With Perfect Hatred
By Dan Barker
After Bill Lueders' well-written story about me ran in
the Milwaukee Journal ["Wisconsin" Magazine, July 28,
1991], I received a lot of mail. It was nice to hear
from freethinkers, some of whom already have joined the
Foundation.
I also got many letters from Christians trying to get
me back into the fold. Their most common complaint was
regarding a comment I made about fundamentalists not
being allowed to question. "You must have been raised
in a strange church," one woman wrote, "because
questioning is encouraged in my fundamentalist
congregation. It makes our faith stronger."
Sure.
I did not have the time or inclination to answer each
believer personally, but I have been sending out a form
letter that shows that bible believers have no choice
but to suspend critical inquiry. I Corinthians 10:5
says: "bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ." This hardly sounds like an
attitude of open inquiry.
Proverbs 14:12 says: "There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of
death." In other words, don't you dare think for
yourself.
Proverbs 3:5-7 says: "lean not upon thine own
understanding . . . be not wise in thine own eyes." In
Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus said, "Take no thought for your
life . . . Take no thought for the morrow: for the
morrow shall take thought of the things of itself." It
seems disingenuous for Christians to claim that there
is no restriction against independent thought in the
bible.
After all, isn't each denomination and sect committed
to a particular theology? Don't they have a "party
line" that defines the true believers? (And don't they
all disagree with each other about what this "party
line" should be?)
As a result of Bill's story, I was invited to be a
guest on "Milwaukee's Talking" TV shows, joined by
Foundation member Nancy Harris, a former Catholic. On
the show, she noted that as a child she was taught the
Baltimore Catechism, in which you have the questions,
and you have the answers, all neatly laid out--you
memorize both, and that is that. Christians can talk
all they want about "freedom in Christ," but those of
us who were raised in the church know better. True
believers are scared to death of questions. Most of
them have this fear, whether admitted or not, that
their children will come home for Christmas vacation
after the first semester of college, having abandoned
the indoctrination which was so earnestly instilled
during childhood.
Another common complaint in the letters was regarding
my mother's comment, quoted by Bill in the article,
that after she became a freethinker, "she struck upon
the joyous realization that, for the first time in her
life, she could love everyone--even homosexuals and
prostitutes and people of other religions whom
'Christians aren't supposed to love.' " Many Christians
took exception to this, claiming that "God hates the
sin, but loves the sinner."
Again, I have to question their sincerity. Does a true
believer want his or her child to marry a homosexual,
Moslem, or atheist? Would they vote for an atheist for
political office? Would they invite them into the inner
circle of fellowship at their church? Would they prefer
to do business with them? They talk a lot about love,
but their actions demonstrate something less. What they
really mean by "love" is "concern that sinners will
change their evil ways to become just like me." This is
hardly love.
Besides, the bible does not support the "love sinner,
hate sin" idea. II Chronicles 19:2 says, "Shouldest
thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the
Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee." Psalm 5:5-6 says
that God "hatest all workers of iniquity . . . the Lord
will abhor the bloody and deceitful man."
King David wrote in Psalm 139:21-22: "Do not I hate
them, O Lord, that hate thee? . . . I hate them with
perfect hatred." The prophet Hosea (9:15) quotes God:
". . . for there I hated them: for the wickedness of
their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I
will love them no more."
In Luke 14:26, the loving Jesus warns: "If any man come
to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his
own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (A Baptist
minister on the TV show claimed that I was taking this
out of context, but the Greek word here is miseo which
means simply "hate," not "love less than me," as some
suggest.)
I know it is possible to find a few verses that say
"God is love," but this only demonstrates that the
bible is contradictory.
In Leviticus 24:16, the bible says that freethinkers
like myself should be executed: "He that blasphemeth
the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death,
and all the congregation shall certainly stone him."
Leviticus 20:13 mandates the same fate for homosexuals:
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a
woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they
shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon
them." None of this sounds much like love, does it?
My mom is right. Atheists and agnostics are not
obligated to radiate "perfect hatred." Isn't it nice to
be nice?
Freethought Today, October 1991
This Internet version has been expanded slightly from
the original version in Freethought Today.
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