Love Those Who Hate You

Yesterday I was browsing the Catholic blog American Papist and enjoying the blog's hilarious photo caption feature. A user started to comment in all caps how horrible it was that the blog was being funny about religious photographs. Due to the user's comments he was banned. I posted in defense of the ban since the owner of the blog has a right to do so if he wishes; a blog owner could even disable commenting altogether if he wanted to.

Due to my support of the blog the user that was banned came onto my own blog and posted many comments from different names. All of the quotes I am showing here were intended by the poster to be public since he used the "Comment" feature of this blog.

Hey ..., you're a total dunce. Your mother should be ashamed to know she gave birth to such a sissyfied nitwit.

You call yourself a Catholic? You're an idiot.

BTW are you a homo? Just wondering after seeing your photo.

Well, that's nice. For the record, I'm not a homosexual; I am getting married next summer to a beautiful woman. This person continued to flame so I changed my blog settings so that I would have to approve messages prior to publication on my blog. The poster continued ranting.

Next time keep you efing mouth shut birdbrain

But wait, there was more hate in my email inbox!

I see you're sooooo brave over at American Papist where you can shoot off your big mouth, but get you alone over here and you are a sniveling crybaby cowering in the corner with your "Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author."

hahahahahahaha Which means we can post all we want and you just sit there and listen. We don't have to listen to YOUR bull**** you coward.

You're what we call a real piece of work.

This poster claims to be defending the Blessed Virgin Mary. Defending her is certainly honorable; I do agree. However, it is not right, in fact sinful, to personally attack those that you disagree with. Using silly cuss words certainly does not help any one's credibility. Thus, I feel like this is the perfect example to illustrate why hate is such a horrible thing.

The Bible instructs us about hate, "whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him" (1 John 2:11). Therefore I pray for the one posting such hateful comments. Through such expression of hate he is lost in darkness. Hopefully the hate coming from him will subside. Regardless, I forgive him and I love him.

Where does this darkness of hate lead? For many people, hate is temporary. For others, hate builds on top of itself and is very hard to overcome. For still others, hate is treasured and encouraged and will lead to dire circumstances. The hate of reproduction in our society has lead to the acceptance of birth control and lead to the acceptance of elective abortions. Many women despise their bodies. I have heard of women who say things such as "I'm so happy I got rid of my uterus" after having a hysterectomy. No uterus, no children. The hate of human reproduction leads to a hate of children. Many people will say things like "having a child now will take away my ability to have fun." Children are seen as a burden rather than a blessing. This has lead to people despising their elder family members who they need to take care of. Euthanasia is slowly becoming accepted. We need to reverse hate of our neighbors, family, children, and our own bodies. If we do not reverse this hate then hate will further damage our society in ways most people could never imagine.

I have personally experienced hate when I protest against the horror of abortion. Just by holding a sign passersby would yell profanities, show their middle fingers at me with pride, and throw objects at me with the intention of harming me. By the grace of God I have been able to respond with kindness. They are mad at me for reasons that I may not understand. Thus, I pray for the healing of their hearts.

Jesus tells us what we should do in response to hate, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you" (Luke 6:27-28). God bless the one who continues to send me hateful comments. I pray that your hate will be reversed and that you will have a peaceful life without sin. God loves you. Let us all go forth and reverse hate in our community and our society. Let us replace hate with a never ending supply of love. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). Let us bring God back into our world.