Ben Merkle of New St Andrew’s College recently preached at the church where Pete Hegseth, US Secretary for War, attends in Washington. He said that Christians are united by love but we are also united by hate because what we love matters. We are for some things but against others, we are meant to love God but hate evil.
Is this something we can agree with? John Stevens is inclined to say “no”.
Here’s my take
It is right to observe that love must be towards something, or better someone. Therefore we are against evil and indeed will feel a sense of revulsion against it.
However, I share John’s caution. We need to be careful about how we say things. First, in the same way that Christians would be careful not to ascribe wrath as a proper attribute of God but rather as an expression of how his love and holiness function, so too, we may talk similarly about hate. We say that God is love, God is holy, God is just but we don’t say that God is wrath or God is hate. Similarly, whilst I think it is right and proper to say that we can and should hate evil and identify specific things, I don’t find it helpful to use language that describes us as “united in hate”.
You see, the point is that when we unite around something, that becomes the motivating factor, it sets the tone and culture. I do want to keep emphasising that it is love for God that unites us.
Further, in a world where, as John observes, we find it hard to love or hate in the abstract and where we see so much evidence of violence and hate towards people and groups of people, the language is unhelpful.
So, whilst I’m inclined to be charitable towards Merkle in terms of what he intended by the words, I would not encourage Christians to speak in this kind of way about hate.
Faithroots 