Why are ‘Christians’ (and others) so angry, and sometimes downright hateful?

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) -- I have been a Christian now for more than 50 years and I still can’t get over the fact that so many fellow believers in the West appear to be so angry and even hateful in their blogs and messages about others that they don’t agree with.

Angry blogger (Photo: www.business2community.com)

Dallas Willard, a Professor in the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, wrote in his book, Renovation of the Heart, “Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right than to be Christ like. In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, indeed, requires you to be mean.”

I have been attacked many times, but recently I was the subject of the worst kind of vilification I have ever been at the receiving end of. The portrayal of myself was character assassination at its highest level; most alarmingly alleged by a fellow Christian against another. Character assassination, in any form, whether in a Christian or secular forum, is unacceptable.

We read the words of Jesus in John 13:35 (New King James Version), who said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

But where is the love in these times? I am regularly attacked in what I call the “The Wild, Wild West of the blogosphere” though this latest attack beats anything I have read before.

To me, it is so strange that I gave up a well-paid career in the secular media in London, England, to become a voice for the persecuted church around the world and, for more than 21 years now, my wife Norma, and myself, have not received a regular salary for running ASSIST Ministries and the ASSIST News Service. But I have to say that this has led to a life of faith and the Lord has supplied all of our needs.

In my days in the tabloids, I never ever received such hate messages as I do today. I regularly I receive anger-filled e-mails that are forwarded to me attacking other Christians and a plethora of other things and people. Most are Urban Legends that have not been checked, but they still get sent.

Recently I received an e-mail from a man who wanted to know if I could recommend a local church that “spoke out against” Rick Warren and Chuck Smith, my own pastor. Note, not a church that preached the Gospel!

Rick Warren being interviewed by Dan Wooding in Mexico City at an International World AIDS Conference

Once again, Rick Warren has been at the center of another controversy. This time he was accused of embracing “Chrislam,” a hybrid of Christianity and Islamic faiths that recognizes both the Bible and the Qu'ran as holy Scripture.

Warren himself denied the rumor in a response to a blog post perpetuating it, stating, “It is nonsense to believe that you must compromise your beliefs or water down your convictions in order to love someone, or even just treat them with dignity. Jesus was called 'the friend of sinners' by the legalistic Pharisees because he hung out with (and clearly loved) unbelievers. I HOPE YOU...refuse to pass on rumors until you've checked for the truth with the person accused.”

A cottage industry has sprung up on the Internet of individuals and groups that spend most of their time in an attack mode. I call it the “Wild, Wild West of the Blogosphere.”

There are lesser degrees of hatred, but all are interrelated as we witnessed in Norway in July where hate speech can go when taken to the extreme. This resulted in the deaths of 77 people in Norway’s twin attacks by 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik who, according a Facebook page attributed to him, describes himself as a “Christian,” something that I know that all Bible-believing Christians would reject.

Anders Behring Breivik

Breivik, who has just appeared in court in Oslo and was remanded in custody until February 6, 2012, when a new custody extension hearing will be held, and it was announced that there would be a possible trial start-date of April 16, is said to have claimed that multiculturalism, the erosion of “Christian values” and accommodation to Islam in Norway and Europe had generally “gone too far.”

One of our ANS readers pointed that although Breivik claimed to be a Christian, that doesn’t mean he was. He wrote: “Just because you say you are a donut, doesn’t make you a donut.” I certainly have to agree with that.

Hate speech in London

Of course, there is also plenty of hate speech spread on the Internet and in public, by other groups, including Muslims, as witnessed recently in London which featured some shocking posters.

One thing is clear and that is that words have consequences and when people like Breivik begin by spreading their messages of hate on the Internet, the eventual results can be (and have been) catastrophic.

Sadly, much of the rage being spread far and wide is by people who claim the name of Christ and I find this to be really disturbing. I am not sure what non-Christians make of all this. It certainly doesn’t reflect well on the Body of Christ.

Illustration by www.AskOwlbert.com

The Internet is filled today with thousands of blogs written by alleged Christians who attack others and I believe now is the time for us to call a halt to all of this and instead show the love of Christ to a hurting world at large.

Having said that, however, I have to admit that, in my early days as a believer, I too, was guilty of great anger. I remember that when my first book was about to be published, a group of Christian businessmen and pastors in Birmingham, England, threatened to sue me for something I had written in the manuscript. Fortunately, the publisher stood by me and they withdrew their unscriptural threat against a fellow Christian.

Then, back in the late sixties, after a year of working for The Christian, Billy Graham’s British newspaper, the whole staff was fired and we were all put out on the streets. We got two-week’s wages in severance and I had a wife and two sons to support.

There were many more bad incidents, too numerous to recount here, that were done to me by so-called believers who caused me so much anguish, that I eventually lost my faith and went after some of their via the large circulation newspapers I worked for. At that time, I knew that I had caused them great pain, but then I didn’t really care.

Book cover

But it all changed, when in a drunken stupor in the Stab-in-the-Back pub just off Fleet Street in London, I was led back to a faith in Christ by a wonderful Irish-Canadian called Ray Barnett, who then asked me to work with him on a book called “Uganda Holocaust,” which was about the courageous Christians who survived Idi Amin’s reign of terror during which some 300,000 of their fellow believers were murdered.

While in Uganda, I met some of the most loving Christians I have ever met and not one of them showed any anger towards Amin for what he did. In fact, they told me they were praying that he would find Christ.

When I got back to England, I contacted many of those people that I felt had done me wrong and apologized to them. I even wrote up this story for Guideposts magazine and it was used as their cover story.

As soon as I did this, the anger went and I realized that it had been harming me far more than the people I had directed it at.

I soon began a campaign to help persecuted Christians around the world, none of who showed any anger about their situation, but instead felt it was an honor to serve the Lord through their suffering. They don’t waste their precious time attacking others, but spend that time instead in sharing their faith, even though it could cost them their very lives. What a difference for much of what passes for Christianity in the Western Church.

As I said earlier, I have been deeply affected with what Jesus told his disciples; that other people would know that they were His disciples because of their love for one another (John 13:35). He was telling them about the main characteristic of a true Christian and I knew that I had been using the perceived faults of others as an excuse for my bad behavior.

So I am hoping that those of you who read this will also examine yourself and your anger and stop this constant barrage of hate messages via e-mail and on the many web sites. I know from first-hand experience, that this kind of behavior eats away at your faith, joy, and spiritual walk.

The Apostle Paul, writing in Galatians 5:22-23 (New King James Version) said, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Why not give it a try? Apologize to those who you believe have harmed you. Let go of your anger towards them, and then you too, will begin to experience what the Apostle Paul was talking about.

You have nothing to lose – but your anger.

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Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 48 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK and also in Belize and South Africa. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 200 countries and also provides a regular commentary for Worship Life Radio on KWVE. You can follow Dan Wooding on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link.

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