When Hate Begets Hate

 Well, this is a post I never thought I'd be writing! I'm going to start with the backstory, which I didn't get until we were pretty far into this but which I think will help it be clearer for you to understand.

 Evidently my nephew who lives in Tennessee has been up to no good. For quite some time he's been driving around baiting people of other races (he's white) with terrible racial slurs and trying to get them to fight him, presumably so he'll feel justified in shooting them. Yeah, that's pretty awful! He's been posting his shenanigans on social media, and while Facebook took his videos down, X has left them up for everyone to see.

 As you can imagine, this has caused quite the backlash. People who are offended by his behavior and those that support it, have grouped together and continued the hurt and violence. The group in opposition to him decided that it would benefit them to post his family's names, phone numbers, and addresses on the internet - including for myself and my husband. 

 That's actually when I finally got looped into all this. I had no idea what was going on. You see, I've never met my nephew, and we are rarely in contact with his family. No particular negativity there, we just don't have a close relationship as they've always lived on the other side of the country so we've rarely interacted. I was first clued into the situation when my husband received a warning/threatening phone call yesterday morning. Someone called him and told him that our family was in danger. They refused to give him their name or any other information like how they were associated with our nephew, but they said that because of what he was doing we were in trouble. They said that they had our numbers and addresses and listed off information to inform (intimidate?) us. 

 My husband was naturally concerned and reached out to his brother, my nephew's father. By the next day he was able to reach him and he also got in contact with my nephew. From these conversations he learned that our family on that side of the country had also received threats and that the police were involved, but by the time he learned this, the hate had spread further as both my husband and myself received texts in the middle of the night last night. The author didn't mince words and was clearly intending to intimidate. That's not fun to wake up to! (Text edited for content and privacy by me, that's not how I got it. Our address is scribbled out.)

 So, I'm guessing that these people are really upset with my nephew, understandably, and are trying to get his attention - but they're going about it all wrong. He doesn't know us from Adam and isn't a bit concerned that we are now being harassed because of his actions. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if it made him feel more empowered in his opinions. That's the awful part about a cycle of hate, it just keeps spiraling on itself. Looking into the situation, turns out it's all over social media with the police department even putting out an official response (see image at the top). There was even a change.org petition put up yesterday seeking to have the authorities do something about the awful things my nephew is up to that has 294 signatures at the time of this writing. 

 What are we doing? Well, we took the appropriate first steps of reporting the calls and texts to our local Sherrif's Department - that was interesting. We are praying for everyone involved. At first I wanted to write the people back and try to educate them on the situation, but I quickly realized the folly and futility of that action - that and the Sheriff's department told us not to engage with them. Then I wanted to put up a public post so that, maybe, as people were out there searching for stuff on this they would happen across it, but I just couldn't fit everything I wanted to say into a short Facebook update, so, as you can tell, I'm writing this post. I'm hoping, somehow, that it gets into the hands of whoever it needs to so they can see that trying to harm us does not accomplish their purpose. I also hope to stop the hate in its tracks right here. We are not angry, bitter, or hateful to the people who are contacting us in this way. We love  them with Jesus' love and long for them to hear about the hope only He can bring. 

Here's the Thing: Casting more hate out there isn't going to fix anything. The only thing that can bring any helpful solution to this situation is Jesus' love and forgiveness for everyone involved. I pray for my nephew and those he is associating with that their hearts would be softened to see Christ's love for them and their desperate need for it. Sadly, on their posts (according to my husband because I cannot handle viewing them personally) they are representing themselves as doing God's will - which means they haven't read their Bible much I guess. I truly believe that recognizing their sinful state and God's love and forgiveness for them, and the people they are targeting, is the only thing that will subvert the hateful behavior they are engaging in. Loving your enemies isn't easy, but it is vital to our health and relationship with God. Will you pray along with me for everyone involved in this situation?