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Why is God such a Hater?
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Christianity has always been an angry religion, and it became undeniably obvious during the 9-12 March in Washington D. C. The profoundly disturbing images of hatred, anger and bigotry coming out that gathering were unsettling on a level that can’t even be put into words, and they were all quoting scripter and invoking the name of God.
This poses a question: Why are Christians so angry? Is it abortion, gays trying to destroy marriage, a black “Muslin” in the White House, the Jews won’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior, no prayer in schools, the Ten Commandments aren’t allowed to be posted in government buildings; and the list goes on ad infinitum. Is that what’s bothering them?
That’s what they say they’re angry about, but all those excuses aside, their anger goes even deeper, and the key to their anger could be in an often quoted scripture in the book of John. The author of the book of John makes an interesting statement. “Perfect love casts out all fear.”
Wait a minute. Isn’t the opposite of love hate? If that’s true, then why would the author of John claim that it’s fear?
Fear is an interesting emotion. It’s basic, it’s primal, and it’s all about survival—which is all about ‘life.’ The negative aspect of fear seems to be the single emotion from which all other negative emotions, including hate, spring from. In fact, we tend to ‘hate’ what we fear: snakes, spiders, heights, etc. A simple conversation with the fearful will bear that out.
So perhaps Christians are just frightened. Ironically, the very God that Christianity created is itself created from fear. This God is a capricious God; hard to please, vengeful and violent, reminiscent of an alcoholic father. Therefore when a Christian acts out, killing an abortion doctor, threatening the President’s life, calling him a liar, they’re simply emulating their own “father.”
Fear and hate create war and right now there are a lot of wars. There’s the war on terror, the war on drugs, the war over marriage, the abortion war, the war on Christmas, the war against liberalism, the war against feminism, the war against MSNBC, and a plethora of other holy wars. All fought in an attempt to eradicate fear from the outside, which is bound to fail since fear can only be handled from the inside.
Despite the Christian’s overwhelming fear, God is not threatened. In truth, it’s possible that God doesn’t even know what fear is and It certainly doesn’t understand our fear. Life works all the time. The real God isn’t threatened by someone else’s point of view because the real God is also comfortable FROM that point of view. The real God doesn’t panic because someone says “I don’t believe in you” because the real God believes in Itself. The real God doesn’t try to protect itself against opposition because the real God manifests Itself through contrast and embraces all side of Its nature. Life gives life to everything and everyone, regardless of politics, ethnicity, gender or cultural background. Life gives life even to those who don’t believe in it.
So when we see angry Fundamentalists, we’re seeing fear: raw, primal fear. The greatest irony of this fear is that those who claim that they are serving a loving God and coming from a place of love don’t even recognize love when it’s not present, and don’t even recognize their own fear and hate. When we feel angry ourselves, we are seeing our own fear. When we face our fears, we truly face the very source.
If we want to find peace the only way to find it is in casting out our fears with perfect love. So while we watch these disturbing images of people who are just a hair-trigger from crossing what appears a very dangerous line, we must face our own fear. Those who are enmeshed in the fear cannot see it. They don’t recognize it though they’re afraid of it. If it’s really true, “Perfect love casts out all fear,” then by dealing with our own fear will have the added bonus of casting the fear from our enemy too.
And ultimately, love is infectious.
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