A question (concerning prejudice):

[mary_j_59]

I am trying to be very careful and exact in what I say here. I have no intention of offending anyone, but I do think this is important.

What would you think if a friend of yours said this:
"I hate Judaism! I really hate Judaism! I can't tell you how angry it makes me."

Think a bit. Now, substitute for "Judaism" the phrase "the Catholic Church." Do the above sentences suddenly become okay in your mind? If so, why?

The Catholic Church is not monolithic. Granted, when people say things like this, they usually mean the hierarchy, but even that is not monolithic. And the core meaning of "the Catholic church"?

It's me, and people like me. The body of Christ in the lay men and women practicing the faith, day to day. So, if it's okay to say "I hate the Catholic church", is it equally okay to say you hate Catholics? Where does this lead?

Now, I'm not saying you can't be angry at the Church. I'm certainly not saying you can't be angry at the hierarchy! Unfortunately, many people have good cause to be angry at the hierarchy. I often am, and I'm a practicing Catholic. What I'm trying to say is: please be careful about throwing around that word "hate" and directing it at groups of your fellow human beings. Hate, directed at groups, can lead to dreadful places. It's okay to be angry; it's not okay to hate.

On my mind because I actually heard a friend say these things recently, and because tomorrow is Nakba day/Israeli Independence day. The Nakba arose directly from the dreadful persecution of the Jews in the twentieth century; people who had suffered so much quite naturally wanted a place of safety. And their suffering arose from hatred; the hatred preached by the Nazis. The Nazis, I believe, are ultimately responsible for the suffering of both Jews and Palestinians. Because they not only preached, but acted out, hatred. Hatred kills. It killed tens of millions, in the twentieth century alone.

So please don't think it's ever right to say "I hate" about any group of your fellow human beings! It isn't just talk. Words are powerful. And it can take generations to recover from the suffering those words can cause.

Also on my mind because I was in Belfast a week ago, and saw the peace walls. That was a powerful and disturbing experience. Then I came back to the U.S., and heard a friend say, "I hate the Catholic Church". I did not know how to respond to her. I'm trying to respond now.

Comments

[anne-arthur.livejournal.com]

I think I am making things seem worse than they are! Atheists this aggressive are very much in a minority even in Britain - I notice them more because I find their comments alarming, and they are probably also more numerous among smart-Alec Oxbridge types. This particular colleague is actually a perfectly nice young man (when you are not talking about religion) but he has a worrying over-confidence in the rightness of his own opinions, and a tendency to overstate things, and make absurd comparisons. So he is perhaps not a very good example! And there certainly seem to be aggressive atheists in the US too (judging by the books they write). But they are certainly a concern!

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh, Anne, I think I may be making things seem worse than they are, too! Heaven knows we've got plenty of militant atheists here in the U.S., and these people seem to be getting louder and louder. They don't seem to understand that intolerance is intolerance, no matter who is practising it. Strange! I do think this attitude is commoner among educated young people, especially, perhaps, on the net. On a couple of discussion boards, I've come across kids asserting that religion is the cause of all evils in the world, and that Christianity (of whatever stripe) is the most evil of religions. Both of which are highly debatable propositions, to put it mildly! But I haven't found it helpful to argue with these people. They are convinced they are right, and nothing that you can say to them alters their opinions.

Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting! It's always good to hear from you.