Words, when used precisely, can be instruments of truth. When they are used carelessly\u2014or maliciously\u2014they become weapons. Much of today\u2019s public discourse illustrates that danger. When language loses precision, emotion fills the void, and hatred follows close behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take the phrase \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d It\u2019s not a medical term but a rhetorical one\u2014an accusation that some despise Donald Trump so intensely they cannot think clearly about him or his policies. Yet to call this reaction a \u201csyndrome\u201d misses something deeper. What we\u2019re witnessing isn\u2019t clinical delusion\u2014it\u2019s hatred, and hatred, as history and theology both teach us, is a moral and spiritual sickness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every success of Mr. Trump\u2014whether lowering inflation, enforcing immigration law as written, reducing gas prices, or fortifying security against drug cartels and theocratic terrorists\u2014seems to invite not reasoned opposition but reflexive contempt. Critics too often respond not to what he does but to who he is. Even benign proposals that could serve the common good draw outrage simply because his name is attached. When disagreement turns into dehumanization, words no longer serve understanding; they serve destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bishop Robert Barron has observed that a large part of mental illness is spiritual in origin. C.\u202fS.\u202fLewis made the same point decades earlier: that fear, shame, and pride\u2014the foundations of sin\u2014also underlie much of our hatred. In The Screwtape Letters<\/em>, Lewis\u2019s senior devil reminds us that hatred \u201chas its pleasures,\u201d offering a warped relief from fear. Pride, \u201cthe complete anti\u2011God state of mind,\u201d transforms rivals into enemies, breeding resentment and hostility until all sense of charity is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This spiritual dimension of politics is ancient. Blaise Pascal wrote that we are born with \u201choles in our hearts\u201d meant to be filled by God. When we fill them with lesser things\u2014power, ideology, or anger\u2014we invite not peace but pathology. Hatred masquerades as moral certainty; in reality, it is spiritual decay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, accusing others of hatred while practicing it oneself has become a political tactic. Marxist and Alinskyite strategies deliberately divide\u2014turning faction against faction, accusing opponents of the very sins one commits to sow confusion and fear. Lewis understood this impulse well. As a younger atheist scholar, he confessed to \u201cmy deep\u2011seated hatred of authority, my monstrous individualism, my lawlessness.\u201d Only when his heart turned Godward did that hatred begin to heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Labeling hatred as a \u201csyndrome\u201d or \u201cdelusion\u201d may sound clinical, but it trivializes the moral truth. Hatred is not a diagnosis\u2014it is a choice, one with devastating spiritual consequences. The only remedy for hatred is not more hatred but conversion: the courage to turn outward, toward truth, and upward, toward God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we wish to restore reason to politics, we must start by purifying the heart. Only then will our words regain their power\u2014not to wound, but to heal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Words, when used precisely, can be instruments of truth. When they are used carelessly\u2014or maliciously\u2014they become weapons. Much of today\u2019s public discourse illustrates that danger. When language loses precision, emotion fills the void, and hatred follows close behind. Take the phrase \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d It\u2019s not a medical term but a rhetorical one\u2014an accusation that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":19593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1051],"tags":[237],"class_list":["post-19592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john-livingston","tag-donald-trump","cat-1051-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19594,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19592\/revisions\/19594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}