“Hate is a disguised form of love. You can only hate someone that you have the capacity to love because if you are really indifferent, you cannot even get up enough energy to hate him.” Sri Chinmoy

Things the Bible says God hates…

The nations [Leviticus 20:23], all kinds of detestable things that you do in worshipping other gods [Deuteronomy 12:31], sacred stones [Deuteronomy 16:22], dishonesty, partiality and bribery [2 Chronicles 19:5], all who do wrong [Psalm 5:5], the wicked and those who love violence [Psalm 11:5], eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family. [Proverbs 6:16], cheating in the marketplace [Proverbs 11:1], switching price tags and padding the expense account [Proverbs 20:10], thievery and crime [Isaiah 61:8], invitations that are ignored, words spoken that are brushed off, things God exposes as evil [Isaiah 65:11 & Isaiah 66:3], houses whose roofs were used as altars for offerings to Baal and the worship of who knows how many other gods [Jeremiah 32:26], the loathsome gutter of gods [Jeremiah 44:1], the arrogance of Jacob and his palaces and strongholds [Amos 6:8], cooking up plans to take unfair advantage of others, doing or saying what isn’t so [Zechariah 8:14], Ephraim [Hosea 9:15], divorce [Malachi 2:16], a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment [Malachi 2:16].

A service providing an alternative to Valentine’s Day and the language of love that is used.

Questions

Is hating just a disguised form of love, as the poem above suggests? Does hating certain things make us better lovers of God, of each other, of the world around us? Does God hate some things? Does that mean we are duty bound to hate some things too? Is hate necessary for living a life that pleases God? Or should hate be vanquished from our lives?

The New Testament doesn’t really talk much about God hating things. Is this because God’s wrath has been “satisfied” by Jesus dying on the cross (as one kind of theology suggests)?

If God actually lost his anger or had it “satisfied” by some “action” he is purported to have taken, I don’t think he would be God any more. If he wasn’t angry about the way we’ve messed up the planet, I wouldn’t think he was God.

Film clip: I Heart Huckabees

Music: “All You Need Is Hate” The Delgados, “I Love You But I Prefer Trondheim – Parts 1 to 4″ Stars Of The Lid vs Adam Wiltzie, “God Loves Everyone” Ron Sexsmith