Reading: from The seven-stage hate model: The psychopathology of hate groups
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin/March 1, 2003
By John R. Schafer, MA and Joe Navarro, MA

The Hate Model :

The manifestations of hate are legion, but the hate process itself remains elusive. Limited research in this field precluded the development of a comprehensive hate model. Understanding hate groups is essential for the development and implementation of successful intervention strategies, which depend on an understanding of the hate process. The proposed hate model consists of seven stages, including how hate groups define themselves, how hate groups target their victims and taunt them with verbal insults and offensive gestures, and how hate groups attack their victims with or without weapons.

Definition of Hate:

Hate, a complex subject, divides into two general categories: rational and irrational. Unjust acts inspire rational hate. Hatred of a person based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or national origin constitutes irrational hate.

Both rational and irrational hate mask personal insecurities. Everyone experiences personal insecurities in varying degrees throughout their lives. The more insecure a person feels, the larger the hate mask. Most people concentrate on the important issues in life, such as earning a living, rearing a family, and achieving personal goals. These pursuits give meaning and value to life. Nonetheless, irrational hate bleeds through day-to-day activities in the form of racial barbs and ethnic humor. Not all insecure people are haters, but all haters are insecure people.

With respect to rational hate, haters do not focus as much on the wrong done to them or others, but, rather, on their own helplessness, guilt, or inability to effect change….irrational hate elevates the hater above the hated. Many insecure people feel a sense of self-worth [only] by relegating a person or group of people to a lower status.

Sermon

How do you like living down here in south-eastern Massachusetts? I love it myself. It’s a laid-back place where the only traffic jams that occur are when the road is under repair. Nevertheless, the human drama here is the same as any major city; it just differs in scale.

My spiritual teacher said that it might be good to view the world as one big dysfunctional family and approach it as a wise parent to a child. A major concern of a wise parent is endeavoring to create an environment where children feel safe, loved and valued, and develop high self-esteem. If we accomplish these things, we hope that our schools will build on our nurturing and partner with us in teaching our children well so that they can feel confident that there is a place for them in the world outside the school and home. In an ideal world, all of this would be so. We accomplish most of the good things in most of the children, but some children fail to develop into confident and caring human beings. Due to dysfunctional environments or some other reason, some simply fall by the wayside.

One who had fallen by the wayside was a young 18-year old man, Jacob Robida, who entered a gay bar called Puzzles Lounge in New Bedford on Wednesday, February 2nd. Before he left the lounge, he had attacked with an axe and shot three men. In the days that followed, the police investigated Robida’s life.

He lived with his mother and step-father. His bedroom walls were covered with Nazi regalia and anti-Semitic writing. He subscribed to newsgroups that peddled hate and his online communications with other young people were “dark” to say the least. How did this young man end up with such hatred in his heart?

As we heard in the reading, “all irrational haters are insecure people.” In another part of the same article, the FBI researchers say that interviewers should strive to identify the hater’s personal insecurities by asking him about family relationships, and explore with him his future plans, educational goals, and desired employment. This forces the person to see himself as he really is—insecure. He becomes self reflective, which is the one thing that a hater hates to do. As long as the hate is focused on an object or other person or group, the hater can keep contributing to the energy of hate and doesn’t have to think about himself. He wears a mask, especially one that keeps him from himself!

Underlying the person’s hatred is fear. The causes of fear have their roots in childhood abandonment, rejection, and inferior feelings and these become the feelings that the hater wants to avoid. (Cohen, Internet article) Everyone has some issue to overcome but a hater has more issues than he can bear. What is a great pity is that young people struggling with such issues can be helped but someone would have to notice that he or she is in need before he joins a hate group. There was no evidence that Robida was an official part of a group.

I cannot help wondering why Jacob Robida’s mother didn’t challenge her son on the hateful words and signs on the walls of his room. Jacob had dropped out of school when he was 16 years and had been unable to keep a job. When a young person is resistant to guidance and spends his days on his computer or hanging out with friends and not working, these are cause for the adults around him to worry and take action. Perhaps our cities should have agencies where young people can go for guidance. Or perhaps parents should be able to request that their son or daughter be required to attend such an agency. I see that the City of New Bedford is already addressing such issues.

The FBI says that, interestingly, most hate crimes are not committed by organized groups but by individuals like Jacob. It is less a national issue than a local one for us. A person whose life is driven by hate and fear is an intensely unhappy person. I cannot help thinking of the Matthew Shepard case in Laramie, Wyoming when in 1998 two young men beat Matthew to death. They were not part of a gang either. One of the youth confessed that once he started beating Matthew he couldn’t stop.

I’m sure that you must have followed the events of that night of February 2nd and the one some days later when Robida killed a policeman in Arkansas and then committed suicide. What a waste of lives! Fortunately, all three men that were attacked are healing, at least physically. And how has it been for the gay and lesbian community of this city and across the nation for the crime was well publicized? It is an opportunity for the whole nation to reflect on its values. I hope this will push forward the effort to have a federal hate crime bill.

So that we, as a religious people, could move further along the road to implementing in our lives our first three principles—worth and dignity of all people; justice, equity, and compassion in human relationships; and acceptance of one another—we voted unanimously last year to become a welcoming congregation to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender people. For short, we say “GLBT.”

If we think that the nastiness is now over and behind us, that is not the evidence of the last few weeks. When Rep. Barney Frank spoke at Puzzles last week, people in cars drove by and hurled epithets out the window. There is still work to be done.

I am sometimes asked by my clergy colleagues whether we have a large percentage of gay and lesbian people in our congregation. I usually reply, “We have some but not many. They are ‘hiding out’ in your congregations.” I now think I will add to this, “They are waiting to hear from your pulpit affirmation of their worth and dignity as creatures of God.” And perhaps I will add, “You might consider doing what Jesus would do! Or what he said, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’”

For myself, I wonder also what the Buddha would say. I think he would say, “Let us inquire into this.” And Lao Tzu (philosophical founder of Taoism) would say, “Let us flow with this!” We infer these things about the great world teachers from what we know of their teachings and actions.

My own spiritual teacher says, “All human unhappiness stems from a sense of disconnectedness from your own deep self, that is—your spiritual self, others, the environment and/or Tao or God.” (Stevens, July, 1996) A spiritual, or at least a religious life, is good for our youth as well as their parents, even if it is non-institutional.

What can we do to help transform hate to love and fear to courage? The first thing is to examine our ownhearts. The second is to address bigotry against homosexuals wherever we encounter it if it will not bring physical harm; this means that we would have to be willing when someone denigrates the gay community by making a statement to the effect, “Excuse me, but I am uncomfortable when you denigrate a group of people for whom I have respect.” And you commit to saying it every time such a comment is made. If everyone did this in their working and family environment, it will go a long way to changing the world; it will expand your love and give you courage. I raised my children to do this and they do it all the time. I believe that practicing such statements over and over in your mind will make it easier to say when the opportunity arises. What this does is to make those peoplethink who are bystanders and “fence-sitters” on issues of prejudice.

Third, you can call your state senators and representatives and ask them to work on the bill to make hate crimes a federal law and tell them that this is long overdue.

Fourth, you can support me in giving such sermons as this. And whenever such a hate crime is committed, you can call the church and ask us what we are planning to do. Lisa Elliott and I and Dwight Thomas attended a candlelight vigil the night following the attack. I think that many of you would like to have attended with us. (By the way, if you ever have a chance to buy a bunch of battery-supported candles, please buy them for us for wax candles are hard to keep going in wind and they are hazardous, too.) I have set out a pad for those of you who would like to be called when we must take immediate action like this; it is good for our church and good for our progress as human beings.

We’ll call ourselves the “Emergency Team for Social Justice.” Standing up for justice with others holding a candle is a wonderful experience and I would like us to stand shoulder to shoulder with our candles wherever we are needed in our area and perhaps beyond. Such action is religiously and spiritually transforming. We would be well on our way to treading the path of our Unitarian, Universalist trinity: truth, love, and oneness. (If you are reading this sermon and want to be part of our team for peaceful social justice, please call the church and ask for your name, telephone numbers, and email address to be added to our list.)

May we ever be guided by the sense that all human beings are interconnected in a web of oneness and all else is an illusion that we must see beyond so that we may love one another truly.

References

The following has inspired and informed this sermon:

Cohen, Lorraine. “Highlights of Powerful Living.” www.powerfulliving.biz.

Schafer, John R., MA and Navarro, Joe, MA. “FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,” March 1, 2003

The Standard Times, New Bedford, MA articles, February 3 to 13, 2006.

Stevens, Jose, Ph.D. Pivotal Resources, Inc. Summer newsletter, 1996.