Who does God Hate?

Greetings Dear Reader,

Rush Limbaugh       Barack Obama          Sarah Palin   Nancy Palouse

What feelings do those names evoke in you?  Recently a friend posted a cartoon on line of a woman holding a sign that read “God hates everyone but me.”  I think one of the things that is very skewed is that anyone can think that God hates anyone.  Those who claim to follow Christ and claim that God hates ___________ (fill in the people in any cause, movement, or ilk that you like) are very sadly mistaken. 

One of the things that I hear that perhaps we all need to remember is that we do not decide what God thinks or is.  When I assign things to God that are unloving then I am misrepresenting God.  What is it that causes us to think that God would hate anyone?  It is our own hatred that we choose to project on God.  I do believe that some things that are becoming socially acceptable are wrong.  I also still believe that there is such a thing a sin.

No matter what I think is right, wrong, sinful, or saintly there is a line a may not cross.  I am not allowed to hate anyone because God does not hate anyone.  God hates the things that are a barrier between me and him and those are barriers I create by my choices.  He never hates anyone.  He loves us so much that he would rather die than be without us. 

I apologize to everyone for those who claim to follow Christ and express hatred for anyone.  That is not who Christ is.  No matter how I feel about what you do, think, believe, or are, I am required to love you if I hope to identify with Christ accurately.  Your sin is no worse than mine.  Your fallen choices are just as wrong as mine.  The conservative members of my “tribe” seem to often forget that they are not better than anyone else.  The liberal members of my “tribe” also forget that they are to love even the worst of those who do not show love, even conservatives.  They all forget that they are to express their faith through love and humility.  Their weapons are to be grace, mercy, and kindness.

If I show disregard for any person I am not following Christ.  It is possible to address the social issues that Christ commanded his people to take responsibility for without abandoning holiness and righteousness.  It is possible to refuse to participate in things that are contrary to the nature of God without ignoring the social issues that are my responsibility.  I think that the polarization of our culture is the place where those who oppose Christ win.  No matter what they wish the situation to be those who follow Christ have a integral responsibility for those in need.

Who does God hate?  No one.  He loves everyone and will not abide his followers to do less.  If I have any hope of accurately identifying with Christ then I must embrace this and live it no matter how much I have to reorder my thinking to do so.  I have no right to label anyone as anything in order to dismiss him or her.  I have not been given leave to reject anyone from being loved by the love that Christ gives me to share.  If you do not love whoever you consider least in God’s eyes then you do not love God. I cannot say that God hates anyone and accurately identify with Christ.  The names I listed above; if I do not love them all then I am not following Christ.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."