Underwear

Is hate speech ever helpful? 

The answer is probably not, but it sure is tempting.

There are times that being sensitive to everyone's feelings is exhausting. Sometimes I want to wear a sign that says, "I'm unedited, but I believe you are emotionally mature enough to respond appropriately so please forgive me and don't stew." 

I realize this would be a large sign and kind of weird, but I do tend to say or ask what I'm thinking or wondering and I trust people to either holler at me for being inappropriate or tell me what they are honestly thinking. 

I don't often think hateful things, just awkward things. That worries me a little. It makes me think I'm out of touch with other people's lives and pain. 

I hated and spoke loudly about that hate when I did work against the death penalty. The rage of feeling so powerless in the face of an unjust system made me throw fits. Having to sit quietly in church beside the guy who sent us death threats and wrote nasty letters to the editor made me want to scream. And I probably should have. There is justified hatred towards injustice, and there is justified  rage that comes from feeling so impotent in the face of it.

I hated when I would argue with someone about the injustice surrounding the number of poor people of color on death row who were defended by real estate lawyers. Folks would normally end the argument by saying, "You believe what you want and I'll believe what I want; we'll agree to disagree."

Hell no!

It's easy to be conciliatory when you have the power and the systems work to keep you in power. So what is left when you don't have power and you see injustice?

If not hate speech, then at least inflammatory speech. You need something to get people's attention and make them uncomfortable enough to consider a different point of view. 

I think of the prophet Jeremiah in the Bible hiding his underwear in a rock for many days and then pulling it out to parade around town saying,

Sophie with a bag on her head because I
couldn't find the
 underwear on her head one.

"Thus says the LORD: I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land — the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem — with drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, parents and children together, says the LORD. I will not pity or spare or have compassion when I destroy them." (Jeremiah 13).

Parading ruined underwear around with a warning of God's destruction sounds like street theater to me. It sounds like the way to shock or jolt folks into a new way of seeing and hearing those without a voice.

That doesn't condone hate speech and it is never appropriate for those who have power, but I do understand the need for inflammatory speech so the comfortable might wake up.

I also get that I follow a savior whose greatest act of street theater was pouring out life and love on a cross instead of vengeance and hate. Instead of playing the power games, the just vs. unjust, he opened his arms to all. "Forgive them for they don't know what they're doing" (Luke 23:34). 

So for those who have power right now please leave some space and grace for those who feel crushed not only by the election, but by every look of disdain and suspicion they have to navigate through each day. Maybe if we did some serious listening to each other, we could have fewer ruined underwear parades.