“I am hated by people I have never met because they assume that I hate them, but they have never met me, never talked to me, never asked me my opinion… they just assume I hate them. I don’t make my decisions or choose my beliefs because I think they are the easy ones, the ones that most people will agree with or even the ones that will be received as the most well thought out. I do what I believe is right and it is hard. I struggle with the making sense of it all.

So why am I hated? Because I believe in God? I look at the wonderful and breathtaking world around me and I cannot conceive of it without God. I have tried the path of science but they offer thin answers that are predicated on blind belief whereas when I look at the world about me I see God evident in everything.

Am I hated because you think I disapprove of who you are or what you do? I don’t approve of who I am or what I do. Do you really think I have time to judge you? I am trying to love you because my God commands that I love. It can be hard and I most certainly fail but I try. If we were to truly measure ourselves I am certain I would hold any wrong I did lower than anything you could have done. I feel my shortcomings in the morning. I remember them in daylight and they accompany my thoughts as I dream. My sins are evident to me in all things. Can you forgive me for all I have done that is wrong? I have to deal with me first. Can’t I just work on loving and work on me?

Do you hate me because you think me unwise? I know that there are men smarter than I will ever be, but I cannot simply take them at their word. They are men and men are fallible. I have a need to know for myself. Just because I want to know or disagree doesn’t mean that I don’t think they are smart. It simply means I disagree. Isn’t it alright if we just disagree?

Or is it because the gap has widened and you have come to hate the gap? Humanity seems more divided than ever. Our hatred of one another is no longer held on our shirtsleeves but bottled up and spewed as rhetoric and division. We cannot listen to the others ideas and strive for a world we can all be happy in. Instead we point fingers and call names in hopes of a fight.

You can hate me. There is nothing I can do about it. But you cannot make me hate you. And maybe, with the aid of my God, I can learn to love you.”