Susan Watkins -- Hatred

(In Class Reading #6 -- The Space Trilogy)

One of my favorite moments in Perelandra is when Ransom is filled with hatred for the demonic Weston (no longer, for all intents and purposes, truly 'Weston' at all). It's one of my favorite parts because I remember reading it for the first time and finally understanding how negative emotions are supposed to fit into the world of a Christian. Since falling in love with Jesus I had struggled and struggled to understand what was "right" and "wrong" to feel and think-- for a long while I was under the impression that it was sinful to be angry with anyone at any time. After all, being angry with someone means that you think you're right and they're wrong, which I took as just being a disguise for pride.

But Lewis begs to differ. Here he describes a situation of a much stronger emotion, hatred, in its perfected form-- hatred towards the thing hatred was "designed" for. The demon in Weston's form hates the Lord and is utterly opposed to Him, even down to the very roots of its existence. It desires to corrupt and destroy all that is good in His sight. It desires death and pain, fear and despair. The Lord hates it because it is His antithesis, the very opposite of everything He is. And so it follows that hatred and other negative emotions are not inherently sinful, but righteous and good until misapplied. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry, but do not let it lead you to sin." Righteous anger is acceptable and even worth praising as long as it stays there and does not progress into pride or violence.

Reading this book was really revolutionary for my understanding of God's plan in ordering the universe, and our roles in it as humans who think and feel such a wide variety of emotions. I'm coming to realize that there are very few thoughts or things which are, unto themselves, "wrong"-- but rather, a very great number of motivations which can corrupt anything we do and degrade us down to detestable things, devoid of even the desire to do good.