Why so much hate?

A certain hate group (they call themselves Christians) has announced that they are planning a visit to my community to protest a few religious establishments as well as an educational institution. I will not tell you which group this is because I don't feel the need to give their group any kind of publicity or satisfaction that they are bugging me. None.

What I want to talk about here is how a group of self proclaimed Christians, or for that matter, human beings, can be so full of hate. I get so worked up over this, and I shouldn't, but I do. So, if you don't want to get fired up, stop reading here. Why am I talking about this on my blog? Well, my soapbox, my rules.

First, God is all about love.

• For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16
• This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:9-11
• And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. - 1 John 4:16
• We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. – 1 John 4:19-20
• Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs. – Proverbs 10:12

These are messages of LOVE from God! I take these and apply them to all people - people of different religions, people with different sexual orientations, people with different heritages, people with different colored skin, people with different colored hair, people with different political views, people who make different choices than I do, and the list goes on and on and on. I believe that everyone was created by God and is loved by God and therefore should not be hated by me.

I can not understand how any one person or group of people could have so much hate towards another group of people with a different belief or way of living. And I can not understand how such a hate filled group of people have the balls (excuse me) to picket and protest these other groups of people who have done nothing wrong to them. We have all seen what hate can do... remember World War II? And I completely understand and respect all aspects of the 1st Amendment regarding freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious freedom, freedom of assembly, and right to petition. This is why I get to have a blog and say whatever I want. And this is why this hate group can assemble and protest and say what they want. I just don't buy their reasons for hating people.

I also believe that it is in no way my duty to judge people for their decisions here on Earth. That responsibility lies with God as these people pass beyond their human bodies on to their judgment day. My job, as defined by God, is to love others. I don't have to agree with you, think the way that you do, or even like you, but I do respect that you are a child of the Lord and deserve better than hate. Which is why I feel so terribly for these groups being targeted not only in my community, but also across the country and around the globe.

I'm so wound up over this that I've considered protesting the protest group and even doing other things that I won't mention here. Then I remember that by reacting to this group I'm giving them and their cause power that it doesn't really have. What I want to do is support these groups being targeted and show then that they are supported in the community and that this group of "Christians" is absolutely not representative of all Christians and that hate is not what God is about. So, I have decided that my course of action is to pray for the hate group.

I pray that this hate group finds peace in their lives and that one day they will truly come to know God's love for them and the people they currently hate. I pray that this group, should they show up here, respect the boundaries of the groups they are protesting.

I pray that the groups being targeted aren't scared or ashamed of what they believe in. I hope that these folks don't think all Christians have the same feelings of hate within them. I pray that these people come to know God's love for them, if they don't already know it.

Let's all try harder to love our neighbors and those with different views, opinions and looks. We were all put here on this earth together for a reason and I'm pretty sure that reason was not to hate each other, but to learn from one another and to love one another despite our many differences.