During the past few weeks, I have watched an extraordinary outpouring of hate. It began with a hate filled assassination. And then the talking heads in our media stirred the pot with comments, some true, others blatantly false. Their object was to grow the hate. Finally, the hate spread to the grass roots level on Facebook and other social media outlets. Millions of people were in pain over the death of Charlie Kirk. All the while, voices on the left denigrated him, his family, and his supporters. All the while, voices on the right attacked the left over their reaction to the assassination and over their reaction to the memorial service.

Here is the heart of it.

A very bad man did a very bad thing…….nothing new there. He caused an enormous amount of pain…….nothing new there.

And now we react.

But, how should we react? I can see only one response that lines up with Christianity. We should be sad. We should be sad because of the evil and because of the tidal wave of pain that radiates away from this evil act.

Anger will try to work its way into our reaction. But, here is the problem with anger. Anger is outwardly directed. Anger has, as its goal, the attempt to punish others, the attempt to change the behavior of others. And guess what……the people whom we are trying to punish and change are angry too. This will not work. Anger attacking anger cannot grow peace and love. Anger attacking anger can only grow more anger. Anger attacking anger can only grow hate. And there is no question that hate is growing in our culture.

I have always taught my children that, when faced with a problem, first, you must accurately identify the problem. Then, focus on the part of the problem that you can control.

So…….what is the problem?

Hate.

What is the part of the problem that I can control?

My hate.

And there it is. In order to get the hate out of our public conversation, I must first replace my hate with sadness and with love. So must you. We must stop trying to hate the other guy into submission……it has never worked before……there is no reason to expect that it will work now. Instead, I must respond to the haters around me with love. Let’s face it, we’ve given hate a fair shot……and hate has failed to fix the mess. Now, it’s time to try love.

That, my friends, is the heart of Christianity. We are clearly told to love the haters into submission. This will be hard, time consuming work. It will take the rest of my life.

But.

God expects nothing less.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Jesus teaching the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5: 44-48, ESV

Darkness cannot drive out darkness……only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate…….only love can do that.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am returning to a topic that I have addressed before.

I have been deeply saddened by the murder of Charlie Kirk. He was a great man. I am satisfied that he was spending his life doing God’s work. I am satisfied that he spent his life doing God’s work.

He was killed by a lesser man. The killer believed that he was silencing a fascist. He believed that he was performing a noble act. My first observation is that the killer was wrong on both counts. He did not silence Charlie, he amplified him. Going further, Charlie was not a fascist. I doubt that the killer could even define the word. But, the killer believed that Charlie was a fascist. And that was all it took. He believed that Charlie was a fascist because he had been told that Charlie was a fascist. Charlie was a pretty big deal. But, he was not big enough to be on the radar of the politicians and talking heads who casually throw the term fascist around. The killer thought that Charlie was a fascist because the people in his local social circle told him so. They, too, were wrong; but the killer believed them. And there is the problem. A group of people hate someone because he disagrees with them. They attach a hateful, untrue epithet to the guy they hate and then they spread the hate among their friends. A weak man, like the killer, absorbs the hate and then acts on it.

I am sure that the killer’s local social circle did not consider the low level hate that they were spreading to be important. But, it contributed to a murder. They were complicit. This problem is worse on the left than on the right….but it crosses the aisle. Donald Trump and Maxine Waters do it regularly.

Here’s the thing. There is no such thing as little, unimportant hate. Hate is like cancer. A cancer cell that is so small that your doctor cannot find it will grow into something that will kill you or someone you love.

There are way too many haters out there.

Are you one of them?

I know a lot of otherwise fine people who casually throw around hateful terms like fascist, Nazi, and Newscum. This low level hate is a cancer growing in our culture. Our leaders use hateful language in a crass attempt to increase their political power. And we believe them…….just like the killer believed his friends. So, we spread the hate. And one day, some weak man believes us and acts on it.

And we are complicit.

Were you outraged by the assassination attempt on Trump but silent about the assassination attempt on Gabby Giffords?

If so, you don’t hate the hate…….you hate the politician.

Were you silent when Letitia James was charged with mortgage fraud but happy when Donald Trump was charged with he same crime?

If so, you don’t hate the hate. You hate the politician.

By your low level hate, you fuel the fire. If you indulge in low level, conversational level, hate…….you are complicit. If you indulge in low level, conversational level, hate, you are a cancer cell trying to grow in our culture.

This is not what Christianity teaches.

Christianity teaches love.

Even harder…….it teaches us to love our enemies. It even teaches us to love the guy who killed Charlie. Not many of us can live up to that level of love. But, that is exactly what God does. That is exactly what God expects from us.

Not many of us are willing to let go of our hate.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus, on how we should love, Matthew 5: 43-48, ESV

This week’s post is for “seekers”……people who are searching for truth, meaning, and direction.

One day, soon, you will die. You can quibble about how soon, but you and I cannot escape death. So, after you die, what comes next? This is the single greatest and most important question of your life. It is a question with extraordinary consequences. Many of us have given it little or no thought. This morning you got up and got dressed. At that point in your day, you had probably given more thought to your outfit than to your long term destination.

So, what are the possibilities for what comes next?

Nothing….dead black nothing……the lights just go out. The world goes on without you.

You go somewhere very nice. Everyone there is nice. All of the mean people (that is, the people meaner than you) are somewhere else.

You go somewhere that is not nice. All of the nice people are somewhere else.

Everyone (nice and not nice) goes to the same place. Your roommate could be Dolly Parton……or Adolph Hitler. It is a whole lot like our temporal world.

You go to a place where everything and everyone is just the way you want it……your own personal “designer paradise.” All of your dreams, no matter how nutty, come true. You may be alone. Everyone else will be in their own custom built eternity

You are returned to this temporal world in either a better form or a worse form……and the cycle repeats……forever…….until you get it right.

You go to a place filled with people just as broken as you are. But, they have been fixed. You have been fixed. This place is defined by love, justice, and mercy. It is defined by an intimate relationship with your creator.

There may be other possibilities, but these cover the main categories.

Now, look into your heart. Because the answer is there. The answer is there because it was put there…….by your creator. Remember, you are looking for the truth…….not what you want to be true. What you want to be true……your appetites…….is completely irrelevant.

I have found the last option to be the best.

If you agree, then you should study this option. Begin by getting a “red letter” edition of the Bible. This will have the teachings of Jesus in red ink. Take a few hours and read the red part. For now, that is what you need to know. The rest of the book is background information. You can dig into the rest of the book later.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

Revelation 21:3-5, ESV

I had a son who graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in computer engineering. I read his CV one day and it included the line:

“I have cloned things”

He was one of the smartest guys I have known.

He once explained to me how integrated circuits operate. He said:

“It’s actually pretty simple. They all run on magic smoke and I can prove it. One day, I wired one up wrong. When I turned on the power, it went POOOF and all of the magic smoke got out. I never could get it to work after that.”

His assessment began with a simple solid observation of fact. And yet, the undeniable fact led to a conclusion that was ridiculous…..in this case, obviously, a joke. But there is a moral here.

Facts are facts. But, it is very easy to begin with a fact, analyse it, and come to a conclusion that is not true. Sometimes, this process is inadvertent. Unfortunately, sometimes, it is done intentionally. If you have ever listened to a politician, you know this is true. There is a politician in Kentucky who often tangles with president Trump. I know him to be a decent, honest, honorable man. His opponent in an upcoming election is running ads that make him out to be a minion of Satan. The ads are based on facts. But they are untrue.

So where is this going?

The most important ideas in our world are several steps removed from measurable fact. The most important decisions that we will ever make are several steps removed from measurable fact. It is those steps that we need to be careful with. We are remarkable skilled at taking a measurable physical fact, analyzing it, mixing in our appetites, and coming to a conclusion that is a spiritual untruth.

This is important because we are surrounded by measurable physical facts. Because they are tangible, they are extremely compelling. Physical facts tell us where we are. They can sometimes tell us where we have been. But, physical facts cannot tell us where we are going.

In the final accounting, spiritual truth is far more important than physical fact. The path from physical fact to spiritual truth is littered with our justifications, rationalizations, and our self serving appetites.

So, how do we make the journey from physical fact to spiritual truth?

To begin with, we must have a reference point. We must have a benchmark to compare with. In our current culture, we are told that that benchmark is our appetites. We use assumption, justification and rationalization in order to shape the facts before us into the conclusions that we desire. Ten different people apply ten different sets of appetites to the same set of facts and reach ten different conclusions. This alone should teach us that our appetites are not a reliable benchmark. We need an outside benchmark to compare against. I can find none better than the teachings of Jesus. They are simple. They are clear. They leave no room for justification and rationalization. They are based on a value that we all sense in our hearts.

Love.

Our appetites, applied to the measurable physical universe, lead us to the conclusion that we are in charge and can do as we please.

Love, applied to the measurable physical universe, tells us that we are the creation of a God who loves us and that we should love and care for each other.

One of these paths is wrong. One of these paths is true.

The love that Jesus teaches, applied to physical facts, will lead you to spiritual truth. It will lead you to an eternity in paradise…….the seat of love.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4: 7-12, ESV