Monday, April 12, 2021

The Stubborn Sin of Human Hate: When Will We Change?


“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."    --Nelson Mandela

It’s hard to turn around these days and not be confronted by hate, by the sin of human hatred: in acts of hate carried out by one human being upon other, by one group of people upon another group. Three hate stories are really haunting me now. I just can’t shake them.

There is the rise of acts of hatred and violence against Asian-Americans, the shootings in Atlanta, the random and frightening attacks on the streets of our cities. There is the ongoing trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd last year. A white knee pressed against a black neck, nine minutes of suffering and then Floyd was gone.  Then there’s this awful story out of Duxbury, Massachusetts, where the high school football team, for reasons I just cannot fathom, have been using anti-Semitic language in their play calling, casually tossing out the term “Auschwitz” before the ball is snapped.  WHAT!?!?

I just don’t get human hatred, human bias, human intolerance when it comes to how some feel called to treat fellow children of God. Maybe it’s because of the faith I try and practice, a faith that teaches me every son and daughter of God, everyone, is created in the image of God, in the likeness of God. So, when I hate another, in a way I hate God. I deface and mar the part of God that resides in every single human heart and soul and person.

I don’t understand hate because—and here’s a confession—I’ve never experienced hate, not at all, not once, not ever in the sixty years I’ve lived. White, I’ve never been discriminated against or threatened because of my skin color. Straight, I’ve never been dismissed as “less than” because of whom I choose to love.  Christian, I’ve never been told the way I worship is wrong or false. Male, I’ve never been leered at or groped or been denied any of my rights, because I have an X and Y chromosome rather than two X’s. This lack of experience must somehow breed a lack of empathy. Maybe that’s why, according to the FBI, of the 8,552 hate crimes reported in 2019, 52.5 percent were committed by whites; that’s double the next closest number.

And so, hate: it just is that most stubborn and intractable of sins, of human brokenness. To see the other, not a person, but as an “it”, and therefore to hate that person or hurt that person even take away that person’s life and why? Because they are different. Because they are a threat (real or perceived) to someone’s privilege in the world. Because we are all potentially blind to one truth. The “other” is not the “other”. The other is you, is me, is everyone. We are all equally worthy of love and respect and all because of how and who God makes us to be.  Period.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is right: hate isn’t somehow buried in our DNA or living in our bones. No. Hate is taught. Hate is a learned behavior. Hate is passed on from one generation to the next. Hate is fomented by xenophobic self-serving politicians and leaders. They use the language and actions of hatred to stir up and exploit the fears of those they claim as followers. They hate because it serves their thirst for personal power. 

So, perhaps, if hate is taught, then love can be taught too. Love, to combat hatred. Love, to reveal the ignorance and falseness of prejudice and stereotypes and bias. Love, to see, not a stranger in the person we share this world with, but instead a friend we’ve yet to meet. I’m crazy enough to believe with all my heart and soul that love will finally vanquish, once and for all, the human desire to hate and to hurt.

I’m also crazy enough to have faith and hope, in the generation of humans that are coming up behind me, the young and the younger, the hopeful and the justice committed. Maybe this is the generations who will finally bring us ever closer to the day of love for all, no one left out. Some days I feel like I must apologize for the actions of my age group! Thank goodness that one age and time are now moving us off the stage and that a new age and time are now ushering in a group to lead us and to teach us how to love.

The difference in attitudes sometimes, between oldsters like me and those youngsters is startling and stark. So many of the young people I know either don’t see differences or when they do see differences, they celebrate that God created a human tapestry. They dare to believe these threads can be woven into the whole cloth of a beloved community.

I don’t get the need to hate. I do get the duty for all of us to love. What a day it will be when hate becomes a distant memory and love becomes the law, and not just in the world but in every single human heart too.

No more hate. I can dream, can’t I? Can’t we? Let’s get to work.

                 

                  

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