Hate? - 1
Dear Friends,
On two occasions, Jesus tells us to “hate” and we have to understand his words very carefully
“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” (John 12:25)
The word “hate” in this passage really means to prefer or prioritize.
So, Jesus is really saying here: if we make his way and not our own earthly comforts our priority, then we will be living God’s life and someday we will enter fully into that life.
And then, Jesus also says: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke14:26)
Scripture scholars tell us that this is one of the places where Jesus exaggerates to make a point.
And again, his point is that we make him and following him our priority in life.
So, let’s be clear: Jesus never tells us to hate anyone – and that means anyone!
Instead, he commands us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)
As if that isn’t enough, he also teaches us to “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
Jesus doesn’t give us any wiggle room here.
There is never a situation where it is okay to hate others.
We are, in some way, to love all persons.
We are to be neighbor to others and not try to determine who is and who is not my neighbor.
We are to be neighbor regardless of whatever differences there are. (Luke 10:36)
I am getting into this topic because of the hateful words and expressions and the number of hate crimes in our country.
We as baptized persons, as disciples of Jesus Christ, are to bring our faith to bear on this problem.
More on this next week, in the Inbox of April 21.
Father Michael Schleupner
Scriptural translations from The New American Bible – Including the Revised New Testament.
Hate? - 2
Dear Friends,
If you have not already done so, before reading this Inbox Inspirations, please try to read last week’s, the Inbox of April 14.
We can define hate as an intense hostility directed at a person or a group of people.
I suppose we can say that feelings of hate in themselves, like other feelings, are okay.
It is when we fail to examine and deal with these feelings that they can become a problem, even a dangerous problem.
These feelings can easily spill over into harmful, maybe seriously wrong or immoral and socially disruptive behavior.
A hate crime is defined as “a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”
We have all seen reports of hate crimes in our country, especially against Jews and Muslims, against African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, and against persons with same-sex attraction.
One report says that there are 917 hate groups in the United States.
In 2019, 7,314 hate crime incidents were reported.
The assumption is that there were other hate crimes that went unreported.
Because of harassment and physical violence, many minority Americans now live with some apprehension.
I have personally listened to the anxiety and fear felt by members of several minority communities.
These are good, contributing, and law-abiding American citizens.
We need to look at this problem of hate, try to understand it, and examine how Jesus calls us to respond as persons of faith.
This, for us, is a living-the-faith issue.
It is a human life issue and needs to rank with other human life concerns.
In next week’s Inbox, that of April 28, I will look at some of the likely causes of hate.
Father Michael Schleupner
Definition of hate crime and statistic from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Number of hate groups from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
If you have not already done so, before reading this Inbox Inspirations, please try to read last week’s, the Inbox of April 14.
We can define hate as an intense hostility directed at a person or a group of people.
I suppose we can say that feelings of hate in themselves, like other feelings, are okay.
It is when we fail to examine and deal with these feelings that they can become a problem, even a dangerous problem.
These feelings can easily spill over into harmful, maybe seriously wrong or immoral and socially disruptive behavior.
A hate crime is defined as “a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”
We have all seen reports of hate crimes in our country, especially against Jews and Muslims, against African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, and against persons with same-sex attraction.
One report says that there are 917 hate groups in the United States.
In 2019, 7,314 hate crime incidents were reported.
The assumption is that there were other hate crimes that went unreported.
Because of harassment and physical violence, many minority Americans now live with some apprehension.
I have personally listened to the anxiety and fear felt by members of several minority communities.
These are good, contributing, and law-abiding American citizens.
We need to look at this problem of hate, try to understand it, and examine how Jesus calls us to respond as persons of faith.
This, for us, is a living-the-faith issue.
It is a human life issue and needs to rank with other human life concerns.
In next week’s Inbox, that of April 28, I will look at some of the likely causes of hate.
Father Michael Schleupner
Definition of hate crime and statistic from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Number of hate groups from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Hate? - 3
Dear Friends,
Maybe if we understood some of the factors that lead us to hate another person or group, it would help us to work through those feelings and to respond more fully to Jesus’ calling.
Remember: Jesus says: “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) and “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44).
He leaves no wiggle room for hating others.
So, what might cause us to hate?
Maybe we fear those who are different, and we feel threatened by outsiders.
And so, we get aggressive and even hateful toward them.
Maybe we hate others because we see and dislike the inadequacies in ourselves.
We try to make others look bad or we turn them into objects of disdain as a way to make ourselves look better.
Maybe we affiliate with persons who have hateful feelings or even with hate groups.
We might think that this connection will strengthen our own identity.
Maybe we think that our culture demands a war-like or violent approach to things.
We may think that we have to hate those whom we identify as enemies or as different for the sake of our own survival or success.
One author says: “Acts of hate are attempts to distract oneself from feelings such as helplessness, powerlessness, injustice, inadequacy and shame….
It is an attitude that can give rise to hostility and aggression toward individuals or groups.
Like much of anger, it is a reaction to and distraction from some form of inner pain.
The individual consumed by hate may believe that the only way to regain some sense of power over his or her pain is to preemptively strike out at others.”
For more on this topic, see the Inbox Inspirations of April 14 and 21 and for next week, May 5.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from Overcoming Destructive Anger: Strategies That Work by Bernard Golden, psychologist.
Some of the other thoughts above are developed from The Psychology of Hate by Allison Abrams, LCSW-R.
Maybe if we understood some of the factors that lead us to hate another person or group, it would help us to work through those feelings and to respond more fully to Jesus’ calling.
Remember: Jesus says: “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) and “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44).
He leaves no wiggle room for hating others.
So, what might cause us to hate?
Maybe we fear those who are different, and we feel threatened by outsiders.
And so, we get aggressive and even hateful toward them.
Maybe we hate others because we see and dislike the inadequacies in ourselves.
We try to make others look bad or we turn them into objects of disdain as a way to make ourselves look better.
Maybe we affiliate with persons who have hateful feelings or even with hate groups.
We might think that this connection will strengthen our own identity.
Maybe we think that our culture demands a war-like or violent approach to things.
We may think that we have to hate those whom we identify as enemies or as different for the sake of our own survival or success.
One author says: “Acts of hate are attempts to distract oneself from feelings such as helplessness, powerlessness, injustice, inadequacy and shame….
It is an attitude that can give rise to hostility and aggression toward individuals or groups.
Like much of anger, it is a reaction to and distraction from some form of inner pain.
The individual consumed by hate may believe that the only way to regain some sense of power over his or her pain is to preemptively strike out at others.”
For more on this topic, see the Inbox Inspirations of April 14 and 21 and for next week, May 5.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from Overcoming Destructive Anger: Strategies That Work by Bernard Golden, psychologist.
Some of the other thoughts above are developed from The Psychology of Hate by Allison Abrams, LCSW-R.
Hate? - 4
Dear Friends,
Maybe we need to recall that Jesus tells us to love ourselves – “love your neighbor as yourself.”
One thing that this means is to accept ourselves as we are, with our strengths and weaknesses, with our abilities and limitations.
This is really step one in moving toward compassion and away from hate and hateful aggression towards others.
If I can be compassionate with myself, I am much more likely to be compassionate with others.
I don’t mean a sentimental, necessarily warm and fuzzy compassion.
Rather, I mean a compassion that leads me to take others as persons, with their own unique background, needs, and hopes.
However, if I find that I am not able to be compassionate with myself,
if I feel unsettled and not at peace with myself,
or if I feel hate for a person,
if I am in agreement with a hate group or even belong to one –
then it is time to talk with someone whom I trust, maybe a professional.
It is time for me to look not at the other person or group, but at myself.
It is time first to learn to be accepting of myself, and eventually the hate directed at others will probably dissipate.
One author writes of “our need to recover an older tradition…that spoke of human solidarity, of justice and compassion, and of non-negotiable dignity of human lives.”
He says that the challenge is to find a “fragment of the Divine ‘Thou’ in the human ‘thou’…to recognize God’s image in one who is not in my image…in the face of the stranger.”
We believe that the divine is present in each person, regardless of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or gender.
This is part of our faith; this is the way and model of Jesus Christ.
Jesus can lead us away from hate and toward respect and compassion for all.
For more on this topic, see the Inbox Inspirations of April 14, 21, and 28, and for next week, May 12.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from The Dignity of Difference by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Maybe we need to recall that Jesus tells us to love ourselves – “love your neighbor as yourself.”
One thing that this means is to accept ourselves as we are, with our strengths and weaknesses, with our abilities and limitations.
This is really step one in moving toward compassion and away from hate and hateful aggression towards others.
If I can be compassionate with myself, I am much more likely to be compassionate with others.
I don’t mean a sentimental, necessarily warm and fuzzy compassion.
Rather, I mean a compassion that leads me to take others as persons, with their own unique background, needs, and hopes.
However, if I find that I am not able to be compassionate with myself,
if I feel unsettled and not at peace with myself,
or if I feel hate for a person,
if I am in agreement with a hate group or even belong to one –
then it is time to talk with someone whom I trust, maybe a professional.
It is time for me to look not at the other person or group, but at myself.
It is time first to learn to be accepting of myself, and eventually the hate directed at others will probably dissipate.
One author writes of “our need to recover an older tradition…that spoke of human solidarity, of justice and compassion, and of non-negotiable dignity of human lives.”
He says that the challenge is to find a “fragment of the Divine ‘Thou’ in the human ‘thou’…to recognize God’s image in one who is not in my image…in the face of the stranger.”
We believe that the divine is present in each person, regardless of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or gender.
This is part of our faith; this is the way and model of Jesus Christ.
Jesus can lead us away from hate and toward respect and compassion for all.
For more on this topic, see the Inbox Inspirations of April 14, 21, and 28, and for next week, May 12.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from The Dignity of Difference by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Hate? - 5
Dear Friends,
In last week’s Inbox Inspirations, that of May 5, I reflected on the need to look within, to look at ourselves.
We need to do this if we find ourselves unsettled within and not fully at peace with who we are as a person.
We need to do this if we feel hateful toward someone or some group.
Being compassionate with ourselves is probably essential before we can become compassionate with others and get away from hateful feelings, words, and behavior.
The final thing I want to say in this series on Hate? deals with how we view others.
Yes, they may be very different from us.
Nevertheless, our faith calls us to see everyone, and that means all persons in our country and in our entire world, as sons and daughters of God.
Jesus Christ calls us to see all as brothers and sisters.
This is to be our default; it is to be our stance toward each person.
Will this take work and effort from us? Definitely.
But our relationship with God takes work and effort.
To live the way of Jesus Christ authentically takes work and effort.
One author says it this way:
“’See no stranger’ has become a practice that defines my relationships….
Seeing no stranger begins in wonder.
It is to look upon the face of anyone and choose to say: ‘You are a part of me I do not yet know.’
Wonder is the wellspring of love….
Out in the world, I notice the unconscious biases that arise in me when I look at faces on the street or in the news.
To practice seeing each of them as a sister or brother or family member, I say in my mind: ‘You are a part of me I do not yet know.’
Through conscious repetition, I am practicing orienting to the world with wonder and preparing myself for the possibility of connection.”
For more on this topic, see the Inboxes of April 14, 21, and 28, and May 5.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valerie Kaur.
In last week’s Inbox Inspirations, that of May 5, I reflected on the need to look within, to look at ourselves.
We need to do this if we find ourselves unsettled within and not fully at peace with who we are as a person.
We need to do this if we feel hateful toward someone or some group.
Being compassionate with ourselves is probably essential before we can become compassionate with others and get away from hateful feelings, words, and behavior.
The final thing I want to say in this series on Hate? deals with how we view others.
Yes, they may be very different from us.
Nevertheless, our faith calls us to see everyone, and that means all persons in our country and in our entire world, as sons and daughters of God.
Jesus Christ calls us to see all as brothers and sisters.
This is to be our default; it is to be our stance toward each person.
Will this take work and effort from us? Definitely.
But our relationship with God takes work and effort.
To live the way of Jesus Christ authentically takes work and effort.
One author says it this way:
“’See no stranger’ has become a practice that defines my relationships….
Seeing no stranger begins in wonder.
It is to look upon the face of anyone and choose to say: ‘You are a part of me I do not yet know.’
Wonder is the wellspring of love….
Out in the world, I notice the unconscious biases that arise in me when I look at faces on the street or in the news.
To practice seeing each of them as a sister or brother or family member, I say in my mind: ‘You are a part of me I do not yet know.’
Through conscious repetition, I am practicing orienting to the world with wonder and preparing myself for the possibility of connection.”
For more on this topic, see the Inboxes of April 14, 21, and 28, and May 5.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valerie Kaur.
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