Many people believe that one of the root causes of all the problems in the world is hatred - especially hatred that is motivated by religion. Others, however, disagree and argue that just the opposite is the case: there isn't enough religiously motivated hatred in the world. If there were more, we'd be better off.
At World Net Daily, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote a couple of years ago:
Hatred does not cause wars, it ends them. Because Churchill truly hated Hitler, he inspired a nation to put an end to his blitzkrieg conquests. The French, who did not hate Hitler, collaborated with him, instead. It is indifference to evil, rather than its hatred, that sends a message to the tyrants that they pick on anyone they like for the world will be silent.
Hatred does not cause wars... and hatred was not at all a factor in what Hitler did...
It's curious that Boteach contrasts Chruchill, a single person, against all of France. No, it's not curious -- it's convenient. Had he compared populations he'd have been forced to acknowledge that there were French who hated and opposed Hitler as well as English who sympathized with and collaborated with Hitler. That, though, wouldn't have helped him promote the idea that we need more hatred and I'll be he just hated that.
He who does not hate Abu Musab al Zarkawi - a monster who shouts "God is great" while sawing off the heads of innocent human beings - is barely human themselves. Can a man love innocent victims without hating their tormentors? Loving victims might generate compassion for their suffering. But hating the perpetrators will generate action to stop their orgy of murder.
Because it's just not possible to hate the actions rather than the person. Because it's just not possible to be motivated to end suffering because you hate suffering.
Exhortations to hate all manner of evil abound in the Bible. The book of Proverbs declares, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." Likewise, King David declares regarding the wicked, "I have hated them with a deep loathing. They are as enemies to me."
The first is not an exhortation to hate people. The second isn't an exhortation, it's a statement made by someone who did all manner of bad things despite being king. Maybe Rabbi Shmuley Boteach just hates facts and reality because they stand between him and promoting his hateful ideology?
Many of my Christian brothers and sisters mistakenly believe that God loathes hatred. They quote Jesus' teaching to turn the other cheek and his admonishment to love your enemies as proof that we dare never hate. On my radio show, many evangelical Christians have called to tell me that, in God's eyes, we are all sinners, and thus from a heavenly perspective Osama bin Laden and the average housewife from Kansas are equal. Osama must indeed face justice for his crimes, but we dare not hate him seeing that Jesus still loves him.
But this is a travesty of Jesus' teachings and would make this great Hebrew personality into someone who had contempt for his victims as he extended love to their murderers. Jesus advocated turning the other check to petty slights and affronts to our honor, not to mass graves and torture chambers. Likewise, while Jesus taught that we ought to love our own enemies, this did not apply to God's enemies. Our enemies are people who are our rivals for a promotion at work. God's enemies are those who slaughter his children.
I've looked in the gospels to find some reference to Jesus saying that we should only turn the cheek to "petty slights" and "affronts to our honor," along with hopefully a definition of what those things entail, but I just can't find it anywhere. Perhaps they appear in the Jewish version of the New Testament? It's curious, don't you think, that Shmuley Boteach doesn't bother quoting any of the actual text which says the things he claims.
The same must go for Jesus distinguishing between "our enemies" and "God's enemies." If someone could point me to this version of the New Testament, I'd greatly appreciate it because I've obviously been missing out on important things all these years. There's surely no better teacher of what the New Testament "really" says and "really" means than a Jewish Rabbi.
For a murderer to lament his actions in public and achieve instant absolution is an affront to everything forgiveness stands for.
Well, isn't that very much what Christianity teaches -- that if a person sincerely confesses and apologizes for their sins before dying, God will forgive them and accept them into heaven? At least, that's what traditional forms of Christianity teach... and here Rabbi Boteach is saying that they are "an affront to everything forgiveness stands for."
I wonder if the Christian editors of World Net Daily realize that Boteach is attacking one of the foundations of Christian theology?
There are those offenses for which there is no forgiveness, borders that are crossed for which there is no return. Mass murder is foremost among them.
According to Jesus, there is only one such offense -- blasphemy against the Holy Spirit -- and not even all Christians agree on that being the case. I've often seen Christians do all they can to argue that even that passage somehow doesn't apply anymore, thus preserving their doctrine that absolutely everyone has equal access to forgiveness, salvation, and heaven no matter what they have done in the past.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach may be making an argument that is consistent with traditional Judaism, but he's definitely not making an argument that is consistent with orthodox Christianity -- and he's clearly making false statements about Christianity in order to get people to agree with him. Why?
It seems to me that he is desperate to find religious and scriptural justification for what he already feels and wants. His heart and mind are filled with anger and hatred and he seems to be desperate to believe that his god authorizes all this -- that it isn't just him.
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