. In this, as in so many other things, there is no solution to the problem. There is only a transcendence of it. For all our rhetoric, hate will never be destroyed. Hate, as our predecessors knew better, can merely be overcome. (from here)
Sounds good, but what Sullivan proposes, indifference, can actually become the greater evil. For we tend to be indifferent to the very existence of the people whose feelings we put beneath us. What did Jesus do about those who hated Him for no reason?
Luke 23:32-34 New King James Version (NKJV)
32 There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. 33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
And they divided His garments and cast lots.
Jesus forgave those who hated Him.
What do we do about the hatred of those who hate us? We forgive just as we should forgive all the sins committed against us. Don’t we all know the prayer our Lord gave us?
Matthew 6:8-15 New King James Version (NKJV)
8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Can we still hate those we have forgiven? Doesn’t seem likely, does it?
😉
To Be Posted
- What Is Hatred?
- Is It Wrong To Hate?
- What Do We Do About Our Own Hatred.
Great topic! I think the word has been CO-opted by leftists movements to means vaguely “anything opposed by leftist thought”. I spent abt 4 years in the former Soviet Union. The people were great, but still fearful. To them. Politically Correct speech still had a hold on them. Like a child of a verbally abusive parent, they were very cautious with word choices because they anticipated that their words would not be accepted by their given meaning, but judged according to some every shifting reading of intent.
I think G-d gives us confidence that words do have meaning, and sincerity is possible. Thanks!
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Thank you, and thanks for a very interesting comment.
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I did not go searching for this verse: it happens to be in my daily Bible reading this afternoon: “O you who love the Lord, hate evil” (Psalm 97:10). J.
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Interesting,Tom! I’d write a response to this debate,but I don’t see enough disagreement to actually comment on. I really appreciate Michael Wilson’s words,too. I am 100% in agreement with him there.
A couple of things are problematic in this discussion, the very word “hatred” has gone political. So today everyone is accused of being a hater, even me. This confounds the issue.
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Glad you found the post interesting.
Even me? It is often quite difficult to see our self as someone else sees us. We are all different, with differing points-of-views. Nevertheless, I don’t think you are a hater. I think you have hit upon the problem. The word “hatred” has become a political weapon.
In response to this sort of attack, “even me” is inappropriate. The last thing we want to do is to give credence to the attack by trying to defend ourselves. It is the attack that requires justification. Unless the accuser can actually justify his accusation, accusing someone of being a “hater”, “hater” will probably be the most hateful thing anyone says. But that is by design. The accusation is designed to shut people’s mouths and end debate.
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Good start–I’m looking forward to the other chapters. J.
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