This whole Rev. Wright problem of Obama's has had me thinking recently about hatred and honesty. I'm starting to wonder if an honest person can have hatred - I mean pure, unadulterated, out-and-out hatred. Wright has hatred, there's no doubt about that. You listen to him, and he rants and raves about the government creating AIDS to kill blacks, or importing hard drugs to imprison blacks, or engaging in terrorism worldwide. That's hate speech. Yet at the same time, it's all bogus. There's not one shred of proof for any of those claims. So why does he believe them? Why does he hate so much? It reminds me of the Lamanites hating the Nephites in the Book of Mormon. Their hatred was based on lies too - "Nephi tried to usurp power", "Nephi wronged us as we were crossing the sea", "Nephi stole to brass plates from us", etc. They told these lies to encourage their children and grandchildren to hate the Nephites, to promote murder, plunder, and warfare against them.
Now Wright may not be advocating open warfare, but he has made pretty good money on selling DVDs of his sermons (including the hate speech ones). He's also said that those who criticize him for his hateful remarks aren't attacking him, but all black churches in general. That's another lie, since not all black churches teach what he teaches, nor is he the spokesman for all black preachers. So he's using his dishonesty to:
1. make money
2. justify his hate speech
3. put the focus of criticism off himself so he can continue to do 1 and 2.
What would an honest person need hatred for? Those who are prejudiced aren't being honest, as they are falling for a stereotype of a race/ethnic group/religion that is almost always categorically false. Those who hold grudges/seek revenge against someone usually end up distorting the events that caused the grudge in order to continue hating the person. So what purpose does hatred serve for an honest person? From what I can see, none.
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