I am a Hate-Filled Christian - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Being an evangelical Christian, of course, I grew up with vicious hatreds implanted deep within my heart. \u00a0Hatred (I refuse to use "hate" when the proper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I am a Hate-Filled Christian - Philosophical Fragments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Being an evangelical Christian, of course, I grew up with vicious hatreds implanted deep within my heart. \u00a0Hatred (I refuse to use "hate" when the proper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philosophical Fragments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-24T14:53:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/46\/2012\/08\/hatred.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Timothy Dalrymple\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Timothy Dalrymple\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/\",\"name\":\"I am a Hate-Filled Christian - Philosophical Fragments\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-24T14:53:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-08-24T14:53:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#\/schema\/person\/de8c9a4caf0177191808914f83826310\"},\"description\":\"Being an evangelical Christian, of course, I grew up with vicious hatreds implanted deep within my heart. \u00a0Hatred (I refuse to use \\\"hate\\\" when the proper\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"I am a Hate-Filled Christian\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/\",\"name\":\"Philosophical Fragments\",\"description\":\"Daily Thoughts on Faith, Culture and Politics from Timothy Dalrymple\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#\/schema\/person\/de8c9a4caf0177191808914f83826310\",\"name\":\"Timothy Dalrymple\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a368bbc8d116657d6af168549f2add?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a368bbc8d116657d6af168549f2add?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Timothy Dalrymple\"},\"description\":\"Timothy Dalrymple was raised in non-denominational evangelical congregations in California. The son and grandson of ministers, as a young boy he spent far too many hours each night staring at the ceiling and pondering the afterlife. \u00a0 In all his work he seeks a better understanding of why people do, and do not, come to faith, and researches and teaches in religion and science, faith and reason, theology and philosophy, the origins of atheism, Christology, and the religious transformations of suffering\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/author\/tdalrymple\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I am a Hate-Filled Christian - Philosophical Fragments","description":"Being an evangelical Christian, of course, I grew up with vicious hatreds implanted deep within my heart. \u00a0Hatred (I refuse to use \"hate\" when the proper","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I am a Hate-Filled Christian - Philosophical Fragments","og_description":"Being an evangelical Christian, of course, I grew up with vicious hatreds implanted deep within my heart. \u00a0Hatred (I refuse to use \"hate\" when the proper","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/","og_site_name":"Philosophical Fragments","article_published_time":"2012-08-24T14:53:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"320","height":"320","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/46\/2012\/08\/hatred.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Timothy Dalrymple","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Timothy Dalrymple","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/","name":"I am a Hate-Filled Christian - Philosophical Fragments","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-08-24T14:53:14+00:00","dateModified":"2012-08-24T14:53:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#\/schema\/person\/de8c9a4caf0177191808914f83826310"},"description":"Being an evangelical Christian, of course, I grew up with vicious hatreds implanted deep within my heart. \u00a0Hatred (I refuse to use \"hate\" when the proper","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"I am a Hate-Filled Christian"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/","name":"Philosophical Fragments","description":"Daily Thoughts on Faith, Culture and Politics from Timothy Dalrymple","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#\/schema\/person\/de8c9a4caf0177191808914f83826310","name":"Timothy Dalrymple","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a368bbc8d116657d6af168549f2add?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a368bbc8d116657d6af168549f2add?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Timothy Dalrymple"},"description":"Timothy Dalrymple was raised in non-denominational evangelical congregations in California. The son and grandson of ministers, as a young boy he spent far too many hours each night staring at the ceiling and pondering the afterlife. \u00a0 In all his work he seeks a better understanding of why people do, and do not, come to faith, and researches and teaches in religion and science, faith and reason, theology and philosophy, the origins of atheism, Christology, and the religious transformations of suffering","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/author\/tdalrymple\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":2451,"date":"2012-08-24T10:53:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T14:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=2451"},"modified":"2012-08-24T10:53:14","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T14:53:14","slug":"i-am-a-hate-filled-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/08\/24\/i-am-a-hate-filled-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"I am a Hate-Filled Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>I am a Christian, therefore I must be a hater. \u00a0I eat hatred for breakfast \u2014 and yes, it takes like hate. \u00a0So, at least, I\u2019m told.<\/p>\n

For a long time, I resisted this argument. \u00a0I spent time with people who had abortions, and with friends who were openly gay, and with people whose faiths were diametrically opposed to my own \u2014 but I never felt hatred toward any of them. \u00a0Love, yes. \u00a0Compassion, to be sure. \u00a0Concern, sometimes. \u00a0But not hatred. \u00a0Someone must have spiked my haterade, because I couldn\u2019t seem to find within myself all these hatreds that, I was told, seethed and festered deep within me.<\/p>\n

The curious thing was, I didn\u2019t find this burning hatred in the evangelical Christians around me, either. \u00a0They were good-hearted people. \u00a0They took women in crisis into their homes. \u00a0They worked with troubled youth and delivered food to the homeless. \u00a0They started tutoring programs for children in East Palo Alto. \u00a0Many (though not all) of them supported Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2 and John McCain \u2014 which, I guess, means that they hated science, rationality, the environment, and evolution. \u00a0But if they were filled with hatred for actual people groups, it must have been buried down deep. \u00a0Most of these men and women in the churches I attended felt, as I do, that abortion is wrong and that marriage was ordained by God for the joining of male and female. \u00a0Many of them were strongly opposed to illegal immigration. \u00a0Still, try though I might, I couldn\u2019t peel back all the layers of kindness and sincere conviction to find the trembling, bigoted, hate-filled hater underneath it all.<\/p>\n

Now, I no longer resist the argument. \u00a0I\u2019m willing to confess. \u00a0I am a Christian \u2014 a conservative evangelical Christian to boot \u2014 and there are many things I hate. \u00a0I am hate-filled.<\/p>\n

I hate that I fall short of the imitation of Christ. \u00a0I hate the sin that threatens to consume me, and hate that I so often take for granted the grace that refuses to allow me to be consumed. \u00a0I hate my pride and I hate the fact that I have hurt people.<\/p>\n

I hate that when some people hear that I\u2019m an evangelical Christian, they assume that I must hate them. \u00a0I hate that I and other Christians have sometimes done or said things that contributed to that assumption. \u00a0I hate that not only I, but other Christians around the world and throughout history, have sullied the name of Christ and marred the image of the Bride of Christ. \u00a0But I hate too that we live in an inverted world where love is sometimes mistaken as hatred, where the truth is sometimes painful and offensive. \u00a0So I hate the caricature but I also hate that we have helped to create it.<\/p>\n

I hate that unborn children are exterminated before they have had a chance to enjoy the gift of life. \u00a0I hate that hundreds of millions of men and women, boys and girls are not<\/em>\u00a0alive today because of abortion worldwide, and the world has lost a treasure trove of creativity and joy and ingenuity. \u00a0I hate that women are sometimes pressured by men or by parents into abortions they mourn and regret; I hate that women are sometimes misled into believing that abortion for the sake of convenience is okay; as a father of two beautiful girls, I hate that unborn baby girls in particular are aborted in a twisted consequence of the \u201cwomen\u2019s rights\u201d crusade for abortion. \u00a0But I also hate that so many women find themselves in terrible circumstances (I hate too that so many men are deadbeats) where they feel like abortion is their only hope.<\/p>\n

Although I don\u2019t believe the female vagina functions as a kind of venus fly trap to capture and kill rapist sperm (a view that has apparently been around in some circles, though this is the first time I\u2019ve heard it), I must admit that I hate the thought of any unborn child, even one conceived by rape or incest, being killed. \u00a0I hate that some people cannot contemplate the innocence of that child without remembering the guilt the person (we cannot call him a \u201cfather\u201d) who forced himself upon the child\u2019s mother. \u00a0But I hate the fact that women are raped in the first place, I hate that they are placed in that situation through no responsibility of their own, and I hate that we in the church (though we have done much) have not done more to prevent domestic violence, child abuse and violent and demeaning attitudes against women.<\/p>\n

I hate that my gay friends find my views offensive. \u00a0I hate that my convictions on this issue come between us. \u00a0And, I confess, I hate that it\u2019s not up to me. \u00a0I hate that I\u2019ve never found the arguments in favor of the view that the Bible does not really condemn homosexuality convincing. \u00a0I hate that the meaning of the covenant of marriage is not mine to define. \u00a0I hate that Christians have often failed to show love and reconciliation and forgiveness toward gays. \u00a0I hate that Christians have not always made it clear that God loves them and seeks them just as passionately as God seeks everyone else. \u00a0I hate that we have sometimes made it seem as though God will have nothing to do with gays until they leave their homosexual behavior behind, as though God redeems us after\u00a0<\/em>we are no longer sinners.<\/p>\n

I hate that Christians have often fallen short of the example of Jesus Christ and been unkind and ungracious toward those whom society rejects and maligns. \u00a0I hate that gays are bullied. \u00a0I hate that some backwards church in Bigotville, USA, cheers at the notion of \u201chomos\u201d going to hell. \u00a0I hate that children who feel same-sex attractions get mockery and judgment instead of compassion and care. \u00a0I hate that many gays feel that, without access to marriage, they are second-class citizens. \u00a0But I hate too that the homosexual debate has been defined in such a way that there is no space for loving disagreement. \u00a0I hate that I\u2019m told that my view, that marriage is a sacrament and a covenant defined by God for the union of male and female, is hateful by virtue of the fact that it oppresses a people group. \u00a0I don\u2019t believe that\u2019s true, but I hate that the traditional Christian standpoint has been framed as hateful, and I hate that there are gays who hate the \u201chateful\u201d Christians. \u00a0Because I don\u2019t hate gay people, and I certainly don\u2019t hate my gay friends, but I hate that I\u2019m told that I must hate them, and I hate that some part of those friends will never accept me because I\u2019m trying to be faithful to what I believe God has made known. \u00a0I hate that this debate has pitted us against each other, because I love them and respect them and want to enjoy our friendship.<\/p>\n

I hate that none of this will change anyone\u2019s mind. \u00a0I hate that I will still be thought to hate gays even though the truth is that I hate the fact (even though I understand it, from their perspective) that this whole issue comes between me and the gay people I love.<\/p>\n

I really\u00a0<\/em>hate that my Christian faith, which is so much richer and deeper and more beautiful than these issues on hot-button topics, is so often understood through their prism. \u00a0I am tempted to say that these are vanishingly small parts of my faith, but the truth is that they are not parts of my faith at all. \u00a0They are consequences of my faith, applications of the truths and the values that I profess, but they are nowhere near the heart of my faith.<\/p>\n

I still can\u2019t think of any people groups I hate. \u00a0But that\u2019s it. \u00a0I\u2019ve confessed. \u00a0I\u2019m a hater. \u00a0Hate-filled. \u00a0And I hate that too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"