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The mere mention of the word brings up nasty imagery and thoughts. It should. Hate is a dangerous and ugly thing.
There are a lot of people in the world who use their religion as a tool of hate and these minority groups grossly misrepresent their faiths on a whole whether they be Christians "aiming" their hate at pagans, or, Muslims directing their hatred at the "decadent Americans", or even pagans directing their hatred at Christians over their their proselytizing and hatred of us, their condemnation of us and our eternal souls or, even, "the burning times".
In 2001, and in the years following, we saw what extreme hatred can do on a very large and public scale with the bombings of the World Trade Center and the following "War on Terror" which has resulted in the deaths of tens or, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of people in the subsequent military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The abuses of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other military prisons while, to some extent, were the product of torture outlined by "officials" were carried out by soldiers who were, in part, taken in by their own hatred of "the enemy."
We see hatred in the form of Jewish Nationalism and Radical Fundamentalist Islam in the form of the Israeli/Hezbollah conflicts taking place today.
We see hatred of "The West" in the so-called defiance of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile testing programs.
We have also seen hatred in India, Pakistan and Kashmir in the form of nuclear weapons testing and terrorist attacks in those regions.
We have seen so much hate, in the form of geopolitical and economic concerns that people, who in different times, would be considered otherwise harmless, are being taken in to custody and held in suspicion of being terrorists without any real evidence to support such claims -- these people often being held without trials or even legal representation.
Hate is an emotion which is typically born of fear. Usually these fears are based on the unknown, but, often, these fears are based on a lack of information or understanding. Fear is, perhaps, the most primal of emotions and hate being so tied in to fear it is easy -- very easy -- to get caught up in it when there is so much around us.
We see hatred of our own religion in history with various persecutions directed toward "us."
So confident we are in our own history of persecution we look to historical events such as "The Burning Times" as an a example of hatred directed at us.
Christians and the Church were afraid of the satanic worshiping done by pagans. This fear and hatred, which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, was based on wrong information -- and, ironically, the persons targeted, prosecuted, and executed were, by and large, NOT pagans, but, rather other Christians labeled "witch" by other people -- motivated by fear and hatred. These prosecutions and persecutions were carried out, however, not by The Church or priests, but by civil courts and prosecutors.
There are considerable numbers of pagans and Wiccans who use "The Burning Times", statements of condemnation and other Christian proselytizing as their own basis for hate. Hate of Christianity. A curious position to take, for a group that demands religious tolerance -- intolerance of another religion.
A recent Newsweek article puts the percentage of Christians in the US at 85%. This is a large group of people to hate. Tens of millions of people. Why? because of the actions of people 300-700 years ago? Perhaps. Certainly some pagans are afraid of the hatred currently held by Christians today. The problem with this is most Christians rarely if ever even give us a thought.
Still it is difficult having religious and political leaders in this country representing our beliefs as satanic or having people out and out say our religion is not a valid religion. George W. Bush, when governor of Texas, made such a comment.
With people making statements like these it is sometimes hard to take the higher road and be tolerant of them. We take the higher road not because we are better than "them", but, rather, that we take responsibility for our thoughts, words, and actions as well as recognizing the power our words and deeds carry.
Tolerance, however, is not about accepting the beliefs of those who are intolerant of us. It is, merely, accepting that they have a right to their opinions and also accepting that our own hatred causes intolerance in is and those around us.
I was raised Jewish and I don't eschew the faith of Judaism. I have attended Christian churches and while Christianity has never rang true for me I don't consider it the "wrong path". I have friends who are Muslim. While, admittedly, I don't know much about Islam, I still would never tell a Muslim their faith is invalid. In fact there is much prejudice, in this country, in the wake of domestic terrorism, against Muslims. I feel bad for them. Most of the Muslims I have met were good and decent people.
Again I reiterate that being Wiccan is also about tolerance.
As Wiccans we recognize that we put energy into the universe and that energy comes back to us. This is the gist of the law of return. To put the law of return into other words let us consider Newton's third law of motion:
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
This tells us, rather directly, that if we put hatred out in the universe it will come back to us.
Hatred, however, has an internal detriment. Negative thoughts and feelings we hold affect our bodies and mind in a myriad of adverse reactions: hypertension, gastric reflux and other GI distress, stress, anxiety and fatigue. When we hate we put tremendous negative energies into play. These energies eat at us like a cancer and extend from us into the world around us.
Being responsible Wiccans we should keep our thoughts, feelings, and energies in check. We have a responsibility to ourselves, those around us, and the universe in general to not project such negativity.
It is OK to disagree and even dislike, but, when our own intolerance becomes fear and hatred we violate some very basic tenants of Wicca, Paganism, Judaism, Christianity and even Islam, regardless of the wording used: Treat others as you would have them treat you.
Disclaimer: As I discuss Wicca as a religion on this site I describe the Wiccan religion with respect to my personal viewpoint, or, perhaps my "tradition". Different traditions describe things differently and those traditions may hold different concepts, beliefs and codes.