Over recent weeks , as I've been following the UK general election via various social media sites. By and large the coverage has been good, even when the opinions put forward have been clearly partisan, the tone has been largely measured and good natured. Sadly however there is a minority of people who don't take such a measured view, and a rash of "hate" sites have grown up. These sites often express their disagreement with a specific person or group of people in vitriolic terms.
Passionately Held Views
Now I have no problem with strongly held views being passionately expounded, the fact is that it's passionately held views that often bring much needed change. (The alternative is to be left wallowing in mundanity whilst nothing changes - God forbid!) Debate and argument are useful tools when used wisely. Sadly from what I have seen these hate sites have little to do with bringing change, or acting wisely. In short they exist almost exclusively to berate and belittle the people they target, and their followers.
I Disagree
From a Christian perspective there are many people that I strongly disagree with. The very nature of having a code of moral standards, means that it it divisive, as it divides into those that hold those codes as valuable and those that don't. I happen to believe that those who hold different opinions to me are wrong, in some cases I believe that not only are their views wrong, but that those views are harmful. For example I am pro-life and believe that to abort healthy babies is wrong, I use the word babies deliberately as I believe that life begins at conception, and that to use semantics to obscure the taking of a viable life is both wrong and dishonest.
Murder Starts Here
These are views that I feel passionately about, but for me to set up a hate site to vilify people who hold pro-choice views is not helpful. Jesus teaches that if we hold anger in our hearts we are no better than murderers.
Jesus makes it plain that our attitude towards even our enemies should be love - so even if we disagree vehemently with someone, for whatever reason we should not be inciting hatred towards them.
So what Should We Be Doing?
I guess there are many answers to that question, but the context for my initial observation was the number of hate sites that have appeared on social networking sites, so I'll confine my answer to that context. How about setting up a site to encourage prayer for those people we disagree with? This in turn begs the question what should we pray for them? - How about asking God to pour out His love and blessing on them? After all it's how Jesus treats you and I even whilst we still sinners....
I think that Jesus commandment was practical advice for the winning of our enemies, not just wishful thinking.
Go On Give It A Go!
What will happen if we try it? Might we see some people we passionately disagree with, turned around and walking into the Kingdom?
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