Look, I know I'm an old guy. Born in the post WWII era 1950's when we were largely uninformed about all the goings on in the world and even in our own communities. We relied on the nightly local and national network news, the hometown newspaper, and the ever present grapevine/ gossip to be informed. As kids and even teenagers, our parents kept us largely estranged from the hot topics of the day... I guess they figured there would be plenty of time for that when we lost our youthful naivete and had to face the harsh realities of the world around us. As we became older we learned that the world around us was imperfect and it illustrated many of the teachings of our faith upbringing. There were some bad and evil things out there.
One thing I vividly remember, however. We were taught to use the word "hate" very carefully. Hate was an emotion that was acceptable to express when talking about broccoli, or mosquitoes, or getting up early on Saturday, or losing, or meanness, or injustice, or other inanimate things, or wrong concepts, or hurtful behaviors. As Red Sox fans, we "hated" the Yankees... but not any specific player... just the "team" because they were our nemesis (I actually loved Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris even though I "hated" the team they played for.) If we ever said we hated another person, we were quickly reprimanded and reminded that we can hate how some people behave but, we were not supposed to ever hate another person.
Every adult with children has likely heard them say, "I hate you" at some point. It was usually heard when the child was very angry, or frustrated that they did not get the answer or thing they wanted, or had just received some disciplinary action. That's how children sometimes react when they don't get their way. No parent wants to hear their child tell them that they are hated. But most realize that it is an immature, impulsive reaction of a child that will later be remedied and withdrawn with a little time.
We tried to raise our own kids to not ever feel or say that they hated somebody. Our faith teaches us that every person is created by God and we are to love them... never to hate them regardless of how "hateful" they may act. Our kids were young (2-1/2 and 5) at the start of the first Gulf War. We had told our 5-year old what we thought was appropriate information about the war for someone that age. During prayers at bedtime they would go down the Ancestry.com list of every single family member and say God bless so and so, and so and so, and, and, and. Friends, neighbors, and pets were included. They also prayed for the soldiers. One night, out of the blue, our daughter said "and God bless Saddam Hussein and I pray that he will stop hurting other people." I'll be honest.... I hadn't ever prayed for Saddam Hussein. After all, he was an evil person who had murdered, tortured and even gassed his own people to death. I was reminded by a 5 year old that I'm not supposed to hate another person. Ever. Even an enemy. (Jesus told us to LOVE our enemies.)
A lot of hate is being spoken and violently acted upon against other people these days. Unfortunately, it isn't really anything new. People have been hating and hurting other people since the beginning of our existence. People hating people of different religious views, ethnicities, lifestyles, gender, ideologies, political views, economic positions, and an endless list of ways we are different from each other or hold differing opinions.
I don't want to hate anyone. So I'm resolving to relearn the lessons that I was taught as a child, that I tried to teach to my own children, and that we all need to live out as adults. Hating people is ignorant, hurtful, and wrong. Hating groups of people is ignorant, hurtful, and wrong. Shouting down the hate you see with hate of your own is not the remedy. Hate can never eliminate hate. Only Love can do that.
