Love and Hate
I have written recently about how sloppy use of the word “love” has diluted its current meaning. Yes, we are commanded in Sacred Scripture to love God, our families, our neighbors, and even our enemies. Now we easily claim to love peanut butter, our cars, and football even if we ignore God, fail our families, and kill those with whom we disagree.
What about hate? Is it the opposite of love? Love is defined as “an intense feeling of deep affection” and as “a great interest and pleasure in something.” I guess the first would describe my feelings about my wife and the second about Gamecock football.
Hate is defined as “intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury” and as “extreme dislike or disgust.” The Greek word translated as hate in the New Testament is miseó. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance tells us that one interpretation of miseó is to love less. So, the Catholic Church understanding of Luke 14:26 is that Jesus was saying we have to love family less than we love God if we want to be his disciples. So, I might reasonably say that I love Gamecock football and hate European soccer when I don’t literally love or hate either one using the primary meanings of the words.
Hate Crime
What about the definition of hate crime? It varies from state to state. These explanations are from the U.S. Department of Justice:
Federal: At the federal level, hate crime laws include crimes committed on the basis of the victim’s perceived or actual race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.
State: Most state hate crime laws include crimes committed on the basis of race, color, and religion; many also include crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability.
These definitions suggest that the emotion of hate is not involved. The U.S. Department of Justice makes it clear: “The term “hate” can be misleading. When used in a hate crime law, the word “hate” does not mean rage, anger, or general dislike. In this context “hate” means bias against people or groups with specific characteristics that are defined by the law. It would have been better if they had written, “The term “hate” is misleading.”
If only…
The unfortunate use of the term Hate Crime has made the issue one of emotion rather than logic and has resulted in people emotionally hating and attacking people accused of hate crimes. It has resulted in use of phrases such as “Haters gonna hate!”
That emotional overlay could have been avoided if the chosen legal term had been Bias Crimes or Discrimination Crimes. I can’t visualize people hatefully chanting “Discriminators gonna discriminate!”
And the command of Jesus is that we are to love even those with whom we strongly disagree. Maybe we can love them a little less but hating is out.