The Islamic State: A Time to Hate?

“Hate is not a family value.”

That’s what Democrat strategist Donna Brazile tweeted Tuesday after news broke that the Islamic State had published video showing its beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff.

The murderers butchered him at the prime of his life, because he is an American, and because he is not Muslim. Those were his “crimes” in the eyes of the Islamic State. So they cut his head off and posted video of his last moments of life for all the world to see, while they promised to kill again.

Islamic State’s operators are, among other things, serial killers.

Brazile’s tweet of a cliche might not seem to matter, but it does, because she is a big name in the media and a bigger name in the Democratic Party. That party controls American foreign policy as the Islamic State threat rises. Brazile has the ear of President Barack Obama like very few do. Her reactions are likely to align with those of most Democrats including President Obama.

Brazile surrounded that sentiment with others that indicate confusion over the Islamic State and what to do about it. She tweeted that “hate is not a strategy for victory.” Who said that it is? No one who has ever spent any time in the American military would substitute hate for a battle plan. That’s a recipe for defeat.

She called for a “full debate,” but immediately took the military option off the table. That’s not a “full debate.”

The liberal Democrat who supports every government social program questioned the cost of military action, which she had already taken off the table.

She called for a “complete, comprehensive strategy” — only, it would have to be a strategy that does not involve sending American ground troops to fight and defeat a ground army.

Brazile’s reactions betray confusion. That confusion is deeper than momentary strategy. It’s a moral confusion, which is a product of living in subjective cliches rather than reality.

Cliches stop critical thought in its tracks. Cliches crush legitimate debate.

Brazile says she is a Christian. She subscribes to the idea that “hate is not a family value.” That saying has become a staple of Democrat politics for a couple of decades now. Whatever else that statement is, it’s not a reflection of Biblical beliefs.

Don’t get me wrong here. Hate for its own sake or over racial differences isn’t a Biblical value.

But hate is depicted in the Bible as something that becomes necessary at times, and that has its place and its seasons.

The most famous scripture that addresses hate is probably Ecclesiastes 3. It reads:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

4a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

What would a “time to hate” be? What would it look like?

Verse 8 connects hate with times of war. The Obama administration refuses to state whether we’re at war with IS, but they are certainly at war with us. They have butchered two of our citizens in the past couple of weeks. They have threatened our nation and declared their intent to impose their beliefs on the whole world. They want to destroy our way of life. We stand in their way. It’s beyond doubt that they hate us, in a non-righteous way, as the next few verses explain.

Psalm 101 specifies what it’s proper to hate.

I will sing of your love and justice;

to you, Lord, I will sing praise.

2I will be careful to lead a blameless life—

when will you come to me?

I will conduct the affairs of my house

with a blameless heart.

3I will not look with approval

on anything that is vile.

I hate what faithless people do;

I will have no part in it.

4The perverse of heart shall be far from me;

I will have nothing to do with what is evil.

David wrote that psalm, and said that he “hates” what faithless people do. “Faithless” in this context means “dishonest.” He goes on to say that he will “silence” those who “slander” their neighbors. That ought to make anyone in politics a little bit uncomfortable. In particular, it should disturb Democrats who play the race card and other smears at every opportunity.

But getting back to the subject of hate, Solomon addressed the subject in Proverbs 13:5 —

5The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves.

Again, it’s righteous to “hate” lies. That’s clear enough, and also ought to make anyone in politics squirm.

Solomon takes up the hate issue in Proverbs 6 too. This time, God is the h8ter.

16There are six things the Lord hates,

seven that are detestable to him:

17haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

18a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

19a false witness who pours out lies

and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

How much of that passage is relevant to today? All of it, I’d say. In the case of the Islamic State, verse 19 has God hating “a person who stirs up conflict in a community,” and verse 17 — God hates “hands that shed innocent blood.” He also hates “feet that are quick to rush into evil.”

Is there anything more evil than what the Islamic State did to James Foley and Steven Sotloff?

Was Steven Sotloff guilty of anything deserving of having his head chopped off?

Do his brutal captors and murderers deserve hate?

If Sotloff is guilty, then so are we all. Including Donna Brazile, an American Christian. It’s plain from the video executions that no amount of mouthing the Islamic State’s beliefs will result in mercy. That is a Biblically-encouraged capacity that they have never exhibited. The Islamic State sells non-Muslim women into sex slavery. It subjugates everyone in its control to brutality. It executes enemy soldiers by the dozens. The Islamic State is a murder machine.

Is it time for peace with the Islamic State — their definition of “peace” if we refuse to impose ours — or is it time for war to avenge the Christians, Yazidis, the Americans, and other innocents they have killed, and to stop them from killing more?

Is hating them justified?

Don’t answer in cliches, “Hate is not a family value” crowd. Think.