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Hate and anger

I was praying the other day, and “help me learn to hate without anger” came out.  I have this sort of valve I turn to let the deeper parts of me flow out into the light.

As often happens with me, I said it without understanding it.  But when I thought about it, it goes back to my post on hate a week or two ago.  Hate is the difference maker.  It is what DEFINES a social order.  The basic refrain “hatred of sin is the beginning of wisdom” echoes throughout the Bible, particularly the Old Testament.

But what would hate without anger look like?  As I feel it, it would be a sense that THAT–say shooting children to death–is ALWAYS wrong.  It is an instinctive, visceral reaction.  One need not follow it with anger, but I think a sense of disgust should be present.  For a moral virtue to be real, you must have a sense of sin rooted in you deeply.  If you lie, you must feel disgust.  If you cheat, you must feel disgust.  You must hate in order to have a meaningful, meaning-creating form.