The meaning of "hate"

There are many ways in which negative words are used as a put-down by substituting them for a more neutral word, like when a person with firm convictions is described negatively as "stubborn", or a passionate advocate for a cause is termed "obsessed."

In this way, the word "hate" has come to be used to describe the attitudes and speech of people who have strong moral convictions about certain lifestyles and behaviors. It began with the designation of abusive language spoken toward racial minorities as "hate speech", which was spoken by people like the neo-nazis. It moved from there to describing any kind of negative speech aimed at a class or group as "hate speech". And soon any criminal act against a member of a minority, in particular a racial or sexual minority, was called a "hate crime", regardless of whether that was the actual motive of the act.

I remember the first time I noticed the attempt to link this concept of hate to Christian conservatives. A bumper sticker, which played on the idea of "family values" as debated in the political realm, proclaimed "Hate is not a family value". There was a well-known connection between "family values", as promoted primarily by conservative religious groups, and a moral/spiritual opinion toward certain sexual or personal lifestyles and choices. In the view of more liberal-minded folks, this amounted to a hateful attitude, regardless of whether the disapproval was aimed at a racial group like Blacks or Hispanics or a sexual group like gays and lesbians.

Now the connection seems firmly in place, to the point that people outside the usual left-wing, anti-Christian groups are using it. Recently the McDonald's corporation made a deal with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to essentially buy a seat on the group's board of directors in return for a large cash donation. Because of that, a conservative Christian group called for a boycott of McDonald's restaurants. In response to this reaction, a McDonald's spokesman issued a statement, saying, "...hatred has no place in our culture. That includes McDonalds, and we stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment."

I don't believe for a minute that the Bible condones hateful speech, as in abusive, mean-spirited or threatening. Yet it must be acknowledged that some zealous advocates of biblical values have at times expressed their views in a very abusive manner, most notably the people of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. But hateful speech is not by any means confined to the conservative religious community. I've read plenty of abusive and insulting words aimed at conservative Christians by some atheists or liberals.

But now, even the calm and dispassionate expression of disapproval of the homosexual lifestyle, or the resistance of the advancement of the political agenda of some homosexual groups, is being lumped into a general category of hateful activity. In the Canadian courts, public criticism of homosexuals can be prosecuted as a legal offense, just as one might be charged with actually doing bodily injury.

What's next? Will the advocates of this all-inclusive "love" decide that our culture has no room for criticism of any kind of lifestyle, or even unbelief? Will evangelism someday be regarded as hate speech because it implies that some people just aren't "good enough" for heaven? Hard to say yet, but churches may want to check for "bugs" in their buildings, and take care around visitors they don't recognize, in case the "hate-watchers" are among them.