Opting Out Of The Hate Machine
- Kerry Morris
- 20 hours ago
- 7 min read
Laying That Crushing Burden Down
Riding in an Uber last week, I heard a song by Bad Bunny. I’m not familiar with Mr. Bunny’s work, but I did find myself tapping out the beat on the floorboard of Luis’s Hyundai Sonata.
So imagine my disappointment later when my social media feed told me I was supposed to hate Bad Bunny.
It is getting harder and harder to keep up with all the things I am supposed to hate. So far in the past twelve months, the list includes:
Bad Bunny
Kid Rock
One Cracker Barrel logo but not the other one
Sydney Sweeney’s genes and/or her jeans
ICE agents
Immigrants
Windmills
The Danish (the nation, not the pastry)
Rich people
Universities
Our culture has become a hate machine, generating power by pitting groups against each other. Our political class uses the power of hate as a tool for motivating and manipulating us. Simple skepticism or indifference no longer seem sufficient. In our divided world, we must be fully and emotionally aligned with the hatred espoused by our tribe, or risk excommunication.
But hatred is a heavy burden that humans were not designed to carry. I’m ready to lay it down. It’s time to opt out of the hate machine.
At first glance, the term ‘hate’ may seem too harsh, but religious and philosophical traditions say otherwise. Although different traditions slightly different definitions of hate, the key concepts are pretty consistent. A useful working definition would be this: Hate is willfully refusing relationship, often based on misunderstanding and fueled by insecurity. Exploring this definition provides clues to an antidote.
Refusing Relationship
In the Tanakh / Old Testament, the Hebrew word most commonly translated as ‘hate’ is ‘sane’ (pronounced sah-NAY). In an ancient society based on covenants, to ‘sane’ someone was to deliberately place them outside a covenant. This kind of hate was not an emotional enmity so much as it was a choice to exclude someone from the rights and privileges of relationship. Jacob exhibited ‘sane’ towards his wife Leah, meaning he treated her as less favored, devaluing their relationship.
In Christian theology, hate is not just hostility—it is a rejection of the other as a bearer of God’s image. It is more choice than emotion. Jesus does not define hate emotionally but relationally. To hate is to refuse love, mercy, or recognition of dignity.
Headlines that talk about “others”, identify people as “not like us”, or designate people as less worthy of compassion and respect fit neatly into this category. The first step toward hatred is drawing a line between myself and another person.
The opening line of the Declaration of Independence embeds part of an antidote in our political philosophy. “All men are…endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” Beyond this political framework, Jesus offers an even more expansive vision, “For God so loved the world.” The love of God is for everyone, the divine covenant is between God and humanity. No one has the power to excommunicate anyone.
Distorted Perception
Tragically, hate is often based on a distorted sense of reality, based on misunderstanding and fear. Buddhist and Vedantic thought views hate as a product of avidya or ignorance, mistaking something temporary for ultimate reality. The Quran echoes this, pointing out that jahal, or ignorance, is a gateway to harming others[1]. Aaron Beck said that hate is sustained by cognitive distortions: overgeneralization, mind-reading, and moral absolutism.
It is no accident that, as our growing distrust in news outlets, governments, and institutions has coincided with a growing willingness to hate. If hate is the lever those in power use to pry us apart, misinformation is the fulcrum. How many times have I felt hatred rise in response to a headline or social post? And how many times has that headline turned out to be false or misleading?
The most common distortion of reality is lumping individual humans into one abstract group. The Talmud describes hate as sinat chinam, a baseless hatred extended based on identity or group. This translates into an inability to truly see the individuals within a group, as Hannah Arendt pointed out.
I might feel the burn of hate towards a group in a photo. But what if I zoom in and see an individual, terrified and overwhelmed, trying desperately to protect the relationships they value? I fight hatred when I take the time and emotional effort to see individuals within the crowds, to try to understand their individual reality. I uproot hatred when I ask myself what information or assumption justifies my hatred. And then I ask the all-important follow up: what if my assumption was wrong?
Doing the hard work of seeking the objective truth can keep us from the easy sin of hate.
Internal Insecurity
While hatred is focused on something external, its source is within our heart. Jesus said, “For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts…they are what defile you.[2]” Rabbinic tradition speaks of Yetzer ha-ra, or the evil inclination, suggesting hate emerges from internal tendencies, not spontaneous emotion. Watching the video of Alex Pretti, I was struck by the reaction of different ICE agents. Some just stood there, some beat him and stepped back, another took his gun, two others shot him. Men with the same role, similar training, the same situation, all reacted differently. Something was different on the inside.
When we follow the roots of hatred to our internal motivations, often we find we hate because we are afraid, and blame others for what scares us. In Buddhism, dosa, or hatred, is characterized as a reaction to a perceived threat. The philosopher Epictetus held that hatred arises when we believe a group can harm us. Spinoza said that “Hatred is sadness accompanied by the idea of an external cause.”
If the way our society is changing makes me afraid, my natural tendency is to find someone to blame. Then hate is just a breath away. We resist hate when we resist simple narratives about who is to blame. But most of all, we resist hate when we resist fear.
Hate Has a Cost
Hate can be cathartic for a moment. My fear latches on to a group to blame and I draw a line between myself and them. It feels empowering, it feels like justice. But, if I am honest with myself, the aftertaste of rage is always a little bitter. Something inside feels off.
Judaism views hate, or sinat chinam, as a kind of communal poison that destroys communities. This destructive power of hate is on display every day, from awkward family dinners to empty church pews to social media fights. Human needs that should be addressed by community effort are collateral damage.
Buddhism views hate as one of the “three poisons” that clouds our perception. It makes it more difficult to understand objective truth. In this way, hate begets hate by making it more difficult to challenge our assumptions and see individuals. It is no wonder stoics viewed hatred as a form of bondage that took away our internal freedom of thought.
Psychology tells us hatred increases depression and anxiety. It literally degrades our physical bodies, elevating stress and weakening our heart and cardiovascular system. Maybe you get a tightness in your chest, perhaps a headache or restless sleep. Hate has an impact.
Jesus taught that hatred can separate us from God. “Leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.[3]” The Apostle John put it bluntly, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.[4]”
No matter what your view of God, this intuitively makes sense. There is something broken about hatred, something grievous in the aftertaste of blame. If the heart of God loves every individual human, choosing to hate places me against the divine current that flows through all of history.
It is no wonder that, at the height of the civil rights conflict of the sixties, surrounded by injustice and oppression and a thousand reasons to hate, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached these words. “Hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love.[5]”
Choosing Love
“I have decided.” Deciding to love can seem impossible in a society where hatred has become the currency of power and the badge of tribe. But when we choose to love we align ourselves with the heart of God. And the same divine current that makes hatred seem so broken becomes the force that propels us towards love. “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect…We love each other because he loved us first.[6]” “The fruit of [God’s] Spirit is love…[7]”, and that love empowers us.
I choose not to deny the humanity and worthiness of others, even if I disagree with them.
I choose to see individual humans instead of the crowd of ‘they’
I choose to seek the whole truth, not just the convenient and affirming facts
I choose not to let fear turn into blame
No matter how much those in power try to use hatred to manipulate me, I can choose not to add things to my list of things to hate.
Choosing love is not just the right choice; it is the pragmatic one. The cost of hatred is simply too high.
If you found this helpful, please Sharewith a friend!
Thanks for reading Unknown God! Subscribe for free to receive new posts to your inbox or app.
________________
FOOTNOTES
[1]“O believers! If an evildoer brings you any news, verify it, so you do not harm people unknowingly, becoming regretful for what you have done.” Surah Al-Hujurat 49:6 Mustafa Khattab
[2] Mark 7:21-23 NLT
[3] Matthew 5:24 NLT
[4] 1 John 2:9–11
[5] “Where Do We Go from Here?” (1967)
[6] 1 John 4:17, 19 NLT
[7] Galatians 5:22 CEB
Comments