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What Is Hate Speech?
As noted in a previous article, “Addicted to Outrage,” our culture is easily offended whenever something adverse is noted about certain behaviors. This is often labeled “hate speech,” by the offended who cannot bear any kind negative feedback. Some are so sensitive that they need of “safe spaces” or other protections to shield them from disapproval.
But identifying sinful behavior, helping the lost come to terms with their dire condition, or noting the weaknesses of others with the intent to help them is not hate speech. It’s actually the opposite: it is the speech of love. It is the indifferent, cowardly and selfish who see others in jeopardy and remain silent.
Sometimes love speech can be confrontational, insistent and unyielding. Here is how it can sound:
Jesus to the Jews, John 8:43-45: “Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to so … because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.”
Paul, recounting the confrontation with Peter, to the Galatians, 2:11, 13: “But when Peter had come to Antioch I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed … And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.”
Paul, to the Galatians, 3:1, 3: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth … Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
James, to his readers, 2:4, 9: "Have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? … But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”
These examples echo the prophets who spoke the unvarnished truth to wayward kings and often paid the price with their lives. Words of love rise above the resistance of the guilty and speak the truth in an effort to break through the deception and rationalization of the guilty.
But someone objects, “Those men were inspired of God. We should never take it upon ourselves to speak in this way to others!” Did inspiration somehow magically insulate these men from sin? If what they said was factually correct and offered to effect repentance, then inspiration makes no difference. If it is wrong for us to so speak, it was wrong for them. This objection dodges the real issue of spiritual responsibility.
Uninspired preachers are to “convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering …” (2 Tim 4:2). Uninspired elders are to confront the “insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers … whose mouths must be stopped” (Tit 1:10-11). All congregations are to “note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them” (Rom 16:17). All brethren are to “withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly … and if anyone does not obey our word … note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed” (2 Th 3:6, 14). These and many other exhortations to deal forthrightly with those practicing sin are found in the new testament.
So what is true hate speech? It is speech with destructive, injurious effects: lying (Eph 4:25), malicious speaking (Eph 4:31), “contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings” (2 Cor 12:20), “grumbl(ing) against one another” (Jas 5:9), bearing false witness (Rom 13:9), cursing (Jas 3:10), etc. When we have real hatred for someone, we desire to hurt them with our words. But love seeks improvement, health and true change in others that lead them to a better place.
But as also noted in the previous article, another problem arises: the culture, which has adopted the “morality is relative” philosophy, struggles to make proper distinctions about things. When someone offers constructive criticism, it is labeled “negative” and thus “hurtful” and “hate speech.” The critic is bluntly told it is not his place to make a judgment which, oddly, is itself a negative, judgmental statement.
There is a time to defy conventional wisdom and speak out. Yes, our “speech [must] always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that [we] may know how [we] ought to answer each one” (Col 4:6), but this does not mean that we should be so generic and bland that we never say anything definitive. That is cowardice, not the kind of speech we see modeled in God’s servants whether old testament or new.
The world is aligned with Satan’s ideals, it sets in place certain procedures designed to marginalize its critics. Let us speak the truth, confront when necessary, but ensure that charges of “hate speech” are not valid.
