(Don't) Help Me to Hate

The Bible teaches us that we are to respond in love to one another and pursue a path of peace. Romans 12 provides some direction in living at peace with others:
16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

It is so easy to get caught up in the bad things in this world - we can become disgruntled and even disoriented; we can become so fed up that we respond in anger instead of the love of Christ, which overcomes the desire to lash out and to retaliate.  We have to check ourselves to make sure that we are not being controlled by anger, rather than controlled by the Spirit of God, who gives us the capacity to love and to see people the way God sees them.

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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught about how to regard those whom we regard as our enemies - I don't believe that "groups" of people are our enemies, as society will attempt to cause us to think, but that we can be specific in our response toward those who are truly against us. Matthew 5 states:
43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Our prayer life can consist of a number of elements: there is confession of sin, praying in repentance, bringing requests before the Lord for ourselves and others in intercession.  We can pour out our hearts to God and we can ask Him to change our hearts.  But, we have to be careful to pray in accordance with Scripture.  

The practice concerning enemies throughout Scripture is to love our enemies and to allow the Lord to do His work in conflicted situations.

I see no Scriptural precedent for asking God to "help me to hate" anyone.  Yet, a book of prayers that was put together by a relatively well-known Christian author includes a so-called "prayer" that says this, according to ChristianHeadlines.com.

“Dear God, Please help me to hate White people. Or at least to want to hate them. At least, I want to stop caring about them individually and collectively. I want to stop caring about their misguided, racist souls, to stop believing that they can be better, and they can stop being racist..."

Great - so you have this "prayer" contributed by psychologist and minister Chanequa Walker-Barnes in the book, A Rhythm of Prayer, that 1) calls on God to help her hate a particular group of people and 2) describes their souls - all of them - as "misguided" and "racist."  

The article states:

The book, A Rhythm of Prayer, is the No. 1 book in Amazon’s Christian Meditation & Devotion Section and is also available in Walmart’s Christian Life/Prayer section and Target’s Religion/Beliefs section.

The response was amplified when a Virginia pastor posted on Twitter a picture of a page from the book that had been sent to him; he said, "This kind of thinking is a direct result of CRT and is completely anti-biblical..."

The article states that the author...

...adds that the White people she wants to hate are the “Fox News-loving, Trump-supporting voters who ‘don’t see color’ but who make thinly veiled racist comments about ‘those people.’ The people who are happy to have me over for dinner but alert the neighborhood watch anytime an unrecognized person of color passes their house. The people who welcome Black people in their churches and small groups but brand us as heretics if we suggest that Christianity is concerned with the poor and the oppressed.”

Sorry, you don't get the right to hate - anyone.  A response to the pastor's tweet indicated that somehow this was in line with "imprecatory" prayers that we find in the Scriptures.  But, keep in mind that this prayer is directed at an entire people-group, not all of whom might be remotely considered this person's "enemies."

Sarah Bessey put this book together apparently; she and other contributors to this volume issued a statement in support of the prayer, defending the writer by saying:

She praises God for protection, for the call to be “an agent in your ministry of justice and reconciliation.” She names the beloved community who continue to call her to rise to the call of love, not hate.

Dr. Walker-Barnes is demonstrating the Biblically-based call towards loving our neighbours as Jesus said, in real time. This beautiful, powerful prayer is modelled on the Psalms of lament and anger, often called imprecatory Psalms, found in the Bible.

Bessey's social media links for Facebook and Twitter no longer work; her Instagram is now private.  She is the author of a number of books, including Jesus Feminist, and a co-founder, along with the late progressive author Rachel Held Evans, called "Evolving Faith," which seems to be an initiative that would be best described as devoted to Christian deconstruction.  On its website, there is this statement: "Evolving Faith exists to cultivate love and hope in the wilderness, pointing fellow wanderers and misfits to God as we embody resurrection for the sake of the world." Bessey describes her faith journey like this:

My faith tradition is of the happy-clappy, low-church charismatic flag-waving variety but after time spent during my own deconstruction with everyone from Anglicans to Mennonites to Nones-and-Dones, I'm best described as ecclesiastically promiscuous—I just love everybody.

Including a fellow author whom she accommodates and defends is asking God to help her hate white people.  That's inconsistent.

Truth is, the enemy has been successful in the Church and outside the Church in sowing seeds of division. So many no longer see others as individuals made in the image of God, but as members of certain people groups.  God made us different, but His intent is not for us to be divided.  So, we can examine our views on race through this prism:  are we agents of true reconciliation or are we perpetuating division?  This so-called "prayer" certainly doesn't contribute to the fulfillment of the powerful words of Scripture that tell us to love your neighbor as yourself and to love your enemies.  

We can adopt the posture of praying for our enemies.  Ultimately, we can pray that all would come to a saving knowledge of Christ.  We can also adopt the posture of acquiring a more loving attitude toward people who are different than we.  That involves a change of heart and a conformity to the teachings of Scripture.