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Hate is not natural. When I look at the natural world, I cannot find a single example of hate. Though the wolf feeds on rabbit, he bares no hatred towards rabbit-kind. Though hurricanes rip up trees by their roots and throw them miles from where they seeded, it is not due to some malice. The only example nature provides that comes close to hatred is the acts of a rabid animal. Even that pales in comparison to the depths at which a man who hates will go.
On Sunday, July 27th a man entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and opened fire on the congregation, killing two and wounding several others. Its no small consolation that none of the children who were putting on a play that Sunday are among those wounded . And what was his reason for doing something so senseless? According to a four page letter recovered by police, it was because he hates us. He hates the liberal religious movement of which we are a part. He hates that we welcome homosexuals and transsexuals openly. He hates it that we are so goddamn open minded!
The first and most powerful emotion I felt when I heard the news was anger. Sometimes I feel that anger is too close to hatred to be trusted. Anger is simply not an emotion that I deal with well and, from my point of view, it can be a hard emotion to reconcile with spirituality. However, anger is functional - anger is a healthy emotion, where as hate is dysfunctional. Hate drives men and women to commit atrocities that not only needlessly destroys the lives of others, but destroys their own as well. Anger that is just and true, on the other hand, can preserve the life and well-being of others.
That is the anger of the members of the Tennessee Valley congregation who stepped forward to wrestle the shotgun out of the shooter’s hand - that anger is a just anger. That anger is why we keep fighting for the rights of gays and lesbians, fighting against the civil-rights violations of our own country and against human-rights violations where ever we find them. I must remember that is function of anger, and that my anger is just
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July 29th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Thank you for pointing out the distinction. I occasionally run into harmony addicts who suspect every negative reaction is somehow illegitimate. Not so.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:06 am
Hi John,
I’ve been putting off commenting on this post for a few days - because I feel like there’s nothing I can say. Whatever I imagine writing just sounds trivial
So, I’ll just say that my thoughts are with you.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Hello Martin,
Yeah, I run into that too… A focus on all “positive” emotions is just as unhealthy as focus on all “negative.” Thank you for reading.
Hello Evan,
Thank you for being thoughtful, but this is less about me and more about *us*… as such, I don’t think anything you would have said would have come-off as being trivial.
Namaste to you both.