Who Does God Hate?

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4: 7 NRSV)

I am in Washington DC at the Wesley Theological Seminary library today for my weekly sermon preparation day and had occasion to pass by a demonstration taking place outside the DC Superior Court building. While I couldn't hear the speakers as I passed by, I assume the protesters were there because DC now permits same sex marriage and today is the first day same sex couples can apply for marriage licenses. What I did see, however, was a protest sign proclaiming “God hates Obama.”

Even though the Bible does include passages stating things God hates, I cringe whenever anyone has the audacity to attempt to speak for God. Admittedly, this is dangerous ground for a preacher whose bread and butter is proclaiming “thus sayeth the Lord.” My training and experience, as well as my religious tradition, leads me to examine very carefully any claim, my own included, that alleges to speak for God. Unless approached with great care, study, prayer, and humility such claims are often attempts to wrap our own opinions in robes of religiosity. Theologians call this isogesis (layering our opinions onto scripture) rather than exegesis (letting the scripture speak to our lives).

So does God hate President Obama?

Rev. Rebecca Dolch in the February/March/April 2010 edition of “Circuit Rider” recalls how her mother taught her that claims about who God hates is more about what that person fears than God’s preferences. If that is the case, and I believe it is, why do people hate President Obama? Race? Age? Party? Politics? Gender? His choice for a family dog? That he still smokes?

What?

And more importantly, when did it become acceptable to use “hate” in either political or religious discourse much less include it in the same sentence with the word “God”?