Where does the hate come from?

As I write this we are involved in the last weeks of the 2016 Presidential election and there is an awful lot of hate being spewed around. And I wanted to examine it and where it’s coming from. But there is another form of hate that has permeated not only our country but the world in the last years and I first want to talk about that.

I am a Christian and that used to mean something good in this country. When a person professed to be a believer in Christ, they were looked up to. They were thought well of. It was a plus in the minds of those who followed them or came in contact with them.

Not so today, sadly.

In today’s politically correct world, being a Christian or proclaiming a belief in Jesus is thought of as something hateful or at least suspicious to some. We who follow Christ are now thought of as the haters.

We are told that we hate… gays, woman, Muslims and the like.

We are told that we are the intolerant ones.

I am not going to say that Christians have never done things that were considered intolerant or hateful. Sadly, we have. We are human and we make mistakes.

There have been many in the past that have used the name of Jesus to justify doing evil things, but that does not mean that all Christians do these things. While not denying that Christians have done evil in this world, you must also agree that Christians are responsible for much that is good in this world.

It was Christians that built and established the first hospitals, the first Universities and it was Christians that started most of the world’s great charities.

It is Christians that talk about loving their neighbor and who constantly step up to help in times of need.

It is Christians who give the most of their time, their talents and their money when called upon.

So, where does all this hate directed at Christians come from?

Why don’t we see hate directed at other groups the way it is directed at Christians?

I will tell you why and it’s really simple when you think about it.

The real reason Christians are looked down on and called names and persecuted around the world and in this country is because we claim the name of Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

The Jews are also persecuted and have been for thousands of years and that is mostly because Judaism’s roots come from the same believe system as Christianity’s.

Both Judaism and Christianity follow the same God and look for a Messiah to come. The Jew is still looking for that Messiah and the Christian knows He has come and is looking for His return.

I often think that the proof of the reality of Christianity and God lies in the hate that comes out of the mouth of the atheist. Why do they hate us and what we believe in so much? Why can’t they just be tolerant of our beliefs?

It’s because their hatred comes from a very dark place.

If Christianity is just a big lie, if it’s all just fables made up to give the fools of this world something to believe in, then why can’t they just let us have our silly beliefs?

Their hatred of Christians proves to me that there is a God and that Christ is “the way the truth the life.”

There is no logical reason for someone to hate us so much, other than they are threatened by what we believe in. They fear deep in their souls that we are right and that Jesus is real and so is His word. But they can’t admit that truth. Because if they admit the truth of the Bible then their whole life is a lie and they must admit that there is someone to whom they owe allegiance. If God did really create this universe and all that is in it, if God did create us all then we owe Him and the atheist just cannot bring themselves to believe that. They are the masters of their own life and they don’t want to give that control over to anyone, let alone to the God who created them.

There are many reasons why people do not accept Christ, but at the heart of most of them is the unwillingness to let go of control. To admit that there is something greater then themselves because to admit that would mean that the sins that they are doing and have done are wrong and need to be paid for. To believe in God would be to admit that there is a true “Right and Wrong” in this world.

They don’t want to let go of their sin.

Real Christians don’t hate gays. They hate the lifestyle and they hate having that lifestyle shoved down their throats but they don’t hate the gay person.

Can the gay person be forgiven?

YES.

Do real Christians hate women. No of course we don’t, we love women and it has been because of Christianity that women have risen to the level they have achieved in today’s sociality.

Why are we told that we hate women today?

It’s because we choose to believe that life begins at conception and that abortion is the killing of a life. We believe that killing a child in the womb is just as wrong as killing any living child out of the womb. It’s not that we hate women; it’s that we look on abortion as a sin and we hate sin. It was Christians that opened many of the first orphanages. If a child is unwanted by the mother, then adoption is the best option for that child, not death at the hands of an abortionist.

Can a woman who has an abortion be forgiven?

YES.

Do we Christians truly hate Muslims?

No, we don’t or shouldn’t hate the Muslim, we should feel sorry for them and wish that they would come to see the truth, and we should and many of us do pray for them every day. But we do hate what some of them are doing to the world because of the hate that flows from their leaders.

Why can’t a Muslim just accept a Christian as someone who believes differently than they do? Why must they try to kill us?

It’s because they are taught to hate, taught that we hate them.

Sadly there are some who name the name of Christ who can’t let go of the hate they have toward Muslims because of what some of them have done, but we as Christians should be willing to forgive if there is true repentance offered.

Can a Muslim be forgiven?

YES.

I know some of you are now going, “Wait a minute, how can a Muslim be forgiven when they have done so many evil things in the name of their god?”

Jesus Christ came to earth and died for all of us sinners. ALL of us and that includes Muslims who don’t at the present time accept Him. As the Bible says, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

So Jesus died for the Muslim just as He died for you and for me. All we have to do is accept His death as payment for our sins and that He was raised from the dead to prove that He was who He said He was.

Jesus told us that all sins but one can be forgiven in Matthew 12:31-32.

31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

(Quickly; what is the blasphemy of the Spirit? It is the complete rejection of Jesus and His work on the cross and the salvation that came through it.)

The hate that comes at us through the world is truly from a dark place, and we must understand this if we are to be of any help in this world. Man is not, as some would have us believe, by nature good. Man is by nature evil and will, without God’s help, steal, lie, cheat and murder to get his way.

Oh, I know there will be some who will pick apart what I just wrote and point to countless wrongs done over the years in the name of Christ, but we have to remember that we are human and that we make mistakes. We want to rule in place of God and we think we know better than He does.

At the heart of the Gospels is the message of God‘s Love for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that who so ever should believe in Him should not parish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Jesus taught us to love our enemies and do good to those who despitefully use us.

And that is the root of tolerance.

Those who claim that we are intolerant are the true intolerant ones. It is they who cannot come to terms with anyone who does not believe the way they do. Tolerance to them stops at the end of their own gate. All who stand outside that gate are the intolerant ones.

And that brings me to the current election here in the USA.

There is one side and only one side in this election that preaches hate toward the other and it’s as plain as the nose on your face.

Which side marches on the street and throws things and spits at those who are supporting the other candidate?

Which side is the one who constantly calls out the other side for their supposed hatred of, gays, Muslims, woman, immigrants and minorities?

I see the language being tossed around, back and forth from both sides, but from where I sit most, if not all the hatful language is coming from the left, and not the right.

By enlarge it is the Democrats and their supporters who are the real haters in this election cycle. Oh sure you can find a few on the right who hate, but when you really look at who is doing what to whom, you can see that the hate is all most all coming from the left side of the fence.

As a Republican I am going to vote for the only choice I have in this election. I will not say that I don’t wish I had a different choice. I do have a certain amount fear about what could happen if Donald Trump is elected, but I have a greater fear of what a Hillary Clinton Presidency could mean.

I am not going to use this space to pick apart Donald’s campaign or Hillary’s, but I will again say that from where I sit, the hate toward others is coming from Hillary’s people and not Donald’s.

Now I have to ask myself why?

And I have to go back to why anyone hates. It’s because they feel fearful and threatened. They feel that if the other side wins, then their life will be impacted in some terrible way and the other side must be stopped at all costs.

The Democrats have been in power now for 8 years and they fear they are going to lose that power. And in this election we have in Donald Trump an outsider who is not part of the political machine and that causes fear on both sides of the aisle.

It’s a perfect recipe for hate to flourish.

People on both sides fear losing their power.

I don’t think Donald Trump really hates people and I like to hope that Hillary Clinton doesn’t either. But I do hate to see the country ripped apart by the hate of one side against the other. I have read enough of our history to know that no matter who is elected, somehow this country will go on.

Do I like everything that Donald Trump has said or done? No I do not. But I dislike almost everything Hillary Clinton has said and done. For me the choice is clear.

This election is very important, as they all are, but we must not let hate be the only guide in what and who we vote for. Vote for whoever you feel would be the best choice, but do it for the right reasons.

Just as we cannot let hate be the driving force behind how we look at who believes what about God.

God loves you; He died for you and for Donald and Hillary too.