I
read a provocative essay recently on a Christian defence of hatred. Christianity has made a great deal of rejecting hatred, starting in the mid-twentieth century. What we could call contemporary Christianity is focused on love, and particularly universal, undifferentiating love. As someone to whom hatred does not come very naturally, I absorb messages of love far more easily than messages of rejection.
But to love something, it is argued, is to hate its opposite, or that which would seek to destroy the beloved. Furthermore, an honest look at the Gospels and Epistles does not reveal a set of precepts easily compatible with modern notions of all-embracing love. This was the purpose of my "Hard Words" post from yesterday. I went through the Gospel According to Matthew, and pulled out as many quotes as I could in which Our Lord (or in one case, John the Baptist) was harshly critical of others, and warned of terrible punishment. Our Lord went to the sinners and the outcast, but He stayed with and blessed only the penitent -- the proud and the persistent in their sins are unabashedly and firmly rejected, in terms that many contemporary Christians would be embarrassed by.
I would much rather accidentally love something that I should hate, than accidentally hate something I should love. But that's not a blanket excuse -- how do we use disdain, contempt, hatred, to good use in our spiritual life? Is it possible?