I hate, I spurn your feasts, says the LORD, I take no pleasure in your solemnities; Your cereal offerings I will not accept, nor consider your stall-fed peace offerings. Away with your noisy songs! I will not listen to the melodies of your harps. But if you would offer me burnt offerings, then let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream. (Amos 5:14-15, 21-24)
We should not hate; we should always seek understanding and love those who might have a different opinion from us. That can be a tough chore.
However, according to the prophet Amos, we must not seek evil; we must hate evil. Now that’s an important exception. Perhaps hate-speech is fine and acceptable when it involves speeches against evil that are so pervasive in our world and certainly in our nation.
Unfortunately, speaking out against hate can involve speaking against our neighbors’ behaviors with that evolving into hate of them. That’s the dilemma: hate the evil but not those speaking and doing evil. It’s quite hard to separate the person from the act although we are coached to try.
Republican Senator Ben Sasse provided useful insights in his 2018 book “THEM: Why we hate each other – and how to heal.” He said: “Right now partisan tribalism is statistically higher than at any point since the Civil War. Why? It’s certainly not because our political discussions are more important. It’s because the local, human relationships that anchored political talk have shriveled up. Alienated from each other, and uprooted from places we can call home, we’re reduced to shrieking.”
With this background it’s fair to say many of us will fall prey to seeking evil and foregoing the good. The result? Hate. It’s far better for us to listen and hear Amos rather than to those in our own tribes. When we do, goodness will be like an unfailing stream, or so we hope.
Deacon David Pierce
Comments
Post a Comment
Please THINK before you write!