MK Gantt Ministries

I live in a community that declares with an almost unanimous voice, “Hate Has No Home Here.” Yet, there is scant evidence of the veracity of that claim. Every other yard sports a sign declaring that hate is not welcome in our little town. It is virtually impossible to find a vehicle that does not sport a bumper with a sticker declaring the absence of hate and or an impassioned appeal to co-exist in our sleepy little town. Yet, despite the proliferation of signs, bumper stickers, and decals declaring us to be a haven of peace and tranquility, more empirical evidence reveals it to be anything but. 

It is not our signs, placards, bumper stickers, and tattoos that explain who we are –– it is our language, our tone, our strident demands for compliance that truly reveals what is in our hearts. In this 21st century, the measure of our peaceableness, tranquility, and hunger for coexistence is best articulated in the vaults of social media. Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram; the words we hammer out on our computers and our phones –– they are the true revelation of our collective heart. The shame labeling, name calling, character assassination, personal denigration, laced with the appropriate collection of “F” bombs we drop; ah, that’s what reveals all the world needs to know about our hearts; and all we need to know about what has found a home in our community. 

I would posit that it is disingenuous to declare a community to be hate free while sporting an almost endless list of qualifiers. 

Unless you are . . . 

As long as you are not . . .

If you agree with . . .

If you voted for . . .

If you support . . . 

If you condemn . . . 

If you do not condemn . . .

You can fill in the blanks, but you get my point. You “must” or you “must not,” can quickly shatter the fragile illusion of peaceableness. To demand agreement, to require validation, to force acceptance of ideas or opinions or life choices . . . or else, is in fact a form of cultural fascism. 

We seem to believe that only Presidents or political parties can be fascists. 

We are convinced that only policemen or soldiers can be fascists.  

But, all too often the voices quickest to cry fascism toward anyone or any group that does not satisfy the qualifier . . . are in fact the real fascists.

I disagree . . . but I don’t hate. Disagreement is not hatred. True hatred demands agreement.

I debate ideas . . . but I don’t slander and shame those who disagree with my ideas. To do so is childish, petty, and even vindictive.

I tolerate people . . . I don’t necessarily tolerate all ideas. Some ideas are wrong. Full stop. But here is a real eye opener: I can reject your opinions without rejecting you as a person. I can actually hate your idea without hating you. And, I can reject your opinion without firing up all of my social media contacts to tell the world what a miserable and despicable human being you are because you don’t pass muster with my particular qualifier.

Furthermore . . .

I am a Christ follower . . . but I don’t despise those who are not. I happen to believe the God I serve created you with the capacity to choose whether or not you will follow Him. I may try to evangelize you, proselytize you, convert you –– but I won’t reject you, hate you, or demonize you.

I am politically conservative . . . but I don’t hate those who are not. I don’t call them names, I don’t paint them as vile, or wicked, or stupid. I simply have a different view of how a society should conduct itself. 

I am heterosexual . . . but contrary to the popular narrative, I do not hate those who are not. We have made different life choices, and while I may not agree with a person’s life choices, and may even debate them, my heart is filled with neither hate nor disgust. 

I am white . . . but I neither hate, nor feel superior to those who are not. We are not of different races, for there is only one race and that is the race of Adam and Eve. We all sprang from the same man and woman. We have different levels of melanin, but whether light or dark, we are all of the same seed.

I think you may have discerned by now that this post is little more than a rant. I love the community in which I have resided for more than fifty years, and I wish with all my heart that hate did not have a home here. 

But it does.