Blog: Max Dawson
December 10, 2015
That line is part of the hook in a Taylor Swift song. I guess the line expresses a truth. What I mean is, hateful people hate others. It’s pretty obvious.
But what is it that makes people haters?
The terrorist attack in Paris that killed 130 people was an expression of hate. The recent terrorist murders in San Bernadino exhibited hate in a powerful way.
But why? What is it that fills people with such hatred?
One thing we know for sure is that people are not born that way. We are not born as sinners with hatred in our hearts. You may inherit a lot of things from your folks, but hatred is not one of those things.
Yet, you may indeed get hatred from your parents. Not through genetics, but through teaching in the home. Some people teach their children to hate. You don’t believe that? Then you have not seen the pics of Palestinian children being trained in how to use an AK-47 on their enemies.
In that environment (and not just in the Middle East), filling the minds of the young with hatred produces hateful and evil people. Hatred is exalted in that kind of environment. Evil is praised and considered good. It is seen as a sign of strength.
What we saw in San Bernadino a few days ago was the result of teaching of hate. Taking armaments into a facility that cared for handicapped people and murdering fourteen helpless souls! Wow, what bravery! What courage that must have taken! What heroism those Islamic terrorists showed!
Haters gonna hate! But how did they get to be haters? Don’t think this is limited to people from the Middle East or to the Islamists. What about people in our society who are raised to hate others because of the color of their skin? Or raised to hate others because they wear a uniform?
Hatred needs to stop!
A FINAL WORD
So, how do we stop hatred? Maybe stopping it starts in the home. With parents.
Jesus needs to be in your house. Don’t confine Jesus to the church house. Jesus teaches that we treat others–even our enemies–with love (Matthew 5:43-48).
Being a parent involves more than getting your kids to the soccer game, the school or to grandma’s house for the holidays. Being a parent involves putting principles into your kids that will guide their thinking. It is about teaching them to love, share, to respect others, to be generous, forgiving and kind. It is the opposite of hate.
Don’t trust the news media, Hollywood, the government or schools to teach your kids. Some of those have a warped message that will not help your family at all. Your kids need Jesus. And they need you to teach them Jesus.
What principles are you putting into your kids that will guide them in life? You say, “I don’t have to worry about those things because I take my kids to church.” Really? You are counting on the church to do the teaching for you? Whatever happened to you being a parent? Read Ephesians 6:1-4.
Parenting–instilling love in your kids–is an everyday process. You are molding your kids by what you are doing–or molding them in the wrong way by what you are not doing!
One thing is certain. Many of those parents in the Middle East are not leaving it to chance when it comes to raising their kids. They raise them with hatred in their hearts. They raise them to hate America, to hate you, to hate your kids. We can do a whole lot better than that. They do wrong. We can do right.
Chances are, no one in the Middle East will ever read today’s message in this email. The bigger question is, will people in Middle America read it and then do right in teaching their children not to hate?
Hatred needs to stop.
With love toward all,
–Max