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Love wipes out haterism
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
Haterism? A word I’d never heard before, but there it was—the subject of a sermon by a preacher who was profiled in my local newspaper. Haterism was used to describe the seeming power of evil in the world that is depicted vividly in the Bible when Cain killed his own brother, Abel. But it’s not just one person acting evilly toward another; it’s the whole trend in human life toward hate, jealousy, and revenge.
Normally, I might have skimmed over the article, but just the day before I’d seen the new movie Freedom Writers. It’s about the culture of hate and violence that so many teens face in cities where gangs and drugs rule the streets and daily life is a constant struggle for basic survival.
I’m glad to say that the movie also told about how the devotion, kindness, and brotherly love of a total outsider could change that culture full of rage, bigotry, and hopelessness. In one classroom, a real teacher named Erin Gruwell helped students who had been written off as hopeless develop a culture of friendship, support, and life dreams come true. She continues to inspire other teachers to make the same difference in the lives of the students they work with. (See www.freedomwritersfoundation.org for more information.)
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About the author
Meg Dendler is a Christian Science practitioner just outside Houston, Texas, United States. She writes a regular Internet column: “Spiritually Significant Cinema.”
