Hate: Please Think Before You Speak

Making the decision to let go of my biggest fear last week seems to have lit a fire under me.  I was flipping through the radio stations on my drive to La Crosse yesterday, and I paused briefly on a station broadcasting a church service, and what I heard affected me so deeply, I could hardly wait to sit down and write this.  This country, this world has become increasingly rife with negativity and hate, and this is just one example of how the power of our words has great impact. 

The pastor/priest was telling a story, and it started off sounding like it was going to be a cute, uplifting story.  It went kind of like this:

“An old woman who doesn’t have enough money to buy food prays to God for help.  She goes to the grocery store.  A man (a known atheist) who does not know her sees her, and he pays for the groceries she needs.  The woman, in tears, says “thank you God.”  The man says to her “God didn’t pay for those groceries, I did.”  The woman becomes really excited at that point and says “Thank you God!  I knew you would come through for me, but I didn’t realize you would have the devil, himself, do it.”

I was flabbergasted.  In a few short sentences, the leader of this church gave ‘permission’ to the congregation (by the roar of the laughter, there were several hundred) to hate someone who thought/believed differently than they; to think of them as evil…the devil.  How very sad.  How said it is that we humans have become so used to speech like this that it has become normal…even funny.  How sad it is that leaders in our communities use their power to preach hatred.  Think of how things could change if people just thought before they spoke.

When you are in a casual conversation with a friend, it is so easy to let words out that cut someone down, belittle someone.  But think about the consequences.  This has a ripple effect.  The more we use negative language and hate, the easier it is to accept as just part of our daily lives, and we become complacent about making the change within ourselves to, instead, add the positive, more loving language/energy.  Each of these directions has great power.  Both hate language and love language have have that ripple effect and can add either positive energy to the world or negative.  Which would you rather be a part of?