On Hate and Taking Sides

I woke up this morning thinking about Alexei Navalny who is imprisoned in Siberia because he ran against the Russian government on a freedom ticket. While Navalny is imprisoned, and in danger of death, the people of Russia are silent. Do the Russian people believe anyone who runs against the Putin government is a criminal? Do they know what a dark fearful world they live in? Do they know how evil it is to hate the one who speaks what they don’t know, and to hate what they are told is evil? Do they know that their silence kills the good? Are we Americans bound to go the same way: hating what we don’t like or understand? Is our dark, carping, critical rhetoric as damaging as the rhetoric that keeps Navalny in prison?

What if I hate what a person does, or what he says and seems to support? I must fall on my face before God and ask “where are you in this? Is any of this Holy Spirit inspired?” I must be sure that what I hate, God would hate also. Maybe it’s best to pray for God’s will and pray that I’m not taking a human side in this battle we are in.