Hatred is a powerful emotion. It is the fuel required to commit the most heinous acts of violence or to cheer on those acts. Hate hijacks our normal human empathy and silences the lessons of good and evil, suspending notions of right and wrong. In a nutshell, it makes us stupid. When our heart is overtaken by hate, we become gullible and irrational believers of lies and false accusations without evidence. The overflow of a heart full of hate becomes bold hate speech, spewing all manner of abhorrent things about others. Unchecked hate takes over the body, making us behave as though we lack common decency and humanity as we destroy everything in sight whether property or human. Hate is an energy unto itself. It is a driving force, an impossible emotion to control once we allow ourselves to be consumed by it. However, as a Christian, I recognize that the God of love, who calls us to love, also harbors hatred of certain human attributes.
In the biblical text of Proverbs 6:16, there are seven human character traits that God hates. “These six things the Lord hates, yes seven are an abomination to Him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”
There are very few people that I genuinely hate. The few that I hate all exhibit these particular characteristics, inflicting harm and chaos upon vulnerable people. I don’t believe it is a stretch to say that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, J.D. Vance, and even Speaker Mike Johnson and a host of MAGA supporters continually demonstrate these seven attributes worthy of hate. Just to make my point, I note their promotion of white male power to the discrimination and detriment of everyone else; their constant lies about everything; their withholding of lifesaving medical care and food for the poor; their gleeful plans to make people suffer to further enrich the wealthy; the illegal firing of government workers and defunding of public health research; their disregard for laws, extortion, bullying, threats to invade countries; their embrace of evil dictators who silence, imprison and murder their own citizens without due process; the false accusations against government employees, migrants, teachers, judges, and anyone else who opposes them; and of course the drumming up of culture wars to incite animosity among neighbors and family members.
This past week, a friend asked me how I felt about people destroying Tesla vehicles. I had mixed feelings. My commitment to love and my moral compass tell me that acts of violence are wrong. However, my hatred of Elon Musk made me reluctant to feel any empathy for him because of his abhorrent actions that fuel hatred, bigotry, lawlessness, discord, and misinformation while causing death, pain, and real suffering for millions of Americans and people around the world. I admit to silently cheering his loss of billions of dollars and even the vandalism of his cars. In truth, my empathy lies with the innocent people Elon is harming. Someone mentioned the innocent people working at Tesla and I can only think that if a person lies with a dog, they should expect to get fleas.
In the end, I could only say to my friend that I understood the vandalism and that I believe these acts of vandalism should be taken as warning signs of the ultimate price Elon may pay for the hate that he has ignited in so many people. Personally, I won’t buy a Tesla, and I won’t engage in acts of vandalism nor violence against him because I have enough love in my heart to counter my hatred for him. Love keeps me level-headed. The teachings of Christ to overcome evil with good, moderates my behavior. However, I think that the hatred for these men is well-deserved since God, in His abundance of love, says humans like them our deserving of hate because of their character.
I don’t think this will end well for any of them. Not that I want or am promoting negative actions. However, I sense something bad coming for them because there are a lot of armed men who feel betrayed, threatened, hurt, and angry by these arrogant men. The hate they feel will not be contained if they lack love in their hearts and have no moral compass to moderate their actions.