Love in a time of hate

In my hometown of Louisville, a white racist recently shot and killed two African-Americans. He reportedly had been unable to burst into a black church to kill even more people. A grocery store became his killing field. He was blinded by hate of another race.

Soon afterwards, a Florida man sent what the FBI said were real bombs, not hoax ones, through the mail. Thank God, none exploded. Hate had blinded him, which was confirmed by what he posted on social media. It was full of hatred of Jews and immigrants and African-Americans, according to law enforcement. He was, terrorism experts said,  "self-radicalized." 

On the Jewish sabbath, a man burst into Tree Of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 14 people at prayer and wounded a half-dozen other people. He thought Jews a threat to his race. Reports on his social media activity revealed extreme anti-Semitism. He was blinded by hate. His murderous rampage has terrorized the Jewish community nationally.

Hate has been activated in America by politicians to increase and expand power for themselves and their pernicious ideologies. Combined with fear of black people, brown people, Democrats and liberals, among others, hate is a deadly and dividing force. It has dehumanized and demonized whole groups and classes of people, including the poor. 

Because of today's politics and rhetoric of fear and hate, some historians claim that America is more divided today than it was during the late 1850s in the buildup to the Civil War. 

What America needs today, while we still have time and before we risk a plunge into another civil war, is a commitment to the rhetoric and politics of love. 

I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus, a Jew, revealed the God of love perfectly, and he suffered,  died and rose from the grave on the third day to demonstrate that love is more powerful than hate. People of all colors and creeds who believe in the power of love have transformed this country for the good at points in our history—abolishing slavery, working for voting rights for African-Americans and the protection of them and advocating for compassionate treatment of the poor and the vulnerable.

In the sacrament of Holy Baptism, I committed myself to Jesus as my Savior and Lord and to his way of love; love is willing and doing the best for every human being, regardless of who he or she is. Jesus fed the poor, welcomed the outcast, healed the sick and broken, cast out demons. He brought people the fullness of life. He teaches me that despite what people who hate and promote division say, I am not to view people who are different from me as the the other, the enemy, as people undeserving of freedom, rights under our U.S. Constitution, or, indeed, life itself. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., If God is or father, then we are all brothers and sisters. We are all family. Genesis says or our ancient origins that we are from the same parents, Adam and Eve.

Instead of being blinded by hate, we Americans need to be sighted and motivated by love. 
and as hard as it is, especially now, we need to do what Jesus and all great religious teachers have urged: Love our neighbors as ourselves. 

I place little hope in elected officials showing us the way of love or acting according to it, although we should still press them to do so, including through the power of our vote. Instead, individually, we need to enact love not just on days of our religious observances in our churches, synagogues and mosques, but every day. 



How? Get to know people of other faiths and races and political viewpoints. Attend the local Interfaith Alliance of the Ozarks’ meetings.  Do some act of kindness. Volunteer at a food pantry. Refuse to laugh at the racist joke or to vilify someone who believes differently from you. Pray for people you regard as enemies. Mute the voices of hate, division and violence. Raise your voices against them. Whatever our faith, race, class or party affiliation, we must unite against hate and live the way of love for a better America.


The Rev. Kenneth L. Chumbley, Springfield,  is an Episcopal priest.