Hate
OK! Here's my final TFTD for a while. Hope you don't hate it...
Can hate ever be good?
Morning is not my
favourite time of day… there are days when I hate it... and the news rarely does much to improve my mood… And
yesterday was a case in point, with a number of news stories sharing a similar
theme. One that, sadly, there have been at least 320 hate crimes against the small Muslim community here in Belfast over the past five years…
Then there was the appalling video circulating on social media of young people, some
wearing Northern Ireland football shirts, singing "we hate Catholics" to the chorus of Tiffany's
"I Think We're Alone Now". The IFA were encouragingly swift to speak
out against this, saying that they condemn sectarianism of any kind,
threatening to ban those involved.
Meanwhile it seems that a number of England players were subjectto racist abuse during the previous night’s demolition of Montenegro, with
Raheem Sterling tweeting that his goal and celebration was the best way to
silence the haters.
Sadly, on any other day it could easily be stories of other
groups being the targets of hate… people of other nationalities, sexual
orientation, political opinions, women… There’s a lot of hate doing the rounds
at present, stoked up by all sorts of tensions, and certainly not helped by
anti-social media.
But it brought to mind a car
advert that won lots of awards back in 2004. It was voiced by Garrison Keillor
who introduced it saying:
“Can hate be good? Can hate be great? Can hate be something we don’t hate?”
It was inspired by the story of the car
company’s chief engine designer, who hated the noise, smell, and appearance of
diesel engines. When asked to design that company's first diesel, he refused
unless allowed to start from scratch, resulting in a generation of quieter,
cleaner engines. He described this as "positive hate" inspiring the
advertising copywriters to write the chorus “Hate something, change something, make
something better…”
Now that whole development of
cleaner diesel engines has ultimately proven to be an environmental
cul-de-sac… But is there such a thing as
“positive hate?” Paul told the church in Rome…
Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be
devoted to one another in love.
Romans 12: 9-10
It’s not just enough to hate the bad… we must cling to the better,
indeed cling lovingly to each other, despite all our differences…
In the words of Garrison
Keillor. “Come on sing it like you hate it…
Hate something. Change something. Make something better.”
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