We’re in a world of hate
“Hate … causes (a person) to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful”
Hate … causes (a person) to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil / human rights leader
As I was saying before being rudely interrupted by illness and hospitalization:
People say “We’re in a world of hurt” when things are going badly. Given what’s going on in our country, I would echo that and augment it with “We’re in a world of hate.” For, hatred is the coin of the realm of Donald Trump and his minions and cultists, some of whom even claim to be Christians.
The psychology of hate…
Americans “hate” a lot of things. Kids hate vegetables. Lots of us hate the number of commercials on TV, etc. But these “hates” are not political nor are they meant to hurt people. Political hate, on the other hand, is meant to, and does, hurt people.
Being honest, the main purveyor of political hate is Donald Trump. His utterances and actions are creating deep division in the country. Some historians say the country has not been this divided since the Civil War era. Trump’s hate campaign focuses on people he and his minions do not consider to be “true” Americans – Democrats, brown and black people, women, handicapped people, poor children, people of the LGBT-Q community, and others.
In an article in Psychology Today (“Understanding the Roots of Intolerance: The psychology of hate,” August 30, 2024), Ilene S. Cohen, Ph.D., discusses psychology research findings, many of which are applicable to political hate, viz.:
People who hate someone tend to believe nothing is positive about the hated person or group.
People who hate someone tend to believe nothing is positive about the hated person or group.
Hate of “others” is often rooted in ignorance regarding different cultures, beliefs, and ways of life. Education is crucial to combat hate towards others. Educating children early on involves informing them about different cultures, histories, and experiences.
Hate is frequently enmeshed in issues of power and control, i.e., when one group believes it should dominate another.
Hate can be a response to perceived threats that generate social and economic stress. For example, studies have shown that people who feel economically threatened may be more likely to harbor prejudices against the people they view as competitors for resources – jobs, social services, etc.
Finally, Cohen says that a key feature of political hate is dehumanizing “others” – i.e., perceiving individuals or groups as less than human, which strips them of their dignity and worth. This makes it easier to justify hateful actions against those seen as ‘other.’
To refer to people who oppose him and his policies, Trump uses dehumanizing terminology such as “scum,” a worthless or contemptible person or group of people, and “vermin,” people perceived as despicable and as causing problems for the rest of society. And Trump characterizes Mexicans as rapists, murderers, and drug traffickers.
This dehumanizing terminology can be, and often is, a launching pad for political hate.
Political assassinations, actual or attempted, are wrong – always…
In honor of Charlie Kirk, Trump ordered flags flown at half-mast.
In honor of Charlie Kirk, who was recently assassinated, Trump ordered flags flown at half-mast. On Facebook and other media, many have noted that Trump did not order flags flown at half-mast in honor of the scores of schoolchildren who have been murdered in mass shootings. And Trump did not even acknowledge the political assassination of Democratic Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband.
I think we can all agree that assassinating Charlie Kirk was wrong. But so was the assassination of Melissa Hortman and the attempted assassination of Paul Pelosi (husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi), Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
On the basis of no evidence whatsoever, Trump and his followers immediately blamed Democrat “leftists” and “leftist lunatics” for Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Actually, the person charged in Kirk’s assassination is registered as “Unaffiliated” and is the product of a conservative Republican home.
According to news reports, the person who tried to assassinate Trump in Pennsylvania was a Republican, and the person charged in the attempted assassination of Trump in Florida is politically unaffiliated but says he voted for Trump.
In a normal world, the president of the United States would condemn all political assassinations and assassination attempts, not just those of his followers.
Christian hater is an oxymoron…
Being a genuine Christian is totally incompatible with Trump’s hate campaign.
Some supporters of Trump and his hate campaign claim to be Christians. A statistic often bandied about is that 80% of Evangelical Christians support Trump. But being a genuine Christian is totally incompatible with Trump’s hate campaign.
Chicano activist – and my good friend – Maximiliano “Max” Mendoza Torres is a true Christian, which, he says, is “…why I fight the racism, injustice and oppression against our people and others.” He operates under the belief that “God not only gives us the voice and ability to fight injustice, He requires it.”
In support of the belief that Christianity requires its adherents to fight maltreatment and oppression of people, Max quotes, from memory, verse after verse from the Old and New Testaments.
He maintains that the most quoted phrases in the Bible in one form or another command that we love each other and that activism and advocacy are demonstrated and encouraged time and again in the Bible. For example:
Leviticus 19:33-34, re: Love the foreigner among you and treat him/her as your own … Proverbs 31:8-9, re: Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, and defend the rights of the poor and needy … Deuteronomy 27:19, re: you should not withhold justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow … Psalm 82:3-4 … re: uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed … Zechariah 7:9, re: . administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
In the New Testament, we see that Jesus consorted with and advocated for the commoners, the poor, the abused and downtrodden (Matthew 21:12-17) and that Jesus was about feeding hungry people (Matthew 14:14-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-14) and Jesus mandated that we take care of the children ( Luke 9:47-48 and 18:15-17; Mark 9:36-37 and 10:13-16; Matthew 18:2-5, and 18:10, and 18:14, and 19:13-14).
There are many other such references, but the above make Max’s point that Christianity requires its adherents to fight maltreatment and oppression of people and that activism and advocacy toward that end are demonstrated and encouraged throughout the Bible.
Let’s practice what we preach…
Max practices what he preaches. For example:
If the American public were surveyed, the overwhelming majority would denounce political hate and political violence.
In 1976, Max played a significant role in the successful movement to prosecute an Arizona rancher and his sons for torturing three undocumented Mexicans who were walking through the rancher’s land on their way to a job and whom the ranchers accused of planning to rob something from their ranch. Under intense pressure from the coalition Max was a part of, local officials charged the rancher and his sons with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and of unlawful imprisonment. They were acquitted in state court.
Max and the coalition in which he played a key role persuaded the federal government to prosecute the ranchers on federal charges. The two brothers were tried in federal court (the father had died), and one was acquitted, the other found guilty of violating federal laws governing interstate commerce (preventing the Mexicans from getting to their place of employment) and sentenced to three years in prison.
And in 1980, an Arizona rancher falsely accused an undocumented Mexican laborer of stealing tools. The rancher padlocked an 82-ft.-long logging chain around the laborer’s neck, wrapped it around a toilet in the workers’ bunkhouse, and locked the other end to a tree outside. The laborer remained chained to the tree for over 24 hours, with no food or water. He was released only after the rancher found out the identities of the actual tool thieves.
Max, who was in his 20s at the time, led a successful movement to have the rancher prosecuted, and he took the laborer into his own home so that he could be available for hearings, depositions, etc., and to testify in court. The rancher was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and of unlawful imprisonment. He received a mandatory sentence of five years in prison.
I firmly believe that if the American public were surveyed, the overwhelming majority would denounce political hate and political violence and would opine that they should not be lionized or rewarded and that Christians would side with Max’s point of view rather than the haters’. c/s
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