HATE: Thoughts on stopping its growth
In the recent death of Charlie Kirk with strong emotional reactions from both sides of the political aisle, my thoughts have more and more gone to the great divide in our nation — which breaks my heart. It seems to have much to do with "Hate". So I decided to investigate that word, for it seems to exist in all kinds of people — religious or non-religious. I have discovered that hate starts very small — as a hurt, an offense, a dislike, a disrespect of someone, or even a disagreement over a cause. It can then grow bigger until it seems to consume more and more of our thoughts. It seems to follow a subtle progression leading to further contempt, intense hostility, or stages of verbal aggression, disgust or ridicule. Somewhere in this process, it turns into anger creating a foothold for Satan to enter in and take root in a person's life.
Hate attempts to influence others; and when emotions become involved, it can become even greater more quickly. A person is then drawn into name calling, offensive slurs or condescending attitudes. This often leads to further humiliating others, avoiding them, or disregarding their opinions as false or fake. We can easily guess where it can lead to next. Does any of this sound familiar? Has the reader seen this progression in others — or even in themselves? The roots of hate go down deep - as deep as we choose to feed them. It can rob a person of their joy and the ability to see the good in others. It's actually a choice we make every day. I am aware that the Bible tells us to "hate evil." I wonder if that means that if we label something evil, then it must be OK to hate it? But then elsewhere it says "Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good." That would indicate that there is a way out of allowing hate to grow, or better yet, to control it and drive it out.
It is somewhat easy to see these signs of hate in others, but not at all easy to recognize them in ourselves. We also should be aware of the steady influence of the media in forming our opinions of others — for hate can grow in any heart, and it is easily fed by negative thoughts, words and visuals. There is a king in the Bible who must have also struggled with that; His name was King David. It weighed him down, so he asked God to search him to see if there was any offensive way in him and to lead him out of it. If a king found it helpful to examine his own heart before God, maybe we should consider doing the same thing. It is not pleasant to be around someone whose heart is filled with hateful rhetoric. We need to learn how to practice love, not hate, and be willing to recognize these signs — even in ourselves. Could we not begin to look for the good in others as well? Could we not practice a gentler speech ourselves? Let's deal with "us" first, so we can help bring healing to our nation — one person, and one family at a time.
MARY LOU THOMPSON
Hayden