No matter what your political persuasion, this has been a week of mixed reviews, as are most of my weeks in this enduring pandemic.
On the one hand we see the promise of two COVID-19 vaccines that could help us in 2021 at a time when the pandemic is growing because of those who refuse to practice the “Three Ws” – wear a mask, wait six feet apart, and wash your hands regularly. On the other hand, it has been a very disturbing week, as we have a nation in turmoil with the sitting president thus far refusing to acknowledge the will of the electorate and allow for an orderly transition process.
On top of all of that, I’ve just read two very disturbing articles. One was entitled, “2019 Was The Deadliest Year for Hate Crimes on Record, New FBI Data Shows” and the other “Attitudes to Faith Said to Drive Negative Perceptions More Than Ethnicity or Nationality.” One was in the Huffington Post on Monday and the other in The Guardian last Sunday. Christopher Mathias in the HP says that in this past year that the overall numbers of hate crimes rose to a 10-year high, even in light of the fact that fewer law enforcement agencies are bothering to report their hate crime statistics. Mathias reports that America experienced more hate-related killings this year than in the nearly past two decades and that the vast majority of hate crimes went unreported by police to the FBI.
Harriet Sherwood in the Guardian reported on a two-year study of diversity by the Woolf Institute that concluded most people are more tolerant of different ethnic or national backgrounds and they are those of a differing religion.
Where do we turn for solace? I love the words of Frederick Buechner, the Presbyterian minister and author, who says:
"Hate is as all-absorbing as love, as irrational, and in its own way as satisfying. As lovers thrive on the presence of the beloved, haters revel in encounters with the one they hate…
"The major difference between hating and loving is perhaps that whereas to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience, to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by it. Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become themselves. Haters simply lose themselves. Theirs is the ultimately consuming passion."
There is a parable from feudal Japan about a famous samurai who seeks out a wisened monk and demands: “Tell me, you are learned in these matters. What is heaven and what is hell?”
The monk responded: “You call yourself a samurai warrior?! Why, look at you. You’re nothing but a mere sliver of a man! I doubt you could cut off the head of a fly with your sword.”
The samurai’s face contorted in rage. He bellowed, “How dare you! I won't let you get away with such an insult.” Pulling his huge sword from its sheath, he raised it high above his head, ready to kill the old monk.
Unperturbed, the monk looked directly into the eyes of the furious warrior and said,
You asked what hell is. *This* is hell.”
The samurai froze, his sword still raised, as the hatred and anger that had consumed him drained away. He looked at the old monk in amazement, realizing that this small, stooped man had risked his life to answer his question.
Lowering his weapon, the samurai bowed to the monk, as tears of gratitude appeared in his eyes. “Thank you for your teaching,” the samurai said humbly, his heart filled with love for the monk's gift.
The monk smiled at the samurai and said, "And this, my friend, is heaven."
Dr. Ron Shive is pastor of First Presbyterian Church, 508 W. Davis St., Burlington. Contact him at rshive@fpcburlington.org.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Ron Shive: Hate crimes, intolerance are on the rise
