Why Do Some People Have to Have Someone to Hate?

by Katherine Ari, November 17, 2009

On the Internet news, Ian McClellan, the actor, admitted that he rips out pages in hotel Bibles about homosexuality. His actions are what they are. There are many things in the old testament of the Bible that are really offensive. If a woman is in her monthly menses and sits on a bench or pew in the temple or church, she is to be stoned and anyone who sits where she sat is unclean and also should be stoned. There is something in one of the Old Testament books about divorcing and one shoe – really silly if you are going to take the Bible literally. Then there is the scripture that says if you go into another community and they do not have the same god as Jehovah, you are to kill, stone, and castrate the people. Let’s see how far anyone gets taking that literally.

But it is the fundamental Christians, followers of the New Testament, that are screaming and condemning homosexuality the most. They will even say they don’t like the Old Testament because of the killing and castrating stuff and really don’t spend much time reading those stories. But they pick out this page and interpret as a justification to hate homosexuality.

I am not sure whether this one is old or new – "If thy right eye offends thee, pluck it out. If thy right hand offends thee, cut it off" – but how many people can take that one literally? Not many, because if they did, there would be a very large group of Christians and non-Christians with only one eye and one hand and they would be sent to mental hospitals for hurting themselves. And we can even leave lust and sex off of the offensive actions of eyes and hand. Just eating something that is harmful to your body or drinking alcohol that destroys brain cells are offensive acts.

Jesus says, “If someone comes to your door and you turn them away, you are turning him away. If you turn your back on the prisoner in jail, you turn you back on him (Jesus).” And I believe with my inner soul that if Jesus as I know Jesus were to walk into the jail to see those who have made mistakes and have fallen short of the glory of God, he would not scream at them and tell them they were going to Hell for their mistakes. He would not be ugly, angry, or unloving to them. He would not be going to jail to make a point of their mistakes. The Jesus I grew up loving would show love to them. Even the stories of him on the cross next to the others that were criminals tell us of his love for them and his forgiveness.

I am not sitting in judgment – after all Jesus also said, “Let you among us who is without sin (missing the mark) throw the first stone” because no one is without sin. Even if homosexuality is a “sin” (I don’t think so) it is just another sin and Jesus would NOT act the way the religious right acts. WHY do Christians always have to have a group to hate? WHY?

Why do homosexuals want to get married? They simply want to be treated the same and regarded the same as everyone else.

After World War II, the “hated group” was communist. Society feared and hated Germans, Japanese, and “Commies”. The Klu Klux Klan hated black people and Jews all in the name of Christianity. Then the USSR fell and the wall in Berlin came down. Civil Rights were supported by whites as well as African Americans and the KKK was revealed as what it was.

Then the religious right went after the “New Agers” – a work of the devil. If you went into a Christian bookstore, there was a whole shelf of condemning books about their definition of New Agers full of hate, anger, and misconstrued ideas by people that just looked for something to fault. New Age was just a marketing term and NEVER any one kind of people. Anything that some Christians thought was different or against their beliefs were New Age and the Devils work.

I remember so clearly another parent at the Christian school that my sons briefly attended saying that she wouldn’t ever vote for Bill Clinton because he wasn’t a Christian because he didn’t believe in the death penalty and did believe in abortions. I thought to myself that I know many Christians who do not believe in the death penalty and DO believe in the right to choose. But her definition of Christianity included this slant. So many things in the so-called New Age beliefs were considered as non-Christian by some and not so by others. But they preached and condemned and judged and call names and got ugly. Again Jesus would not act that way. He wouldn’t.

The phase of bracelets and signs and billboards of “What Would Jesus Do?” or WWJD was really a good idea. Unfortunately, people wearing those bracelets justified those judgmental attitudes and mean hateful behaviors. They believed Jesus would do that. I don’t!

The anti-New Agers furor died down as any metaphysical group distanced themselves from the term. The occult groups, the Pagan, or Wiccans, distanced from those terms too. The Christians hating – an oxymoron, don’t you think? – needed a new group to go after. (I just don’t understand why.) Homosexuals are tired of the bigotry and being treated like they are second-class citizens. They want to be allowed to marry and have all the rights of other couples. But the vocal ones that find a passage in the Bible to justify their unkind attitudes and beliefs speak out against them, condemning their lifestyle, acting like someone made them God. But I am not God. And I don’t have the right to judge either. If the Jesus I believed I knew as a girl growing up in the Baptist church, (though Baptist is not my spiritual home today) were standing with me right now, with my gay friends, and my straight friends, we would all feel Love, complete Love, unconditional Love, infinite Love. May each of us think every thought, take every actions, and do anything we do with anyone we come in contact with as if Jesus or God, however we interpret the Divine Presence, is standing with us with every breath we take. For I know we all my heart and soul that Peace would be on earth if everyone lived their lives with this practice in their life.

Take a moment now and imagine that your interpretation of God or the sons or daughters of God are in front of you with open arms and looking you in the eye. Don’t you feel it – Love - too? What Would He/She do if you turned toward another and then gave them hate and condemnation? Personally, I think if you turned back to look in the eyes of the Divine presence you would see tears.