LOVE ENOUGH TO HATE

I found this to be a particularly interesing article and will have more to say about this later on today. I just wanted to get it out there for your perusal.

TO ORIGINAL SOURCE

Love enough to hate

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Posted: May 19, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

© 2009

The real "hate crime" being perpetrated by Congress and the level of evil it represents should shock every pastor into action. The underlying issue behind H.R. 1913/S. 909 is simple.

Hate crimes legislation, which assigns different levels of punishment for the same crime, is a perversion of equal justice on its face. Compound that injustice by criminalizing the preaching of Scripture as "hate speech" and therefore evil, while protecting unimaginable and abominable sexual behaviors as good, and we are building a perfect storm for national calamity.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20-21)
We The People have chosen this Congress, delegated God's authority to it and are fully responsible for the depravity flowing from it. Do we think that we can – as a noted pastor's wife did on the National Day of Prayer in Houston – pray the stock market and financial industries rebound while we wallow in rebellion?

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 5:24)
The problem is not that we do hate, but that we don't hate.

I was having breakfast with two black pastors some time ago when one of them mentioned that he was working on a book about hate. I responded with a question that surprised both of us – "Is it about good hate or bad hate?"

Don't miss David Kupelian's culture-war classic, "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom"

In our post-Christian culture's worship of the Tolerance Goddess and the extension of federal hate crime laws to protect every possible form of sexual deviancy while punishing PIP (Politically Incorrect Preaching), it is almost inconceivable that we recognize any hate as something desirable and noble. Christians, of all people, should reject hate, should we not?

No. The vital questions are what do we hate, why do we hate and how do we hate?

What should we hate? We have clear parameters given to us by God and, simply stated, we are to hate what He hates and love what He loves. What does He hate? One clear list can be found in Proverbs 6:16-19:

Here are six things GOD hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion: eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family. (The Message)
Aside from the fact that this is a perfect description of what has been spewing out of Washington, D.C., in the last 100 days, our challenge is to look beyond the symptom – D.C. – and discern root causes. Since Congress is a mirror image of the hearts of the people, it is time for another serious "heart test."

Why should we hate? For the same reasons God does, and not out of our own self-focused "rights" or motives. God hates eyes that are arrogant – or a "proud look" in another translation – because it reveals a heart that elevates self while it demeans the value and worth of others. It births tyranny and oppression for self-gain, including voting for leaders who we know will take property and freedom from others because "they owe it to us." We should hate this arrogance because it offends God and hurts people.

Lying tongues are tragically not the exception but the rule in our culture. Remember the "business by handshake" days? Probably not, as they have been extinct for so long. Intentional deceit by current political leaders, however, has escalated into standard practice and has destroyed the trust between people and public servants. We should hate lying because it offends God and hurts people.

Hands that shed innocent blood should be self-explanatory. The blood of tens of millions of innocents already murdered by abortion as well as those yet to be because of the silence and inaction of most pastors and Christians is still crying out for justice. We should hate the shedding of innocent blood because it offends God and hurts people.

Hatching evil plots, feet that run toward wickedness and lying under oath are other increasingly common "hate crimes" that will continue to stop the blessings of God on this nation. The bilking of hard-working, productive citizens by crooks represented by the like of Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford are no different than the plots hatched by radical socialists to seize the business and property of citizens through the abuse of government power. We should hate these things because … You get the picture.

The greatest hate crime a person or a nation can commit is willfully rejecting the authority, laws, grace and mercy of God in preference to the above list of evils. If those we elect to represent us commit that act by passing this abominable legislation, we must either replace them or accept the dire consequences.

Please, pastors of America, love our God and love our neighbors enough to hate what God hates and love what God loves. We can begin by choosing leaders for public office who will do the same rather than expecting those who love evil to cling to what is good.