{"id":2351,"date":"2013-10-06T08:26:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-06T12:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2013-10-06T08:26:13","modified_gmt":"2013-10-06T12:26:13","slug":"spreading-strife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2351","title":{"rendered":"spreading strife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hate.\u00a0 That\u2019s a hard concept for me.\u00a0 Truthfully, I think it\u2019s a hard concept for most of us.\u00a0 We find things that make us mad, things that annoy us, things that drive us crazy, and then we often justify hate.\u00a0 I\u2019ll quote my kids&#8230; <i>\u201cI hate spiders, English&#8230; and pickles.\u201d\u00a0<\/i> Yeah, we don\u2019t quite have an accurate concept of hate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s something about the current Washington scenario that drives us crazy.\u00a0 All these supposedly smart people&#8230; the President&#8230; Congress&#8230; regardless of party&#8230;\u00a0 And they say all these disrespectful things to one another&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8230; \u201ctaking hostage,\u201d \u201cgun to the head,\u201d \u201cransom,\u201d \u201cblackmail,\u201d \u201carsonists,\u201d <\/i>oh, my&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I <i>hate<\/i> that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I <i>hate<\/i> the hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t that long ago that our country mourned the tragedy in Tucson&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pres. Obama seemed so wise&#8230;\u00a0 <i>\u201cAt a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do, it\u2019s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>Talking to each other in a way that heals&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>All that seems gone now.\u00a0 It seems unimportant.\u00a0 That hurts me.\u00a0 Do I <i>hate<\/i> it?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As I wrestle with this concept of hate \u2014 noting that I <i>hate<\/i> hypocrisy \u2014 part of me wonders what\u2019s actually appropriate to hate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Deep within the historical scriptures, we find the following:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>There are six things which the Lord hates,<br \/>\nYes, seven which are an abomination to Him:<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,<br \/>\nAnd hands that shed innocent blood,\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>A heart that devises wicked plans,<br \/>\nFeet that run rapidly to evil,<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>A false witness who utters lies,<br \/>\nAnd one who spreads strife among brothers.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So I see the following&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Arrogance.\u00a0 Lies.\u00a0 The killing of the innocent.<\/p>\n<p>A heart that plots wicked. Running to evil.\u00a0 Exaggeration about those lies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And one who spreads strife among the brothers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I think that\u2019s what I hate so much about the current government shut down.\u00a0 I hate that we have persons amongst both parties \u2014 the President and Congress \u2014 who are actively spreading strife.\u00a0 Smart as they may be, they encourage dissension and disagreement, as they work first to win people to their side, and only then to solve the situation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I <i>hate<\/i> this.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For the record, I also hate pickles.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Respectfully,<\/p>\n<p>AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hate.\u00a0 That\u2019s a hard concept for me.\u00a0 Truthfully, I think it\u2019s a hard concept for most of us.\u00a0 We find things that make us mad, things that annoy us, things that drive us crazy, and then we often justify hate.\u00a0 I\u2019ll quote my kids&#8230; \u201cI hate spiders, English&#8230; and pickles.\u201d\u00a0 Yeah, we don\u2019t quite have &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2351\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;spreading strife&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[329],"class_list":["post-2351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-government-shut-down"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2351"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions\/2354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}