FEAR AND HATE

Years ago when I was the Ecumenical Officer in the Diocese, I attended the National Workshops on Christian Unity. The purpose of these gatherings is to promote Christian unity among the various denominations throughout the country. This disunity is truly a scandal as we are to be one in Christ. Of course, the greater scandal is that this disunity has caused fear and hatred among Christians.

The theme for one of those gatherings was to address this issue: “Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:10). Over the years we have come closer to one another but we are not one. There is still that fear that in doing so, we will lose something of who we are. Of course, trying to decide what that something is leaves one wondering why that is so important to us.

We have come a long way over the years. While we may fear the unknown, and rightly so, we have not degenerated into hate. Franciscan Richard Rohr in one of his recent mediations reflected that fear is almost always behind hate. If we are afraid of someone, truly afraid, that fear easily becomes hate. Why has there been and still is such a hatred of the Jewish people? Because people were and are afraid of them? Why? Because they have been and are so successful as the world deems success: power, money, etc.?

In our political arena if we can generate fear of those opposed to us, fear that they will cause our lifestyle to go to hell in a handcart and worse, we can easily come to hate them, and make no bones about it. That in and of itself is frightening. Past and present history tells us what happens when people begin to hate one another. Mass shootings, bombings, wars are all the result of a hate for those being attacked. And that hate was the result of a fear that was somehow fostered in the minds of the attackers.

Fear has to be nipped in the bud before it turns into hate. And the only way to do that is through love. We may never arrive at John’s hope that all fear will be cast out because we will never perfectly love. That only comes in the life to come. But in the here-and-now, even an imperfect love is better that no love and certainly better that hate.

But how do you even begin to love who cause you to fear? How do you love the fear-mongers, especially those who know exactly what they are doing? Unlike my colleagues at the National Workshop, they want to divide, not become one. They don’t want to work and sacrifice, even compromise, for the sake of oneness and love for one another. They want you to be afraid the enemy will take away what you have and not work together to make things better for everyone.

It's a hard call because it is indeed hard. My only solution is to pray for those who are afraid and especially for those inciting the fear that can only lead to hatred. I hard to do that, but I have no choice. It is what my faith calls me to do.