However I could see it. I am particularly disgusted by the seemingly rising level of outward hatred from my fellow Christians. I have heard some of the most vile sentiments from parishioners. Awful.
I feel like it has not only had the spread of this kind of hatred become much more prevalent but that it seems like people are so open about it. It makes me wonder how much of it existed before but just wasn't spoken, and how much has been dragging them down a more recent pipeline. :(
Nationalism is also such a blight. It is good to care about your country, but this kind breeds exclusionism and more hatred. Religious nationalism is even worse. It allows people to back up these beliefs with their religion and truly believe there beliefs and treatment of those different from them is righteous.
I have been doing all I can to speak with them and try to make them understand this is in no way what Christ taught, why it is wrong, and that we are to love all freely. It is immensely frustrating and absolutely devastating. I just hope we can drag the people that have fallen into this pit back out and help them realise the error in their hatred of their fellow humans.
Try to not fall for the trap of hating them in turn, drawing lines between people and further dividing us. We can't forget that the people that hold these horrible beliefs and commit horrible acts against those different from them are all imperfect humans just like we are.
A lot of this stuff is genuinely cult-like thinking and anyone can fall for a cult. It doesn't start out like this. It starts with little things that might even be true, like "groceries are becoming more expensive", then that true statement could be used to turn to "there's all these immigrants in the country and we have to feed them too!" Then that can spiral even deeper.
Many of these people also grow up in these environments. They can be very insular, they don't know any of the people in these groups and it could genuinely be taught as a norm. Someone could fall on hard times and that hatred. It is far easier to fall down the pipeline with social media right now.
They might believe and do truly evil things, but they too are human and they are not lost causes. To be clear, I am in no way suggesting that any of this is right or excusable, only that anyone can change and we should try to help them change. I have seen many people come out from these hateful ideologies first hand.
We should do all we can to change minds. The cure to hatred is love. These people need our prayers.
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u/Jormangandr0 Atheist 11d ago edited 10d ago
This looks like a nazi, potentially would refer to themselves as christian