Ideologies that traffic in hatred are toxic to your soul. You can’t fight hate with hate without losing–even if you feel like you’ve won. The temptation is great, isn’t it? We don’t want to be perceived as weak–and it always feels weak, in the moment, to take the higher ground.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies. To pray for those who persecute us (Luke 6:27-19). Give it a try. But take care in your prayer to avoid simply listing all your enemies faults to God. Actually pray for their flourishing.

Hating someone in your heart is like drinking poison hoping that your enemy will die. Praying for them is the antidote.

Note well this doesn’t mean that you can’t resist them–many times you must resist them in word and in deed. But not with hate–or you’ll stoop to their level, and if you’re not careful, lose your soul in the process.

When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 116.