Understanding Hate
It Has to Be Carefully Taught
Hatred is learned. What is learned is taught.
No one is born hating those of a different race or religion. A babe in arms will gaze into blue or brown eyes with equal expectation that the face looking back will smile.
Hate doesn’t cause us to take advantage of other people. Selfishness and opportunity seize that moment. Power sustains it.
We didn’t enslave black people because we hated them. We enslaved them to solve economic problems. Hatred justifies obvious injustice. It embeds itself in our culture when the advantages we claimed as rights are challenged. Hatred is a weapon.
Hatred is never far behind fear—fear of losing status, way of life, riches and power.
Hatred has an eye for detail. Hatred focuses on details that threaten us in no way—clothing, facial features, taste for music, food—things which identify differences. We teach our children to recognize identifying characteristics in the jokes we tell. We playfully justify our need to do maintain supremacy.
Every crime is a hate crime. Hatred is a tool of evil.
In our country, hate often focuses on race. Racial differences are no longer threatening. Today’s residual racial hatred stems from a dying past. As it dies, it is likely to flare up now and then, attacking the weakest—unarmed children or small groups. Although it is dying, it is still powerfully hurtful.
Today’s perceived threats are cultural. We fear those who worship differently, speak different languages, or live differently. Loving them might cost us jobs, opportunities and value systems that we accept as God-ordained.
We worship a God that sent His Son to teach love. There is a reason part of His message is to live without fear.