Hate and Love

I woke up this afternoon (literally...I slept until 1pm) and I had the song "I'm not ready to make nice" by the Dixie Chicks running through my head. There's a line in it that says..."It's a sad sad story, When a mother will teach her daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger." It got me thinking about all the times I've seen "Christians" standing out in front of some event holding up signs and screaming hateful words at people walking by. Most of the time if you look closely you will also see their children standing next to them doing the exact same thing. Now, my question is this...Can we blame the children for their learned behavior or should they at some point, as they grow, realize that they are really ignorant and change themselves?

I've been lucky enough in my life to have a family and friends that are completely diverse and I've also been lucky to find those same kind of people throughout my journey in this life. I'm the person who has always tried to see things through other people's eyes, tried to walk in their shoes. But when I look at those people on television or hear stories of hatred I can't see past their actions. I run into a wall and just want to scream YOU ARE SO WRONG...GOD DID NOT DIE SO THAT YOU COULD HATE! But then I step back and see that doing that would make me as bad as them. I've never had to deal with Racism...and to tell you the truth I'm scared to death of dealing with it face to face. I've always joked about there not being any black people around...those jokes are always covering fear.

In truth I don't see myself as anything other then God's child and I see the people he's placed in my life the same way. I don't see black or white or Asian or purple, yellow or green. I see people...God's people and I know that in every one of us there is love...Fundamentally we are here to love...called to love, encouraged to love and made to love...so why do we hate? Why do we say things that we know will only cause damage and why do we try to justify it not only to ourselves but to the world?

One of my very best friends is married to a Marine who has been in Iraq, once he came back I saw a change in her. She began to use racial slurs pertaining to the people of that region. I don't understand why she would use them... I guess that fact the "those" people shot at her husband made her mad enough to write them all off. That's not fair, not everyone in that country were shooting...not everyone from that country was on those planes!

What are we showing our children and can we be surprised the day we hear some hate filled words fall from their lips? Not if WE are the ones teaching them. We've called ourselves Christians, Christ Followers, but I don't remember a time when Christ used hateful words. We should be ashamed of ourselves and we should also look inside ourselves and see what and how we really feel about the people in the world around us.


"Love thy neighbors as you would Love thyself."