The Horror of Hatred: A Message from Dean Moore
The Horror of Hatred
August 4, 2019
In 24 hours, people in the United States have witnessed two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, with a death toll of 29 and an injury toll of more than 50. In the past week, we have witnessed two other horrific shootings in Southaven, Mississippi and Gilroy, California, bringing the death toll to 34 and injuries to 70 (both numbers subject to change). This does not even count the killings in US cities and towns, which happen with terrifying regularity. The reasons for these many shootings will take weeks to unravel, but we already see evidence of racist-extremism against Hispanic and immigrant people, extremist propaganda, and employee disgruntlement. We do not yet know what details and other motivations will surface, but the initial evidence is sadly reminiscent of motivations in other recent acts of terror.
Shootings and denigrating propaganda express the horror of hatred, but they do not stand in isolation from public statements and policies, political structures, and individual and communal actions and attitudes that promote racism. The past month has been rife with threats and actions cracking down on immigrants, resulting in the separation of children from their families, deep fear in immigrant communities, and inhumane living conditions for immigrants held in custody. These are not new practices; they have been part of US systems for decades, though they are now escalating at an alarming rate. Increasing threats and massive actions have fed a culture of hate in which people are demeaned and treated as non-human. That same hate-feeding culture has seen explosions in white nationalistic activity, castigation of persons and communities of color by private citizens and the highest leaders of the land, and silence or inaction by too many others.
The good news is that many have responded by offering care for victims and their families, and also engaging in street protests, political and legal actions, and local efforts to build up cultures based in dignity and inclusive love for all peoples. These very efforts lay foundations for cultural change, but they will have to multiply 100, 1,000, 1,000,000 times if they are to produce the profound cultural transformation that is needed. We also have to be alert to the hidden racism and denigration within our own best efforts so we can become ever more self-critical and open to transformation in our individual and collective lives.
Some of our leaders are guilty of stoking fires of racism and nationalism, and some are guilty of denial or silence. Yet we ordinary citizens are guilty as well. We are in a political season in which the temptation is to blame one person, one group of leaders, or one political party. Those are urgent conversations but they are not enough. How can we go deeper and see the deadly dynamics of white privilege, racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and nationalism that infect our very lives? We are all implicated. The time is long past when we can attend only to the surface of social hatred. How can we begin to transform this world created by God with Divine goodness and delight? How can we honor and ensure justice and support for all human lives, each created in God’s image? My pastor Jay Williams preached this morning on living a life of prayer – one in which we become conscious that what we think, what we say, what we do, and how we live in the world makes a difference.
What would it mean if each and all of us in Christian and other theocentric traditions lived each day shaped through and through by our intimate relationship with God and God’s loving purposes? God would surely lead us toward radical change, and we would see and respond to the world differently, not through our favorite principles, rules, and prejudices, but through glimpses of the Spirit of God. Perhaps we could finally critique and transform the ways we think, speak, do, and live? If not, we are condemned to live forever in a culture of hatred.
– Mary Elizabeth Moore