From: Keith
To: Michele
Subject: RE: your post on the "circle jerk of hate"

For what it's worth, I think what you wrote is fine. I can't honestly see myself being happy in any way in a world run by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson -- I'd probably kill myself too, if not for my inherent fear of death. I find it interesting how they preach that you should love God, that you should have love in your heart for God and your fellow man, yet they preach that everyone who doesn't worship exactly the way they do and who doesn't worship the same God that they do is an evil heathen and needs to be converted. I still say the Golden Rule should be enforced (I do try to live mostly by it, for what it's worth, but I just kind of use my ingrained morals and sense of right and wrong to guide me) in that I try to be considerate towards others and not do anything that I wouldn't want done to me. Specifically, at this point, I wouldn't want those building workers have to come to do some strange and loud procedure to the building less than 10 feet away from my window at 7:30am this morning, but that's another story. To that end, I wonder how the rabid Christians would like it if we all started a campaign to actively convert them and tell them they're wrong and they're worshipping the wrong God and the wrong way the way they have been telling all of us for thousands of years. "Jihad" has become an ugly word with ugly connotations relating to terrorism, but it's exactly what the Crusades were -- except "crusade" has such a moral high ground associated with it because the victors always get to write the history books. Some moron posted a comment on my blog about how the sixth commandment prevents murder, not killing in self-defense, so Christians are blamed every time a war of aggression breaks out -- to this I ask, how can the Christians justify the Crusades as self-defense?

Not that I think that all Christians are evil. But I kind of understand why these countries hate us so much. The U.S. is kind of the Christians of the world. We go all over the planet and tell people, "You're living your lives wrong! Come, experience the wonder of democracy that is Taco Bell and the Gap! You're a heathen if you don't, and we've got the army to make it happen!"

But I digress. What I basically meant to say is that I don't think love will conquer all. And, like someone in your comments said, I think there's a distinction between regular hate and "moral hate," and I think that hating the haters is fine. There are people out there who are just plain evil, and all the love in the world isn't going to change them. I seriously doubt that if I drove down to Compton right now and got out of my car and started hugging the natives and telling them how much love I had for them, I'd still be alive after five minutes. Some people just don't understand love. Hate, violence and power are the only languages they understand, so you just have to speak to them on their terms so they can understand you. So go tell Jerry Falwell that he's a lunatic who's propagating more hate than he can imagine in his little crusade to make the world a better place, because telling him how much you love him is not going to change his mind while screaming at him might actually have an effect. Then kick him in the nuts for me too, and tell him it's from the heathen Jew.

Talk soon--

--Keith