The Pageless Book

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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

Above From Photo by Jeff Hitchcock. Below From Photo by Jayel Aheram. Final From Image by Blake Emrys.

It boggles my imagination how much hate people attribute to God. Historically speaking, every group of people that I can think of who have used God’s name in hate has failed. The Inquisition, American slavers, the Klan, Hitler… Republicans - all of these groups claimed to be working under God’s authority and all failed in their mission. So, when a small church in the middle of nowhere begins proclaiming that God hates homosexuals, I’m more inclined to mark my calendar than worry. I think “This, too, shall pass.”

But then I have to ask myself why so many people feel the need to validate their hatred using God. When I really think about it, God seems the obvious choice for justifying irrational arguments, on which hatred is usually based. God is the highest authority and is widely believed to be unavailable for comment should anyone think to ask for her opinion. All one would need to do is quote text, which may or may not be inspired by God, take it out of context and declare your own interpretation as the correct interpretation, and hope that no one is smart enough to think for themselves. Unfortunately, there are enough people in this world who would rather have someone else think for them than think for themselves that this tactic can work for a short period of time.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of listening to author and musician Daryl Davis speak about his experiences with racism, that eventually lead him, a black man, to write about and interview members of the Klu Klux Klan. He explained how, even though he didn’t originally set out to do so, he became friends with high ranking Klan members, many of whom eventually quit the Klan entirely due to his influence. Mr. Davis has the robes of these former Klan members to prove it, which he took out during his lecture. How can a black man manage to persuade members of an organization based upon the hatred of black men to become his friend and confide in him? His answer was simple; it was by listening.

Listening to one another, even when what is being said is the most hurtful thing you’ve ever heard, is a spiritual act. Mr. Davis listened to these Klan members and became an instrument of Divine love. Hatred cannot exist in the presence of divine love, because hatred can only thrive where there is no love. We each can embody that love through listening to each other and choosing to be simply courteous towards one another, regardless of another person’s hatred.

I don’t want you to confuse emotional love with divine love - they are different, although the difference is subtle. Emotional love which you feel for your friends, family, or significant other, is the direct opposite of hatred. It represents understanding and appreciation, where as hatred feeds on ignorance and disrespect. Divine love, however, is beyond understanding and ignorance. It represents a condensing the ego and a deep connection with the universal presence which some call God. Divine love confronts a person abruptly, forcing a person to look at themselves and their life, regardless of whether they want to or not.

Hatred is a form of ignorance - whether this ignorance is cause by not wanting to see or simply not seeing, it makes no different. The Divine does not allow for ignorance in any form. The idea that God would hate anyone or anything is totally foreign to me, as a God ignorant of his own creation cannot be the true God. If the Divine hates anything, it is hatred.