Why does anger turn to hate?

"...hate is the battery acid of the soul..."

Even the pundits are confused this year. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. Our political discourse has boiled over. Stained our country. Our state. Our relationships. Ourselves. As hate is the battery acid of the soul, the fact we have allowed this four lettered word to roam our landscape with such abandon, with such rapidity, has left more than one expert speechless. The scary part? This might only be the start of the great unraveling.

At one time, "hating on someone" was a rarity. It was something that took a long time with many infractions in a relationship. No longer. We go from disagreement, to dislike, to all out hatred in record time. Just this past week, this small sleepy bedroom community next to ours had something happen of an ominous nature. A man running for Mayor, who lives out in the country and owns some animals, came under attack. Some people vandalized his truck, destroyed campaign signs, and poisoned some of his animals. For what reason? His politics are different than the ones who launched this attack on his property.

A bit further north of that town, a man is running to fill the House seat of Jim Newberger. While he was at a restaurant the other night discussing his campaign platform, somebody from the other side of the political fence came up and sucker punched him. Gave him a concussion. For what reason? When did political discourse become a cage match? What is next? Gunfire? Lynching? At the rate we are going, I would not be surprised. 

Campaign signs are being stolen and vandalized all over the state. A DFL party leader recently said Republicans should be "guillotined". What is going on? What is happening to us? Our civility?

Some say it is because America is not as Godly as it once was. Whereas love comes from God, we all know where hate comes from. Once we usher love out of our hearts, hate will for sure come rushing in. Always has been that way, always will be. 

To be fair, there is hate on both sides this political year. There is no shortage of it. What is going to happen after this election is over? Will the hate go away? I am afraid not. Neither side is going to accept losing. What we are seeing now, could only be the overture to a crescendo which will happen after the new year. And that crescendo could put us over the edge.

When anger becomes seething, when anger becomes palpable, hate is always close by. Can this nation heal itself without God, while bathed in hate? Probably not. Once a nation embraces hate and eschews God, it usually ceases to be a nation. We need to turn from hate folks, and as a nation, return to God. Before it is too late.