Barton: Hate is a Virtue, Tolerance a Sin
David Barton says he’s thinking about writing a book that takes the position that hate is a virtue, at least when it is applied to the things that God disapproves of, and tolerance is a sin if it means tolerating something that God is opposed to.
I wrote this down recently and I’m thinking about it as a name for a book; if not the name for a book, this is definitely something that we have to at least get in our thinking. So let me throw out the thought that I had here, this is just throwing out the title for a book:
When tolerance is a sin and hate is a virtue.
I throw that out because we’re getting to the point where tolerance is a bad thing and hate is a good thing. And let me define that: we’re told in, I believe it’s Proverbs 4:13, it says “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” Which means that if I’m going to stand for what God stands for, there’s some certain things I have to hate: I have to hate evil, I have to hate murder – well no, you can’t hate, that’s a bad thing … no, hate is a good thing!
I mean hating Nazis, that’s a good thing. And people say “well, you hate their philosophy, you don’t hate the people.” No, I hate people who want to kill other people and I’m sorry that they’re killing others but the guys who were on the Nazi trials at the end, I’m sorry, I just hate what they did. Alright, I love them as a person, yes Jesus died for them, I understand, but I hate certain things.
So we’ve got to get to the point where tolerance is seen as a sin because we’re tolerating a lot stuff that destroys our families, that destroys our own character and we can’t tolerate that stuff. We have to get back to the point where hate is a virtue, at least certain kinds of hate. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil and we need to have a hatred of things and get off this fence of having no passion about anything. You know, I tolerate anything, I’m not going to have a passion good or bad, I’m not going to hate anything … We just can’t do that and we’ve got to get back to that same type of intolerance, that we’re going to be intolerant of liberalism.
I actually think he’s got a point, though he has the wrong target. I have no problem with hating those who murder and rape and do horrible things (and please don’t give me this mealy-mouthed, new agey “I don’t hate anyone, I just strongly dislike them” — as though that says anything meaningful at all). The problem is that Barton hates all the wrong things. He hates gay people because the Bible tells him that being gay is an “abomination.” And he acts accordingly
And I’m greatly amused by this claim that “we’re tolerating a lot of stuff that destroys our families.” Really? Then why is your family not destroyed? According to Barton, that “stuff” includes the Supreme Court banning mandatory prayer in schools in 1962 and it’s been going on ever since. 50 years worth of stuff that allegedly “destroys our families.” There should be no families left after two generations of such hyperbole.
Marcus Ranum:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:07 am
Hate is a virtue! Freedom is slavery! Ignorance is strength!
Akira MacKenzie:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:08 am
If hate was such a virtue, Barton, then why do you just come out and actually blame homosexuals here rather than make such a thinly veiled reference?
dingojack:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:14 am
“So we’ve got to get to the point where tolerance is seen as a sin because we’re tolerating a lot stuff that destroys our families, that destroys our own character and we can’t tolerate that stuff.”.
What like chrisian pedophiles and those that ‘tolerate’ their crimes and cover them up?
Like that?
Dingo
kylawyer:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:14 am
Hate is always a characteristic of Right Wing Authoritarians. I’ll give him his, at least Barton is honest about his hate. Most so called Christian fundies pretend they are all about love. You know it’s love to hate homosexuality because “those people” are trapped in that lifestyle because they are controlled by demons. At least that’s one argument I’ve seen the fundies make.
raven:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:19 am
A bit late. Mencken said it a century ago.
Fundie xianity is based on pure hate. No hate = No fundie xianity.
If you understand that simple idea, you understand fundie xianity.
raven:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:26 am
I noticed that hate = fundie-ism myself. But so have a lot of people. Mencken said it a century ago. Spong talks about it in his books, having been the recipient of “16 death threats” from his co-religionists.
It’s just tribalism. They didn’t invent it.
It is also biblical. The early part of the bible is the Jews (mytholigically) genociding the Canaanites and taking their land, women, and stuff. Because they deserved to be killed.
Payback was severe. The Jews were then overrun by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, kicked out of Palestine, and finally met the Germans.
A constant theme in the bible is hate for the other tribes, the Ammonites, Canaanites, Moabites, Edomites, Aramites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Samaritans, Philistines, Romans. etc.. If they ever met another people they got along with, I don’t remember it.
cottonnero:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:28 am
This ties in with your post yesterday about CBN’s “exposé” about the Liberal/Muslim conspiracy. There’s no multipartite world, no Sino-Soviet split, just a dipole: an Us to laud and protect, and a Them to hate. That two groups of Thems might not like each other never enters their mind.
Larry:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:28 am
What is really amazing is that everything Barton hates, god hates, too!
raven:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:34 am
The bible also says lying is a sin, one of the 10 commandments.
Given that Barton’s whole schtick is lying, he should hate himself too.
John Hinkle:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:39 am
Well, if it’s in the Bible, it’s only a matter time until Barton links it into the Constitution… and not paraphrased, but as a direct quote!
Michael Heath:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:50 am
I have a very hard time hating anyone. I have no problem despising most liars, including David Barton.
I’d like to see someone interview Mr. Barton, repeat a litany of his unrepentant lies about the framers coupled to citations proving he lied about them, and then ask him whether Christians have a duty to God to hate him. That Christians should hate him for bearing false witness against others since according to him, God hates liars*.
The only honest way for him to attempt to weasel out of his own framework is for him to argue that bearing false witness against others doesn’t sink to evil. Of course Mr. Barton has continually demonstrated no fealty to honesty so I wouldn’t expect him to use this defense. That’s the problem with liars and why we should always condemn them and seek to ostracize them, even if they told the truth about one matter, they’re still not trustworthy; therefore they’ve earned our ignoring any consideration they seek from others about any matter.
*This is framed around Barton’s own framing of of inerrant Bible that is also God’s word. My framing here is possibly disingenuous by categorizing dishonesty with evil where Barton didn’t technically do that, though one could argue he did in the statements Ed quotes here. That’s because he seems to be equating behavior God condemns as evil where the Bible does have passages prohibiting dishonesty.
raven:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:50 am
Love the sinner, hate the sin.
It is cafeteria xianity time. Of course, it is always cafeteria xianity time.
raven:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:54 am
Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. These days, god must be sick or on vacation. His followers seem to feel they have to do all his work for him.
fifthdentist:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:58 am
@ raven, there was that one tribe that asked the Israelis to be friends and swap sons and daughters in marriage. Initially they said no, but then agreed — with the stipulation that the other tribe get their foreskins whacked off.
Then, when the other tribe’s men were incapacitated from the procedure the Israelis slaughtered them.
Oh, wait …
gingerbaker:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:00 pm
I find Barton’s honesty about the Bible refreshing. The Bible says very little about tolerance when it comes to morality, except that breaches of morality should be dealt with very severely.
And the First Amendment protects his right to express his religious views. Because it is a document which enshrines the idea of tolerance as central to the American ethos!
Barton is entitled to his honest interpretation of the Bible. But it should be pointed out that his Biblical viewpoint is profoundly anti American.
tommykey:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
Making up BS about American history is apparently ok since Barton is doing it in the service of the Lawd.
theguy:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
Here I was thinking that people like Barton and Fischer didn’t feel any emotions other than hate (and smugness, but is that really an emotion?) and Barton just about proves me right.
Question: is a stereotype just a stereotype if people like Barton go out of their way to prove the fundie stereotype right at every turn?
Michael Heath:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
gingerbaker writes:
Your premise doesn’t match the evidence in its totality, not even close. Mr. Barton distinguishes himself in his misrepresentation of the Bible, e.g., his demonstrated cafeteria Christianity here, and elsewhere – his claims certain biblical passages reconcile to passages in the U.S. Constitution; where he also continually lies about the latter as well.
reddiaperbaby1942:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
This seems very similar to the lines attributed to Goldwater: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
In my opinion, just about the most dangerous way of thinking there is. We also see it in the current refusal to compromise on the part of the extreme right wing in Congress.
I also like the reference in # 1 to George Orwell, who saw through this kind of language better than most.
MikeMa:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:40 pm
There is nothing refreshing about Barton or his writing. He lies to push a particularly evil point of view. His ideas are the antithesis of what our constitution and bill of rights are all about.
ph041985:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:44 pm
Wasn’t it one of Jesus’s basic tenets to love and show compassion for the people who you disagree with and do you injustice?
Bronze Dog:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:49 pm
I don’t think hate is inherently evil. It’s natural to hate murderers, oppressors, and other evildoers. The problem comes from losing control of your hate and from directing that hate to innocents who just happen to have some trait in common with the original target. Tolerance and mercy are virtues that keep hate more reasonable, under control, and proportional. Fundies didn’t get that memo. Besides, they seem to lack a moral compass to understand good from evil, anyway.
MichaelE:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:50 pm
Sooooo….Crush your enemies, see them driven before and hear the lamentation of their women?*
I mean sure, that’s what’s best in life, but Barton would think it’s also virtous?
I admit to a lack of understanding of the mindset of these people, we don’t have that many here in little Denmark, and those we do have usually stick to themselves. But from what little I do understand, and what little I know (or think I know) of this man, he seems to be moving towards a more “fire and brimstone” kind of christian.
One would think being an almost pathological liar would be enough…
*Yes, I do know that’s not what he said, I was just paraphrasing.
tacitus:
January 5th, 2013 at 12:53 pm
Calling someone evil and then hating them can be an excuse for inaction, or refusing to take a necessary action.
Case in point: Adam Lanza. There is no doubting that what he did was an evil act, but was he evil? Would he have been evil if there had been no assault weapons in his home with which he committed mass murder, or would he have still just been the young, disaffected mentally disturbed teenager he was before?
Writing Lanza off as evil is an easy excuse not to tackle difficult issues including gun control and care for the mentally ill. But then, right-wing conservatives love to view the world in black and white.
paulburnett:
January 5th, 2013 at 1:03 pm
Raven (#5) quotes Mencken. I looked up the quote, from a Baltimore Evening Sun article, about William Jennings Bryan at the Scopes Trial, from July 27, 1925 – http://www.etsu.edu/cas/history/documents/menckenbryan.htm
The article mentions the target audience for Bryan’s demagoguery, which seems the same as the target audience for David Barton’s lies, and the target audience for the execrable movie Expelled – “he preferred the company of rustic ignoramuses.”
Zeno:
January 5th, 2013 at 1:09 pm
Hmph. This is merely recycled Randall Terry of Operation Rescue, (in)famous for saying, “I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good.” Barton is late to the Christian cotillion in this respect. And Greg Gutfield, whose role on Fox News is to make his colleagues look like decent human beings by comparison, has already written The Joy of Hate (which I was disgusted to discover on my parents’ bookshelf on Xmas Day). Barton should stick to his specialty, which is fake history.
brianwood:
January 5th, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Well, I certainly hate oppression, cruelty,injustice, ignorance, poverty, and faith along with the other evils always associated with religion.
Michael Heath:
January 5th, 2013 at 1:32 pm
ph041985 writes:
David Barton is a biblical inerrantist who also subscribes to the incoherent idea of a godly trinity. From this perspective there are ample passages in the Bible which has God, and therefore Jesus, promoting hate and violence for those with whom we disagree, including the character of Jesus himself in this passages:
And of course Jesus/God promises violence and evil beyond that possible from an human – eternal punishment to those who do not slavishly and blindly submit, and even some of them will suffer for all eternity. Since Jesus promises eternal suffering to some, we can’t provide examples of any entity doing more evil to any one individual than what these believers promise their god Jesus will do to some. Revelations 20:
Moggie:
January 5th, 2013 at 2:03 pm
The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to rankling spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness, and a narrow, jealous, inquisitorial watchfulness over the actions and motives of others. What have the different sects, creeds, doctrines in religion been but so many pretexts set up for men to wrangle, to quarrel, to tear one another in pieces about, like a target as a mark to shoot at? Does any one suppose that the love of country in an Englishman implies any friendly feeling or disposition to serve another bearing the same name? No, it means only hatred to the French or the inhabitants of any other country that we happen to be at war with for the time. Does the love of virtue denote any wish to discover or amend our own faults? No, but it atones for an obstinate adherence to our own vices by the most virulent intolerance to human frailties. This principle is of a most universal application. It extends to good as well as evil: if it makes us hate folly, it makes us no less dissatisfied with distinguished merit. If it inclines us to resent the wrongs of others, it impels us to be as impatient of their prosperity. We revenge injuries: we repay benefits with ingratitude. Even our strongest partialities and likings soon take this turn. “That which was luscious as locusts, anon becomes bitter as coloquintida;” and love and friendship melt in their own fires. We hate old friends: we hate old books: we hate old opinions; and at last we come to hate ourselves.
William Hazlitt, On the Pleasure of Hating, 1823.
While there’s nothing wrong with hating evil, for many people hate seems to be a kind of drug.. Some media personalities make a career out of spewing hate at every opportunity, and millions tune in or read them, for that bracing rush of blood and the sweet sweet taste of self-righteousness. I admit, I can see the appeal, but I’m on my guard against going down that path, because I dislike what it does to me.
anubisprime:
January 5th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
Seems the jeebus droolers are being so reduced in number and distilled down to the dumbest of the dumb.
So thick and mentally ponderous they need to have the tenets of their cult spelt out in simple uncomplicated straight forward sentences.
Hate = Good
Intolerance = Godly
This could not be contemplated even a decade ago, because way back then, Xtianity could boast of some members that had an IQ a tad higher then their belt buckle, to keep those precious few on board then ‘Love’ was the code word and the name of the bigotry and no mention of Intolerance or hatred was required, it was there all the same just under the surface and was the default but there was a uneasiness in its presence…but ‘Love’…well that is all right then!
Unfortunately the average fundy of the day is confused by this ‘love’ thing and understands a whole lot better when the bigotries and ignorances they actually feel are called for what they are…now that makes sense and they can happily relate!
Barton is just laying it on the line for hard of thinking by admitting it is fine to hate and be intolerant…after all where is fundy land without their favourite weapons.
Reginald Selkirk:
January 5th, 2013 at 2:46 pm
Off-topic: This might be one for your “new professionalism” series.
Police officers caught egging the house of a superior officer
.
They weren’t entirely unprofessional; at least they did it while off-duty and not in uniform.
Doc Bill:
January 5th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
Barton figures that if he can redefine “dishonest” then his own publishers will stop pulling his books.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven:
January 5th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
It contains a piece of shit like Barton. How much more destroyed do you want it?
peterh:
January 5th, 2013 at 4:35 pm
For his prologue, he could point out hitting oneself on the head with a hammer should be encouraged because it feels so good when one stops.
whheydt:
January 5th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
“There are people in this world who do not love their fellow man….and I HATE people like that.” –Tom Lehrer.
jnorris:
January 5th, 2013 at 6:09 pm
Barton need only ripoff a Chick Publications cartoon tract.
Rip Steakface:
January 5th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
I will say that “Hate Is A Virtue” would make an excellent name for a metal song (likely thrash or melodic death metal). Surprisingly, a quick search on metal-archives.com reveals no songs named that.
Be right back, writing a song.
grumpyoldfart:
January 5th, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Don’t worry – even if the book is published, there is not an American anywhere, who would be foolish enough to accept such nonsense.
Nibi:
January 5th, 2013 at 7:43 pm
raven
Cafeteria Christianity? I think we’re into dumpster diving Christianity here.
Crudely Wrott:
January 5th, 2013 at 9:44 pm
Barton writes:
He is correct. Hate makes you afraid. When that which you hate is widely present among the population of folks with normal, peaceful and productive lives, you get scared. Really scared.
Boo!!
Crudely Wrott:
January 5th, 2013 at 9:47 pm
addendum: . . . and we’ve always been at war with whatchamacallsia.
Boo!!
StevoR, fallible human being:
January 5th, 2013 at 10:22 pm
@6. raven :
How about the Persians especially under King Cyrus the Great who defeated the Babylonians and ended the Babylonian Capitivity period allowing the Jewish people to return home and rebuild / build the second temple in Jerusalem circa 540-530 BC?
They seemed to get along pretty well.
Also there’s a whole category of righteous gentiles – those who have aided the jews over time and helped them escape persecution and also those who live well among Jews and inside jewish states as strangers and get along okay with them too. Plus the US and Australians among others have very good relations and are closely allied to the Jewish nation of Israel.
StevoR, fallible human being:
January 5th, 2013 at 10:24 pm
Bible / Torah – Jewish & Israelite groups.
dingojack:
January 5th, 2013 at 10:24 pm
Bible Fail.
Dingo.
——–
Of course he meant:
But was too lazy to look it up. Cafeteria christians!
dingojack:
January 5th, 2013 at 10:29 pm
Does Proverbs 8:13 mean that ‘god fears that people will hate evil, pride, arrogancy and a froward mouth’ or that ‘the writer hates the fear of god, evil, pride & etc’?
Dingo
d.c.wilson:
January 5th, 2013 at 10:43 pm
Wait, I thought it was the other way. You start with fear and then:
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Suffering leads to the Dark Side.
dingojack:
January 5th, 2013 at 11:13 pm
And here was I thinking that fear was the mind killer that brings total obliteration….
Dingo
raven:
January 6th, 2013 at 2:13 am
I missed where in the bible, the USA and Australia are mentioned. That must be in one of Barton’s other books.
The Persians might work though. They let the Jews go back from Babylon.
Gregory in Seattle:
January 6th, 2013 at 2:28 am
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Yup, sound like Talibangelical doctrines.
dingojack:
January 6th, 2013 at 2:44 am
“How about the Persians especially under King Cyrus the Great who defeated the Babylonians and ended the Babylonian Capitivity period allowing the Jewish people to return home and rebuild / build the second temple in Jerusalem circa 540-530 BC?”*
And now the Israelis wanna bomb the crap outta their descendants. Talk about fair-weather friends,,,
No wonder even their own god hates them.
:) Dingo
———-
* TFoAW notes:
“Cyrus was praised in the Tanakh (Isaiah 45:1-6 and Ezra 1:1-11) for the freeing of slaves, humanitarian equality and costly reparations he made. However, there was Jewish criticism of him after he was lied to by the Cuthites, who wanted to halt the building of the Second Temple. They accused the Jews of conspiring to rebel, so Cyrus in turn stopped the construction, which would not be completed until 515 BC, during the reign of Darius I.[90][91] According to the Bible it was King Artaxerxes who was convinced to stop the construction of the temple in Jerusalem. (Ezra 4:7-24)”. and
“”His treatment of the Jews during their exile in Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed Jerusalem is reported in the Bible. The Jewish Bible’s Ketuvim ends in Second Chronicles with the decree of Cyrus, which returned the exiles to the Promised Land from Babylon along with a commission to rebuild the temple.
….
The historical nature of this decree has been challenged. Professor Lester L Grabbe argues that there was no decree but that there was a policy that allowed exiles to return to their homelands and rebuild their temples. He also argues that the archaeology suggests that the return was a “trickle”, taking place over perhaps decades, resulting in a maximum population of perhaps 30,000.[93] Philip R. Davies called the authenticity of the decree “dubious”, citing Grabbe and adding that J. Briend argued against “the authenticity of Ezra 1.1-4 is J. Briend, in a paper given at the Institut Catholique de Paris on 15 December 1993, who denies that it resembles the form of an official document but reflects rather biblical prophetic idiom.”[94] Mary Joan Winn Leith believes that the decree in Ezra might be authentic and along with the Cylinder that Cyrus, like earlier rules, was through these trying to gain support from those who might be strategically important, particularly those close to Egypt which he wished to conquer. He also wrote that “appeals to Marduk in the cylinder and to Yahweh in the biblical decree demonstrate the Persian tendency to co-opt local religious and political traditions in the interest of imperial control.”
In short – ‘It ain’t necessarily so’
laurentweppe:
January 6th, 2013 at 5:44 am
Of course it’s meaningfull: it is after all, the expression of enormous hubris: “I am so much smarter than the rabble: unlike them, I am above petty feelings like hate: look upon my superior intellect, ye mammals, and despair“
sosw:
January 6th, 2013 at 5:54 am
@Rip Steakface
Not in that form, IMHO. Most metal acts aren’t serious enough, usually they’re sarcasm or deliberate exaggeration.
In any case, IIRC Children of Bodom had a song beginning with a clip including “Hate is good” in one of their songs on one of their first two records.
matthewhodson:
January 6th, 2013 at 6:48 am
Finally someone who really understands what Jesus was all about: “Hate thy neighbour as thou hates thy self”.
This Barton guy really knows his history!1!!#!
Rip Steakface:
January 6th, 2013 at 7:03 am
Well, Heathen wrote a song called “Mercy Is No Virtue,” and one of Death’s best songs is “To Forgive Is to Suffer.” The former is progressive thrash, the latter was progressive death metal (at that point – they helped invent death metal in the first place). I’d say a brutal or technical death metal band would certainly write a song named that, and take it completely seriously. It’s not like all metal bands are Anthrax.
And let’s not even talk about National Socialist black metal (yes, it unfortunately exists).
democommie:
January 6th, 2013 at 7:42 am
“Given that Barton’s whole schtick is lying, he should hate himself too.”
He’s practicing, by hatin’ on everybody else, for self-hating.
“J. Briend, in a paper given at the Institut Catholique de Paris on 15 December 1993, who denies that it resembles the form of an official document but reflects rather biblical prophetic idiom.”
Oh, yeah, like you’re going to be getting any truth from the Whore of Babylon!
“they helped invent death metal in the first place”
Would a REALLY great death metal band even NEED to make a second album? {;>)
democommie:
January 6th, 2013 at 7:45 am
“I mean hating Nazis, that’s a good thing. And people say “well, you hate their philosophy, you don’t hate the people.”
Davey, buddy, how are folks gonna take you seriously if you make alla this noise about nazis and don’t even mention ILLINOIS! Ferfucksake!! Dave, do you have the courage and commitment to run a bunch of Illinazis off the bridge or no?
StevoR, fallible human being:
January 6th, 2013 at 9:35 am
@48. raven :
Not in the Torah / Talmud / Mishnah by name specifically no – but the idea of “righteous gentiles” ie. allies and good non-Jews living harmoniously with Jewish people – that is in there somewhere isn’t it?
@50. dingojack :
‘Bout that claim :
1. Two thousand years later and a very different culture and peoples indeed. Today’s Iranians are very distant descendants of the Persians indeed.
2. You forgot to note its more a case of vice-versa – Iran is now the one talking of exterminating the Jewish state.
3. Relevance? The original question is still answered by this example of how things used to be and were record in the Old Testament even if international relations have changed quite a bit in the millennia since.
democommie:
January 6th, 2013 at 11:04 am
“Two thousand years later and a very different culture and peoples indeed. Today’s Iranians are very distant descendants of the Persians indeed.”
So is EVERYONE ELSE.
The U.S. gummint, for various reasons, has Israel’s back. Most people in the U.S. are ambivalent if not downright hostile concerning ALL parties in the ME.
A lot of the “righteous gentiles” who LOVE ‘EM SOME JEWS are neither righteous nor gentile.
Barton on Hate and Toleration:
January 8th, 2013 at 3:13 pm
[...] Ed Brayton suggests that Barton simply hates the wrong people. But what strikes me is Barton’s usual lack of self awareness. [...]