Resisting Hate With the Power of Love

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Yesterday, I had a moment of existential dread that washed over me like a dark, cold wave, and I couldn't shake the feelings that it brought with it. 

I hardly recognize the country that I was raised to love anymore.  I don't look back on the past with rose-colored glasses, but things have changed over the past decade, and it feels at times as though we are headed toward a future that is dark and destructive.  

We are being programmed to hate one another.  There are no more polite disagreements.  The powers-that-be for the moment are doing everything they can to stoke the fires of discord and silence the voices of dissent.  

And violence and retribution have become the end result of this campaign over our souls waged by those who broker in fear.  

But I also know that there is good in the world, and that love has the power to overcome anything that hate can muster.   The other day, I came across this powerful poem by Kamand Kojouri, which I would like to share in its entirety.  

They want us to be afraid.
They want us to be afraid of leaving our homes.
They want us to barricade our doors
and hide our children.
Their aim is to make us fear life itself!
They want us to hate.
They want us to hate 'the other'.
They want us to practice aggression
and perfect antagonism.
Their aim is to divide us all!
They want us to be inhuman.
They want us to throw out our kindness.
They want us to bury our love
and burn our hope.
Their aim is to take all our light!
They think their bricked walls
will separate us.
They think their damned bombs
will defeat us.
They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that my soul and your soul are old friends.
They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that when they cut you I bleed.
They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that we will never be afraid,
we will never hate
and we will never be silent
for life is ours!

Our culture runs on outrage. Algorithms reward conflict; leaders too often harvest fear and anger to keep us anxious and suspicious. 

Kojouri’s poem names that program with clarity—and then calls its bluff. “My soul and your soul are old friends” is not sentimentality; it’s Scripture-shaped reality. 

We are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). In Christ, the “dividing wall of hostility” is torn down (Ephesians 2:14). In the one body, “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). When they cut you, I bleed.

Jesus refuses the economy of hate. He commands, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). He centers the neighbor across every border in the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). He insists that perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18) and urges us not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). 

Love is not passivity; it is holy resistance. It means refusing dehumanizing labels, learning names, telling the truth without contempt, practicing fierce kindness, de-escalating when baited, and showing mercy where retaliation is expected.

Choosing love is costly, but it’s how we keep our light. So today, resist the pull toward hate. See the person in front of you as mysteriously connected to you—an “old friend” you may not yet know. 

Practice the politics of the kingdom: blessing enemies, breaking bread with strangers, repairing what fear has shattered. We will not be afraid. We will not hate. We will not be silent—for in Christ, life is ours (John 10:10).

Prayer
God of reconciling love, disarm my fear and enlarge my heart. Teach me to see Your image in every face and to answer hostility with courageous mercy. Make me a peacemaker today. Amen.

Reflection Questions

  1. Where have fear and anger been distracting my attention lately?

  2. What is one concrete act of courageous kindness I can choose today toward someone I distrust?

  3. Which “walls” in my life is God inviting me to dismantle with love?

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