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Epiphany Lutheran Church Fifth Sunday After Pentecost; July 13, 2003 Are We Taught to Hate? They beat him and kicked him to death. Then to mask this hate crime, they repeatedly ran over his body with their truck. The story said two teenagers had been charged in this murder in a small town of Fairmont, W.Va. in the year 2000. The local sheriff said in a radio interview that there was no indication anyone hated a particular group, especially gays. However, others in this town said, "We're dying from the inside out in this country because of hatred." The hooded figures stood around a burning cross, many with their faces covered to conceal their identity. It was not hard to identify the women in the group, though. Women have moved into the leadership roles of the Ku Klux Klan, Neo Nazis and gay bashers in recent years, according to a report on the TV show 20/20. The women they studied had very little in common except for an all-consuming passionate hatred that drove the details of their day-to-day existence and which defined who they were and their mission in life. For some hateful people, it was simply a hatred of gays. But for all those who acted out their hatred, it appeared to be a genuine hatred and even to be based on their religious beliefs! The girl danced for her father on his birthday and danced so well that when she finished, her father said, "Daughter, you can have anything you want, even half of all my possessions." Well, you know the story, Herodias went to her mother and asked for a suggestion. Her mother, because she had a grudge against John the Baptist, told her to ask for his head on a platter. And, the father gave it to her. Hatred runs deep. What's wrong with these pictures? There's a song from Rogers and Hammerstein's South Pacific musical that goes like this: "You've got to be taught to hate and fear. You've got to be taught from year to year. It's got to be drummed into your dear little ear. You have to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are ugly made, and people whose skin is a different shade. You have to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before its too late before you are 6, or 7, or 8 to hate all the people your relatives hate. You've got to be carefully taught." What are we teaching our children? We mostly teach by example. Our children and neighbors and friends are all learning from us, from the example we provide to them. We have learned our lessons from others too and continue to every day. What others say influences our opinion and our actions. If we don't want to be among those who hate, we must stay away from them. That negative thinking is infectious and will hurt the rest of us. It is best to stay away from those who hate. Or, if you cannot stay away from them, then take the risk of confronting those who delight in hateful actions and speech. Sometimes it comes in a joking way and from someone we risk correcting. It takes courage and a willingness to be unpopular. It is a requirement of all Christians to show love to others. Showing love to others is the opposite of hate. Hate is a product of fear. Sometimes we can understand hate as an extreme form of fear where the whole being of the person becomes consumed by a twisted method of dealing with their lack of courage to live with ambiguity, not having all the answers. On a TV show, a woman told about her being married to a man who is a bigot and is involved with a white supremacist group. She finally realized how destructive her ex-husband had been and divorced him. She says that she is now trying to teach her children acceptance of others. Children are poisoned early by those who hate. The song says 6, 7 or 8 and after that it is too late because they begin thinking for themselves. Bigots have to teach hate to the young ones before they can reason things out. Hate kills the Spirit within you, robs you of the appreciation of life. It even kills the Spirit in those around you so that you are left destitute. Jeannine and I began to reminisce about our early childhood to see if we had been taught to hate. Jeannine said that in the forties, their little town had the unwritten rule that blacks ("colored people" then) had to be out of town by sundown. If they were still in town after sundown, they were subject to arrest and jail. She remembers her Dad saying that if a there were a situation like that, he would help them to keep them from being arrested and harassed. When I got home from service in 1946, blacks were now being allowed to use the downtown movie theaters and the downtown YMCA. Before this, they had a movie theater and their own YMCA. It was hard for me to understand how we could have had segregation in our Midwest town because I went to elementary school with blacks. In fact, across the street from our house were neighbors who were black; we knew them as Mr. Marshall and Goldie. Were we free of prejudice? Probably not. Had we learned to hate? Not at all. We concluded that our parents were quite open to people of differing races. Were we proactive? Probably not as much as we should have been. We are given many reminders of the need to live a life without fear and to substitute the knowledge that God goes with us through this life from the beginning to the end. Jesus answered that by his reference to the sparrows which can be purchased two for a penny and yet not one of them falls to the ground without God's knowledge. We are always in God's care and concern. It is easy to see what our role in this life is as a Christian. But it is not always easy to do what we are called to do. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we are reminded that God is with us: When we pray: Our Father who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, we need to realize that we are to have faith that it will be supplied, When we pray: Forgive our trespasses, We need to accept the forgiveness of God. When we pray: As we forgive those who trespass against us, we need to give up the anger and revenge when we are slighted, short changed or grieved by others. It does us more harm than good. When we pray: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, we must stay away from evil, keep our lives clean and we will benefit. Have faith that God's power is within us and that we will overcome, because Christ is the victor and so are we. Hate does not need to be a part of our life. We recognize that it exists in this life and we take responsibility to keep ourselves free of it. We can move with courage through our days with the knowledge that we are not alone; it is God with us. But, Jesus wants us to do more than just keeping ourselves free of hate. He wants us to spread the word, spread God's love, tell others that God loves them. We also need to tell those who are the haters of this world that love speaks louder than words. Perhaps we can help them to see that God gives us confidence to deal with all things in this world - even things that are ambiguous and in conflict. God keeps us always in his care. Amen |