Hate

Words of hate produce acts of hate.

Robert Bowers spewed hatred on social media for years before turning his rants into reality, storming into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing eleven people and injuring seven more.  It was the largest and deadliest attack on American Jews in our nation’s history.

“I just wanted to kill Jews,” Bowers said.

In the aftermath, perhaps the most chilling observation came from one of his neighbors who said he was surprised because Bowers seemed like just a “normal guy.”

One of Cesar Sayoc’s employers went further.  He said Sayoc was “a nice guy”; yet his hated was clearly visible, posted on the van he lived in and the t-shirts he wore.

Sayoc sent pipe bombs to 14 people, frequently the target of hate speech, and threatened others on Facebook.  In the process, this “nice guy” earned the distinction of being the first person to ever attempt to assassinate two Presidents.

These events did not occur in a vacuum.  They are part of stream of events and the tenor of our times.  The daily news is full of vitriol.  Civility is lost.  In broadcast media – and too often in our personal lives – people don’t talk to each other any more. They talk at each other and over each other, discharging their opinions with as much velocity as possible.

Every day it’s something else. We are presented with disaster after disaster.  We cannot fully comprehend one before being presented with another.

Was it only last week that all we could talk about was Jamal Khashoggi?  Whatever happened to that?

Where are the children taken from their mothers at the border?   Were they ever re-united?

Is North Korea destroying its nuclear bombs or quietly building more?  Who knows?  Who do you believe?

It’s a symptom of the schism in our society.  The lines are drawn.  Instead of a wall on the border, walls have been built between us.  We could not be further apart.

“Diabolic” comes from a word meaning “to divide.”  Diabolic forces separate us from each other and God.  In our lives they find expression in ego, anger, pride, radical religions, nationalism, racism, envy, ignorance, and greed.  These are the forces of darkness.  They divide and conquer.

By contrast, “heaven” means “harmony.”  If demonic forces divide, love unites.

To date, the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the genius of America comes from Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic study, On Democracy in America.  His observations of the character of our society have stood the test of time and become the reference point for all subsequent analysis.

Asked to sum up his findings, de Tocqueville said, “America is great because America is good; America will cease to be great when it is no longer good.”

For de Tocqueville, religion was the “point of departure” for the entire American experience.  “It must never be forgotten that religion gave birth to Anglo-American society,” he said.  “In the United States, religion is therefore mingled with all the habits of the nation and all the feelings of patriotism, whence it derives a peculiar force.”

At about the same time, John Adams, our second President, made a similar observation.  “Our constitution was designed only for a moral and religious people,” Adam said. “It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

How long will it take for us to learn what we have long been told and know in our hearts to be true?

My friend, Tim Love, sent me a reminder this morning, prompting this post. “Only God can reveal truth,” Tim said.  “God tells us this time and time again. God is love.”

The great and enduring challenge of humanity is to get beyond the superficial elements that divide us.  The only thing that separates us from God and each other is the belief that we are separate.

Hell is the alternative.

The word “hell” comes from the old English.  Literally, it means “to separate” or “to build a wall around.” To be “helled” was to be shut off.

There are days when it feels like that’s where we are. We have to decide if that is where we want to be.