Tails I win; heads you lose.
Some say that hatred is taught. Not quite. Hatred is an anger addiction.
Anger can be a healthy emotion. Anger sparked by personally being cheated or mistreated in some minor manner usually snuffs itself out for lack of fuel. How long can one be angry that you got cut off on the highway? That the clerk botched your paperwork? Human trafficking, pedophilia, murder, etc. are acts that rightly set a match to anger−righteous anger, especially if you are the victim of such a heinous act.
Tails I win; heads you lose.
Hatred rejects forgiveness. It models, moulds, and manipulates until anger bursts its bounds. Unleashed, unrestrained by reason, and stoked by spite—uncontrolled anger is frightening to all in its path. That fear-effect becomes the rush of domination and control that hatred craves. Re-living that first rush is every addiction’s hook.
Tails I win; heads you lose.
The dictionary will tell you that hatred is a noun. That may be, though reality shows that hatred is active, hungry, and prowling. The dictionary will define hate as both noun and verb. Hate of kale is different than hating Jane. Hating Jane is not necessarily hatred. Hate and hatred may be related but they are not one and the same.
Christians are taught there is a time to hate. We are to hate the world, to hate the double-minded, to hate sin and evil1. We are also taught to love—to love our enemies2 (which requires ample forgiveness3). This paradox creates serious confusion for the unbeliever and can cause no small amount of consternation for us. Yet, it is exactly this paradox that grants Christians the energized clarity to witness, testify, and minister. The perfect balance of Jesus’ commands protects His disciples from becoming anger addicted.
Tails I win; heads you lose.
Hatred feeds on unbridled anger−gaining sustenance from each infusion. Yet hatred, as every other addiction, grows ever inward like a plantar wart. Those people and things that one hates become without worth and among the first to be sacrificed for the rush. Hatred covets and can’t be satisfied. How frustrating it becomes to find the next fix. How difficult it becomes to reach the rush−the control and dominance one first felt. Hatred cannot be assuaged; it is unable to find comfort. One must keep one-upping themselves in order to hold the dominance and control. Soon, those that one once found agreement with are found lacking and forfeited for the next fix. Hatred will eat one alive and wreak devastation along the way. Hatred will, in the end, require violence to reach the rush. Violence will always stop producing more than it destroys, becoming a series of diminishing returns, eventually consuming itself.
“Tails I win; heads you lose,” says the Serpent.
Scattered Verses 