“But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” It has become increasingly common, especially in our interactions on the Internet and social media, for us to denigrate and demonize those who hold opinions or ideological beliefs that differ from our own. When Christ warns that when we call our brothers and sisters fools or otherwise express contempt then we are in danger of hell fire, He is not referring to some hypothetical afterlife scenario. It is not that if we hold hatred in our heart for our brothers and sisters then when we die we are going to hell. It's that when we choose to demonize those we don't agree with, we bring the hell fire into our lives right in the here and now. In his play “No Exit”, Jean-Paul Sartre says, “Hell is other people.” This is especially true if we have in our hearts turned half of our community into demons. After all, demons live in hell and if we surround ourselves with demons, then where else would we be but Hell? There is a certain degree of utility in regarding at least some of the people around us with contempt. For one thing, in a twisted way it makes us feel better about ourselves. We may have our flaws and our weaknesses and our struggles, but at least we aren't actual demons. It also let's us off the hook from having what are often difficult and uncomfortable and emotionally taxing discussions and negotiations with people that we don't agree with. Instead of doing the hard work of coming to a consensus with someone whose views are diametrically opposed to our own, we just have to call them fools and deblorables and freaks and all of the other colorful epithets that have been multiplying and spreading like viruses online and in our discourse. But while that might in the moment be somewhat satisfying to turn our brothers and sisters into demons, the long term consequence is that we have now surrounded ourselves with demons and hell fire and the world is no longer a very nice place to be. Let's not turn our brothers and sisters into “other people” and plunge ourselves into hell fire. Let's love and respect them despite our differences and courageously and compassionately do the hard work of speaking love even to those we so badly want to hate and thus make of our communities a heaven on Earth.
