I invite you to reflect with me on how to end hatred in our world that is targeting people based on religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation etc. Yesterday I was reading about the case against Dylann Roof, a 22-year old white man who shot and killed nine black parishioners in a South Carolina church because he hated black people. My heart breaks for the victims and also for the perpetrator of this crime. Lord have mercy!

A FBI report recently released reported that hate crimes against Muslims in the U.S. rose in 2015 to their highest levels since the aftermath of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks.

In the Middle East, Christians continue to be targeted by terrorists. “Scrawled in red on the walls of one shop in Qaraqosh – a majority Christian town not far from Mosul, Iraq – are the words: “By God, we will break your cross”, Reuters reports. In one church visited by the news agency, a statue of Jesus had been decapitated, while Bibles had been ripped apart and scattered across the floor. Though ISIS has now been pushed out of a number of towns in the Nineveh Plain as part of the offensive to take back Mosul, the militants’ last stronghold in Iraq, the past two years have left Iraq’s Christians uncertain about their future. “I am 64 years old,” one Christian man said. “If I were young I could start again, but at this age what can I do? We [Christians] have no future in Iraq.” Source: Christian Today 29 November 2016

Let’s reflect on both the roots of hatred as well as on what we can do to end it.

Here’s my hypothesis about the roots of hatred: “HATRED IS LEARNED”

No one is born to hate. People learn to hate.

I remember being a young girl in an all white school when one day a little black boy arrived. Well everyone loved him. We all loved to touch his hair because his hair was so different than ours. He was like the little puppy that everyone wanted to caress. We didn’t realize that we were annoying him by touching his hair. I remember the teacher telling us to stop touching him and we were disappointed because we liked touching his head. No one wanted to bully or offend this little boy; we just liked rubbing his little head because he was different than we were but that difference was not a source of hatred or the cause of bullying because no one in the school had been taught to hate people based on their colour.

Who are the teachers of hatred and where is the ‘hate classroom’?

The teachers of hatred are everywhere. If we grow up to be racist, odds are we had people in our life very early on that were racist.   They may have been part of our immediate or extended family or they may have been part of our community. In today’s digital world, teachers of hate can be invited into our home via the online classroom called the Internet.

While I love the Internet, I am aware that in many cases the Internet is an online ‘hate classroom’. The Washington Post reported that Dylann Roof who shot nine black parishioners in a South Carolina church was self-radicalized” online, absorbing violent white supremacist beliefs from the Internet, according to federal prosecutors.

We know that terrorists are also radicalized in the online ‘hate classroom’.  To address this the US Government is “establishing a new Interagency Working Group to Counter Online Radicalization to Violence, chaired by the National Security Staff at the White House and involving specialists in countering violent extremism, Internet safety experts, and civil liberties and privacy practitioners from across the United States Government.  This Working Group will be responsible for developing plans to implement an Internet safety approach to address online violent extremism, coordinating the Federal Government’s activities and assessing our progress against these plans, and identifying additional activities to pursue for countering online radicalization to violence.” Source:  http://youth.gov/feature-article/online-safety-youth-working-counter-online-radicalization-violence-united-states

I worked for over twenty years in the technology industry and I know that the technology industry can help the government identify, track and stop some online threats. A public-private partnership that proactively aims to shut down the ‘online hate classroom’ is going to be a MUST! As concerned citizens we should have the ability to anonymously report websites or social networking links that are aimed at radicalizing youth should we come upon them.

We also have to fulfill the instructions that Jesus gave us to spread His Gospel of Love and Peace to the ends of the earth.

Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18-20

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14

By preaching the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ and proclaiming the TRUTH that GOD is a GOD OF LOVE AND PEACE and that He Wills for all people to respect and love one another, hatred is destroyed and love wins as people are converted.

Satan is at the root of all hatred. Satan is the principal teacher of hatred. It is the diabolical in our world that wants people to hate one another. Remember that deception is the principle tool of evil. Every suicide bomber has been deceived into believing that they are dying as martyrs. Remember Jesus spoke about people who will be deceived into thinking that God wants them to kill: “…the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.” John 16: 2-3

The Mercy Movement is praying for God’s Holy Spirit to change our world, causing a peaceful revolution.  This is A GLOBAL CHANGE MOVEMENT, fueled by prayer, that aims to change people’s hearts and minds through God’s Grace.  Our mission is peace and our ideology is LOVE!

Violent revolutions deceive people into believing that world change and peace can never occur without killing and death. That’s precisely the type of deception that is at the core of Satan’s diabolical plan to ensure that people keep hating and killing one another. Satan wants to sow divisions between people and ensure that hatred, violence, war and discrimination grows.  But God wants just the opposite!

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Love. When God’s Holy Spirit enters the hearts of man, hatred dies and love triumphs. To address hatred, crime, violence and war, we must keep proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ because the Gospel of Jesus Christ will give people true faith in God.

“So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” Romans 10:17

The more people believe and have faith in Jesus Christ, the more people will love and turn away from hatred and violence.

PRAYER IS CRITICAL AND MORE URGENT THAN EVER BEFORE!

Please commit to joining Christians all over the world that are uniting every day to pray for the Holy Spirit to convert souls and end hatred and violence in our world. We stop to pray together daily at 3pm, in our local time zones, because 3pm is the Time Jesus died for us on the Cross. At this time we pray for all souls, especially for those being targeted by hatred and violence and for those being used by Satan to commit these horrific acts.

Together we can summon the power of God, the Holy Spirit, to help us to end hatred in our world. “See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5: 15-19

PRAY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT TO END HATRED AND STOP VIOLENCE!