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"These are the times that try men's souls," Thomas Paine famously
wrote in 1776. He was writing about a different time and different troubles
than those faced in Paris last week, but his words couldn't be more applicable.
And this week, Antoine Leiris, the husband of one of the 129 people killed
by ISIS terrorists, showed the depth of his soul when he put a post on his
Facebook page titled, "You will not have my hatred."
Leiris was addressing ISIS. His post is in French, but in translation, it
begins, "Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional being, the love
of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hatred. I do not
know who you are and I do not want to know; you are dead souls. If God, for
which you kill blindly, made us in his image, every bullet in the body of my
wife has been a wound in his heart."
Leiris continued, "So I will not give you the privilege of hating you.
You certainly sought it, but replying to hatred with anger would be giving in
to the same ignorance which made you into what you are. You want me to be
frightened, that I should look into the eyes of my fellow citizens with
distrust, that I sacrifice my freedom for security. You lost. I will carry on
as before."
"I saw her this morning," Leiris said of his wife Helene.
"Finally, after nights and days of waiting. She was as beautiful as when
she left on Friday evening, as beautiful as when I fell madly in love with her
more than 12 years ago. I am of course devastated by heartbreak, I'll cede you
that little victory, but it will be short-lived. I know that she will be with
us every day and that we will meet again in a paradise of free souls to which
you will never have access."
Leiris closed by promising to raise his son happy and free: "There are
only two of us, my son and I, but we are stronger than all the armies of the
world. Moreover, I have no more time to grant you, I must go to Melvil who is
waking up from his nap. He is just 17 months old. He will eat his snack like he
does every day, then we will play like we do every day and every day of his
life this little boy will affront you by being happy and free. Because you will
not have his hatred either."
Leiris' post has been viewed thousands of times, and many people have
responded with comments on his page showing how deeply touched they are by his
words. For example, respondent Jaime Henry Sinift wrote, "My thoughts are
with you and sweet Melvil. Helene would be proud of your response and
courage."
We suspect that God is pleased with Leiris' response as well.
More on this story can be found at these links:
You Will Not Have My Hatred. Antoine Leiris on Facebook
(Original post is in French. Select the "translate" option in Facebook for
a machine translation of the post. The CNN article below
includes a better translation.)
Applying the News Story
We don't have any information about Leiris' religious faith, though we
gather from his words about meeting his wife again in paradise that he's not an
atheist. And his response about not hating gives evidence of the spirit of
Christ's words in Matthew 5:43-45: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall
love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your
Father in heaven ...."
Leiris' response also brings to mind one of the responses after a gunman
shot 10 Amish girls ages 6-14 execution-style in the Nickel Mines schoolhouse
in 2006. On the very day of the shooting, the Amish grandfather of one of the
slain girls told the members of his community in reference to the killer,
"We must not hate this man."
In terms of our own lives, if we take our Christian faith seriously, then
not hating belongs in the bedrock our response when faced with painful loss
caused by others.
TWW team member Joanna Loucky-Ramsey comments, "We need to be reminded
that hating is not only an emotional response, but a proactive choice, an act
of the will. Its corollary is also true, that loving is also more than an
emotion over which we have no control; it is a decision, an action, a behavior
we live out. 'To hate or not to hate, that is the question.'"
The Big Questions
1. Is the Sermon on the Mount an ideal or an order? What does it mean for
daily life to take Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) seriously?
How might your life be different if you continually measured your actions
against the Sermon on the Mount? How might the world be different? Is it
reasonable to expect Christians to live by the Sermon on the Mount?
2. How do you define hatred? Is there more than one definition? What is the
difference, if any, between not hating and loving? Which emotion involves more
passion -- loving or hating? In what personal circumstances should not hating
be consciously applied?
3. How are not hating and healing related? Is it possible to fully recover
from a great wrong inflicted on you while hating the perpetrator(s)? Does not
hating preclude seeking punishment of the wrongdoer(s)? Why or why not?
4. To what extent can not hating lead to pardon and reconciliation? Can one
be reconciled with someone who is hate-filled?
5. What should be the attitude of Christians toward persons who perpetrated
the Paris crimes? How well does your answer match what your attitude actually
is toward these perpetrators?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Jeremiah 8:21
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken
hold of me. (For context, read 8:18--9:1.)
Psalm 69:1-3
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep
mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood
sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying .... (No additional context
needed.)
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1 is part of a personal lament by the prophet Jeremiah over
the sad plight falling on his fellow Judeans. Their nation was about to fall to
the Babylonians, and God had told Jeremiah of what would follow -- the exile of
many of the citizens of Jerusalem. The prophet was so filled with grief that he
didn't know what to say. "My heart is sick" (v. 18) was about all he
could manage.
Psalm 69 is also a lament, though it doesn't identify the circumstances that
caused the pain. Whatever it was, when we are in deep pain, we can no doubt
identify with the psalm's words of despair.
Incidents such as the Paris attacks fill many of us with a similar
heartsickness and the sense that we don't know what to say. Why is our world as
it is? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why didn't God intervene and
stop these killers? Why, after Jesus was born, didn't God stop Herod from killing
the infants? There are times when words fail us, and sometimes the best we can
stammer out is "I don't know."
Today's news, and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount text quoted in the
"Applying the News Story" above, suggest an additional response:
"I will not let hatred master me."
Questions: Some people are convinced that everything that
happens, good or bad, is part of God's plan and that we simply cannot see the
big picture God sees. Do you find that a convincing argument or not? Explain
your answer. Is an explanation of God's ways necessary for faith to carry us?
Why or why not?
Psalm 137:8
O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us! (For context, read 137:1-9.)
This psalm, which is a lament about Jerusalem being destroyed by the
Babylonians and its people being exiled in Babylon, includes this very natural
reaction: the hope that someone would pay back the oppressors "for what
you have done to us!"
In the case of the Paris attacks, the French government has already begun
certain "payback" moves, including the bombing of ISIS targets,
though it's probable that the moves are more than mere vengeance; they are
likely aimed at so crippling ISIS as to reduce its ability to launch future
attacks -- or teaching ISIS that the cost of attacking France will be so high
as to cause them not to attack again.
Questions: Are governmental responses to terrorism matters
of hate? If not, what are they? How do you reconcile the admonition to
"overcome evil with good" with the satisfaction of repaying someone
for "what has been done to us"? Do you struggle with this problem, or
do you ignore it? What might be some of the thoughts and positions used in
discussions on this matter? Try to include thoughts and positions that you
personally do not hold, in such a way that they are made as thoughtful and with
as good intentions as you ascribe to yourself.
Psalm 97:10
The LORD loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he
rescues them from the hand of the wicked. (For context, read 97:10-12.)
Luke 14:26
Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
(For context, read 14:25-33.)
Romans 12:9
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good ....
(For context, read 12:9-21.)
Here are three Bible verses that use the word "hate" in ways that
are clearly deemed not only acceptable, but even desirable.
In Psalm 97:10, the Hebrew word rendered in English as "hate"
covers emotion ranging from "bitter disdain" to outright
"hatred." It means to hate personally, and it's related to words
meaning "enemy" and "odious." And while here the object of
that hate is the impersonal "evil," the same Hebrew word is used
elsewhere in the Old Testament to indicate hatred toward a person, though not
necessarily as a desirable response (see, for example, Genesis 37:8). However,
the word is also used at least once in the Old Testament to name an attitude of
God in a particular situation (Malachi 1:3).
In Luke 14:26, which is quoting Jesus, "hate" is rendering a Greek
word that means "to love less" -- that is, to have relative
preference for one thing over another. We don't usually use the word
"hate" with this meaning in our speech today. The Message
paraphrases this verse to read, "Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let
go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters -- yes, even one's
own self! -- can't be my disciple."
In Romans 12:9, "hate" is translating another Greek word that
means "detest" or "abhor" or "loathe." As the
apostle Paul uses it here, he is directing it toward the impersonal
"what," not a personal "who."
"Hate," then, is something that cannot be condemned in its own
right, without context. But in Leiris' context, not hating seems a godly thing.
Questions: Is it even possible to hate evil without also
hating the perpetrators of that evil? In what contexts might hatred be
appropriate? When is it sinful?
Romans 12:20-21
No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give
them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their
heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (For
context, read 12:9-21.)
Here the apostle Paul urges overcoming evil with good, rather than repaying
evil with evil. It is about loving one's enemy rather than exhibiting hatred.
We don't have control over the other's response, but we do over our own.
In referring to heaping burning coals on an enemy's head, Paul is quoting
Proverbs 25:21-22. TWW team member Doug Hargis comments, "The burning
coals should not be understood as an evil thing, for we are told in the next
line to overcome evil with good. Rather it needs to be understood against the
backdrop of Isaiah 6:5-7. Isaiah confesses that he is a man of 'unclean lips.'
A seraph then uses tongs to take a live coal from the altar. He touches
Isaiah's unclean lips with it and declares, 'Now that this has touched your lips,
your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.' The coal destroys the
guilt and the sin, not the person." Paul is indicating that the food and
water we give can function as the sanctifying coal.
Questions: How can the biblical command to overcome evil
with good be applied to situations such as the violent crimes in Paris? In what
ways does a national response to the evil deeds need to differ from personal
responses such as the one from Leiris? Can a response based on the teachings of
Jesus seem weak to haters?
Matthew 5:4 (NRSV)
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (For context,
read 5:1-12.)
Matthew 5:4 (GNT)
Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!
We've quoted this beatitude from both the New Revised Standard Version and
the Good News Translation to show that the first word of the beatitude, which
in the original Greek is makarios, can be translated into English as
either "blessed" or "happy." But we really need both of the
English words to capture the meaning of makarios. To understand what
the Bible means by that word, we have to think of both "happy" (the
feeling of satisfaction) and "blessed" (God's favor) together.
We doubt that any who are mourning loved ones killed in the Paris attacks
would use the word "happy" to describe themselves right now, but we
suspect that "blessed" is an adjective that, in its sense of God's
favor, does apply. People like Leiris who can say "I will not hate"
are blessed by God even as they mourn.
Questions: In what ways have you experienced makarios
in times of grief? Did the makarios moment seem like a blessing at the
time? In retrospect?
For Further Discussion
1. In terms of our grieving with those who grieve, do you feel the pain of
people who've lost loved ones to terrorism in Baghdad and Paris equally?
Explain your answer.
2. Read this article -- Where Is God: Grace the Morning After Paris -- to your
class and invite members to respond.
3. How can we promote the gospel's call to love our neighbor and live at
peace with others in a culture in which some people believe their goals trump
such qualities and justify terrorism?
4. To whom, for the good of your own soul, might you need to say, "I do
not hate you"? Who needs to hear it from you? What is your definition of
loving your enemies? Is this love different from the love you show your family?
If so, how/why? Who do you suspect needs to say to you, "I do not hate
you"?
Responding to the News
As TWW team member Joanna Loucky-Ramsey said in the "Applying the News
Story" section above, "hating is not only an emotional response, but
a proactive choice, an act of the will." This is a good time to remind
ourselves of that and decide how to invite God into our choices about how we
respond to others.
Closing Prayer
O God, we pray for your comfort for those who have lost loved ones in the
violence of the past weeks, both in Paris and elsewhere. We ask that you help
us as a nation to find whatever means we can to reduce or eliminate such
events. And help us each to practice the not-hating to which the gospel calls
us. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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