Chapters 18 and 20 of Leviticus, which form part of the Holiness Code of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament, contain the following verses:
- Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (Leviticus 18:22 KJV)
- If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:13 KJV)
These two verses have historically been interpreted by literalist, fundamentalist or self-described conservative Jews and Christians as clear, blanket prohibitions against homosexuality.
In the Christian New Testament, the Apostle Paul writes:
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. (Romans 1:26–27 KJV)
Elsewhere in the Bible, we confront situations of God-committed and/or -sponsored genocide - as with the story of Noah and the Flood (Genesis), the overnight killing of the Egyptian firstborn which led to the Jews being freed/cast out of Egypt (Exodus), the destruction of the Amelekites (1 Samuel), etc. - and the endorsement of slavery - whether that enslavement was due to war (Deuteronomy) or sexual in nature (as in being sold into a marriage/being a wife) (Exodus) or similar to that for which instruction was given in the New Testament, especially both the genuine and attributed Epistles of the Apostle Paul, including Colossians, Ephesians and most of all Philemon (which is in essence instruction about the necessity of reconciliation between a runaway Christian slave and his former Christian master), etc. And, according to their ancient authors, there are numerous passages in the Bible that can be construed as God approving of capital punishment (Exodus, Leviticus, Acts, Romans, etc.). Further, there are a plethora of other examples in the Bible of behavior attributed to and/or inspired by God that strike us today as ungodly and inhumane. In sum, the Bible is rife with examples of an unloving and indeed hateful God.
Which raises the question, can the God of Love hate?
Well, let's start with why God could or perhaps should be considered as the God of Love. Whether we prefer an Old Testament basis for conceiving of God as Love/Loving - as in Deuteronomy or Jeremiah - or a New Testament one - as in (the Epistle) 1 John or Ephesians or (the Gospel) John (as described by Jesus), etc. - there are literally hundreds of passages and verses that describe God as loving or as Love. In fact, based on myriad references and attestations, it would be fair to say that, at least in the Christian conception, God's defining nature is that He/She/It is Love/Loving.
Mitigating this somewhat are the many passages that describe God as punishing, especially to enemies of His/Her/Its people the Israelites and/or to members of those Chosen People themselves who do not obey His/Her/Its laws. Yet, invariably, the rationale for any punishment is that it is engendered by God's love for us; in other words, God only punishes us because He/She/It loves us. (Sounds like something that our parents used to tell us, doesn't it?) So, whether God is giving or correcting, He/She/It is ever-loving.
So, then, can God hate?
If one does indeed see God as Love or believe that God is Love, it would seem that the answer is simple: no. Love cannot negate itself in hate, so, logically, therefore, a God who is Love/Loving cannot hate.
And yet so many self-proclaimed Christians advocate just this, that God hates. Leaving aside groups like the Westboro Baptist Church whose views many (if not most) consider to be extreme (and thus unrepresentative), many self-described conservative (or literalist or fundamentalist) Christians do believe that God does not love some of His/Her/Its children as much as others, as their disapproval and condemnation of these others - especially those who are different in terms of religion or sexual orientation, etc. - demonstrates. Some/many even go so far as to say that, in the name of God, we should deny various rights to these people/groups. For example, the contemporary 'debate' about marriage equality is (most) often framed as being in violation of God's law (presumably as encapsulated in the exemplary verses above and others) and the Judeo-Christian values that undergird our American law and society (even though, technically, our foundational documents proclaim the equality of all men - and, presumably, women - and state clearly and repeatedly that there is no official religion for the country and that church and state should, in fact, be separated).
Conceptually part of the problem of God-endorsed hate can be attributed to our humanity in that we tend to read our holy scriptures selectively - if at all - and thereby value the parts that we like and/or align with our views more than those that do not. For example, if we choose to behave in a strictly biblical way, we would endorse and practice slavery today, an option that is universally rejected as morally repugnant and unacceptable now. And heterosexual women would be the property of their husbands (who would also be allowed to have many of them simultaneously) and children who are disrespectful to their parents and adulterers would be put to death and men could not get haircuts or trim their beards and no one could eat non-fish seafood and, well, you get the picture....
Simply put, if we claim that our interpretation of God's desires is scripturally based, then we have to deal with the myriad gray areas and outright contradictions contained therein, because, as we have seen, God has been described as both Love/Loving and vengeful/hateful/hate-filled in the Bible. At a minimum, for example, this would complicate the so-called marriage equality debate - which is really about whether homosexuals and others of alternative sexuality should have their humanity recognized fully and thereby be allowed to exercise all of their societal rights - because if the (both Old and New Testament) biblical prohibitions of homosexuality are taken into account, so, too, must the reality that Jesus, the ostensible Patron of the religion that bears his name, is not recorded as having said anything about the subject. And Jesus was a big God-is/as-Love guy....
In the interest of brevity, I'll confess that I tire of this 'debate' about the nature of God, as so much of it strikes me as the virtually constant human attempt to project one's own beliefs in the name of God. I can't pretend to know what God thinks - which is in itself likely an anthropomorphically inappropriate construction - but I can glean that He/She/It leans more heavily toward Love, which we might characterize as the positive/good/beautiful/growth/etc. in life, rather than its opposite. To me, this is demonstrated in the ever-forward evolution of our humanity and our discovery of new and meaningful ways to be human/experience our humanity fully. (Along the way, of course, this has led to our parallel and simultaneous discovery of our almost equally great human capacity for the opposite of these - i.e., the negative/bad/ugly/inhumane/deadly/etc.) And in this gift of life, we discover that Love is better than its opposite and that we profess it constantly and practice it less consistently (because, being human, we fail at this practice regularly). (By contrast, think of how few of us openly profess, celebrate and practice love's opposite as well as consider how the vast majority of us react in horror whenever we become aware of such behavior.)
Following from this, then, I think that the answer to this whole question is quite simple: God is Love and thus cannot hate. And since God has created all of us human beings, it follows that we are all Children of God, beloved in His/Her/Its sight. Therefore, each of us should be allowed to love ourselves and each other in ways that are beneficial to us and yet do not infringe upon others' enjoyment of their experience and pursuit of Love as they define it.
Accordingly, this invalidates every "-ism": racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, religiocentrism, heterosexism, etc. We will accept and celebrate that no religion has exclusive claim to the Divine, that no sexual orientation is superior and more acceptable than another in the context of a loving relationship and that no person of whatever race, ethnicity, gender or nationality is inherently better than another.
Perhaps another way to look at this question is via the guidance of Jesus, who, for Christians, is our ostensible Patron. In the Gospel of Matthew, in response to a question as to the greatest of the Commandments, Jesus responded:
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NRSV)
Similarly, as relayed in the Gospel of John, Jesus shared a new commandment:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35 NRSV)
As Christians, if we do indeed love one another as Jesus loved us, then we will affirm our mutual humanity in spite of our superficial differences. We can both acknowledge that difference challenges/scares us and yet stay true to our Patron's directive to be loving nonetheless (as He was). When we think about how others should be treated, our question will be "How can I/we be loving?" not "What do I think that God thinks about this?"
What matters most is that we are all Children of God; the rest is just details. And when we are loving to each other, we embody the God who created us all, the God of Love/who is Love, the God who cannot and does not hate....
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