Hate’s Design

     

Hate was designed to be destructive. 

Hate has no positives, and yet, it will always exist, as will love.

     Hate exists through its acceptance as a normality, as does love.

Hate is a result of choices made, as is love.

     Hate wants your soul, as does love.

Hate wants your death, love wants your life.

     Hate, through segregation, was designed to keep ‘different’ people, apart.

Hate, through abortion, was designed to keep minorities, minorities.

     Hate, through welfare, was designed to keep the poor, poor.

Hate, through victimization, was designed to keep people, dependent.

     Hate, the projects, was designed to keep ‘others’ invisible.

Hate, through oppression, was designed to suppress speech and religion.

     Hate, selfishness, apathy, is preached by Satan, love, hope, fervor, is exhorted by God.

 

Hate was designed to be destructive.

 

May the peace of Christ fill your hearts, and the love of God fill your soul.

 

David E. Gonzales

…and we still don’t get it!

          It’s unbelievable. 2,000+ years and we still don’t get it. It’s been 2,000+ years since Christ came to teach us, and we still don’t understand the message. 

          Christ came by the power of the Father to teach us there is but one true God, and to be kind to one another. That’s it. He came to teach us that our relationship with God is, as is, our relationship with each other. As we mistreat each other, we separate ourselves from God. 

          And we still don’t get it! 

          As we continue to tear each other apart, regardless of how we self-identify, we drive a larger and larger wedge between us and God. The word used in the New Testament, or Christian Bible, is Love. The “Love” used throughout, is from the Greek meaning “charity” 

          Charity in its simplest form is “kindness”. This is the key to heaven or hell. When we fail in kindness and excel in hate, we fail. We fail completely. There is no room in heaven for hate. As there is no room in hell for love. Christ taught us, “Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven”! 

And we still don’t get it! 

          The New Testament may the most nonracial book(s) ever written. It’s about faith. It’s about how to express that faith between we the people, and as a people, with God. This relationship is intertwined. Our interaction with one another is intertwined in our faith without exception. 

       It is without exception, in all functional relationships, there is one foundation. This foundation consists of mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual care and mutual support. This is true regardless if the relationship is with the divine or with each other. For they are the same. 

          Mutual, not equal. I define it this way, “Equal can be written in law, mutual is expressed person to person”. Mutual kindness, it’s that simple. And it’s that hard. It’s been 2,000+ years and we still can’t or won’t do it. 

          We still insist in exalting ourselves one over another. We read the Bible to self-justify, instead of with a willingness to learn. We are indeed a “stiff necked people” [Acts 7:51-53] 

          We have been saved by Christ, but we can still condemn ourselves. We can throw away the sacrifice of Christ and the “place prepared for us”, [John 14- 2] or we can chose to live in our faith. We have the option to choose between good and evil, love and hate, kindness and cruelty.         

          Love nurtures love and hate nurtures hate. To me the options seem obvious.

And yet we still don’t seem to get it. 

May the peace of Christ fill your hearts and the love of God fill your souls. 

David E. Gonzales

There Is No Power...

There is no white power, nor black power. No brown, no yellow. No Christian, no Jew, no Muslim, nor any other division created by humanity. 

There are but three divisions, those are of love, hate and apathy. The last one listed is perhaps the most dangerous and insidious. I can understand where some apathy comes from. It's hard to openly care about something, anything, these days. And even harder to voice your concern. Take a look at your social media and read the vile comments, some on the most benign posts.

Those vile comments usually come from a place of hurt, which has festered into hate. Their hate turns into our apathy. Many slowly lose their ability to love/care, thus allowing apathy to creep into their daily routine. These same people become increasingly self-concerned and defensive.

As they/we become increasingly "self" orientated, we lose the ability to extend ourselves outside of our comfort zone. This allows the hate to grow, to manifest into a controlling entity. Only then do we see a push back from the masses. Sometimes, that happens too late to constrain.

           

Usually, hate can be pushed back into the shadows of existence. Unfortunately, it can’t be eliminated. Understanding this helps us to be conscious and resilient.

           

As love will find those of a similar persuasion, so will hate. Apathy is safe, and it too will find those of a similar ilk. Love and hate will always go head to head in the battle for dominance. Because love can be passive, and hate aggressive, hate will slither into those shadows and await its next opportunity, its next excuse to try and take control.

           

Love, hate and apathy, these three levels of being dominate our lives, our time here on Earth. Let us take our stance for love. Let us never fall to the lies of hate. And never let us fall into the false comfort of apathy.

Many Faiths have as their core a belief of compassion toward each other. How we treat each other embodies our relationship with our God, Higher Power or Positive Energy. When we live with kindness and charity, we live our Faith and we are in harmony with our Faith. We understand our Faith and we are exercising that understanding.

Hate is easy to understand, while apathy is easily overlooked. In Faith, apathy is condemned. In the Christian Bible, Luke 16:19-31, tells the story and effects of apathy. And it’s not pretty. At the same time hate should never be met with more hate, as this will only fuel the fire of hate. There is no simple or easy solution.

Earlier I stated that hate can’t be eliminated. It can, however, be minimized, but not with more hate.

May you always have to strength to LOVE!

by David E. Gonzales

Racism; A Cure?

I’ve heard people say that racism is taught, which it is. However I don’t believe that’s the only dynamic involved with this issue. What I’m bringing into the conversation is that racism is also a decision made. What I’ve been hearing and reading are individuals making the popular statement about racism being taught and following it up with a pointed example. This seems ok, except they usually follow-up their point with something like “THE END, OR THAT IS ALL” This of course is meant to end the conversation. Ah, if it were only that simple.

            President Obama recently stated in a speech that racism hasn’t been cured. And I have to agree with that statement. What I don’t agree with is the idea that there is a cure.

There is not now, nor will there ever be a cure for racism. Racism can be taught, yes, but that is not the only way people become racists. Another method could be that a person sees another person, and that other person looks different. The human mind immediately goes into motion and tries to understand what it’s seeing. The mind can come to many different conclusions. One of those conclusions could be, “if it’s different than me it must be less than me, or flawed in some way”. Once the mind comes to define something in this manner, it may at this time become a sub-conscience truth. It may be very hard, if not impossible, to change the mindset of that

conclusion.

            The mindset of racism is a motivation for people to gather. People tend to congregate with those of similar qualities. Other more common qualities are skin color, language, cultural traditions, and/or religious practices. These commonalities have been around since the earliest of times.

In the Bible racism is largely absent from mindset of its writers. Religious bigotry is a very different matter. There’s also the very prevalent matter of birthright written in the pages of the Bible. You were either Jewish or not Jewish, a Roman citizen or not a Roman citizen, wealthy or poor, and of course later, a Christian or not a Christian. Each one came with its specific rights and privileges. Thankfully, the Bible also tells us how to deal with racism and bigotry.

The Bible states throughout, especially in the New Testament, that love is the answer. It teaches us that love is lived through charity, kindness, respect, forgiveness, acceptance, and tolerance. Living life through love, and teaching through example can no doubt reduce racism throughout our society.

We are predominantly a society of religions. If we truly live our lives as our faiths teach, we can minimalize and delegitimize the idea of racism and bigotry. We will never be able to eliminate racism or bigotry, but we can diminish it to the point that it becomes a scourge on those who practice this belief, and not worn as a badge of honor.

There is no honor in hatred. Hatred begets hatred, love begets love, and love always triumphs. (1 Cor. 13)

May you always practice what you preach, and may you always preach love!

by David E. Gonzales

Related link: God Hates The--- 

Definitions via the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary:

rac·ism

: a belief that race is the primary determinate of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

: racial prejudice or discrimination

big·ot

: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices ; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance

What's Worse?

What's worse? 

Hating each other,

- Or ignoring each other?

     Hating each other leads to destructive behavior.

While ignoring each other results in apathetic behavior.

     I think both lead to sadness, and I think that says enough.

     Love, or more specifically, charity, leads to behavior that is constructive and enthusiastic.  

     Constructive, in building a society that is greatly reduced in destructive aggression. Consistently reinforcing a foundation for strong relationships. 

     Being enthusiastic in kindness, this leads to stronger families, communities, towns, cities, states, and countries. This is laid upon a stable foundation, enduring the test.

-Charity, people lending a hand to people.

--Charity, kindness extended to those in need.

---Charity, Love personified.

by David E. Gonzales

God Hates the----?

I must take exception with the all too common adage that God hates. I hear and read that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. It is my belief that God has no hate. God knows and understands hate, but God, as love in its totality, has and harbors no hate.

If we are to believe that God is love (1 John. 4; 8, 16), love in its totality, then I cannot believe God hates. I do not believe that God hates Lucifer, Satan, or whatever name you use, God loves all. Perhaps Satan is God's one true pain, pain for the one who can never be reunited in the kingdom. Then again, with God all things are possible. (Mat. 19; 26/ Mark. 10; 27)

We separate ourselves from God through sin, however, God does not separate from us. It could be said that God cries for us, extends to us his most divine mercy, but with no hatred. Perhaps this is how God can forgive us even though it is known we will sin again?

Why is this important? If we believe our God hates, or has hate, then we will emulate our God and extent this hate to others. If, however we believe our God does not hate or is without hate, and teaches us love is the answer to peace and harmony, then we will also avoid hate and extend our love to others.

If this is true, that God is without hate, then we as his children, must extend this same attitude of love to all people without exception. This is regardless of color, origin, religion, or sex, or any other designation man has devised to create classes of people.

Jesus gave us the greatest commandments, to love God and to love each other. Besides being in all four ¹Gospels it is read throughout the New Testament. To love one another is the single greatest message given to us in the whole of the Bible. Even the passion of Christ is rooted in the love God has for us. It is the common denominator from Genesis through Revelations.

God does not hate, God does not punish the innocent, God does not create pain and suffering, and God did not give us our mortality. Adam brought this into our being through original sin, and now we live to the best of our ability with the tools God has shown us. And love is the tool that trumps them all!

May the PEACE and LOVE of Christ be you now and forever!

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Scripture is from the NABRE

1 John. 4; 8, 16

8-Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.

16-We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him

Mat. 19; 26

Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible."

Mark. 10; 27

Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."

1.     1 - Mat. 22; 37-40 / Mark. 12; 29-31/ Luke. 10; 29-27 / John. 13; 34-35

Related blog: http://daedgo.blogspot.com/2012/11/no-god-didnt-do-it_5.html 

by David E. Gonzales