Today in Sunday school we talked about an article from the February/March 2008 issue of byFaith Magazine entitled “Redeeming Hate,” written by Carl R. Trueman of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.
In between references to not one, not two, but four different movies based upon their villains’ embodiment of hate1, we talked a lot about, well, hatred and how it ought to impact a Christian’s life.
Society today tells us hate is bad. Tolerance is excellent and acceptance even more so. But no matter what someone does, don’t hate them.2
What little society knows about God can be boiled down into the Santa Claus god who is full love love, kindness, patience, joy, happiness, and little else — certainly not any hate or wrath or judgment.
Frankly, society’s god is far too small and is no more worthy of worship than the fingernail clippers to my right or the large cardboard cutout of Optimus Prime atop my computer desk.3
But what society does know (or think it knows) about God presents a problem for Christians. How can we associate ourselves, let alone God, with hate, when we know that “God is love”?
That is, after all, a biblical expression. God is love, and He is overflowing with it.
But does God also hate? Should we? [click to continue...]
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- See if you can guess the movies based upon the villains: Khan, Anakin, the Emperor, and Joker. [↩]
- Exceptions are given in the case of child molesters, who seem to get it worse from society than even murderers. [↩]
- If that last part surprises you, please go up and reread the second word in this site’s title a few times. ;-) [↩]
