Why are hate crimes on the rise?

The FBI recently announced that reported hate crimes in the United States increased by 17 percent in 2017. That marks the third consecutive year the number has gone up and the single largest spike since the months following 9/11, when Muslims became the targets of such attacks across the country.

To compound the problem, officials speculate that only about 1 percent of hate crimes around the nation are actually reported due to issues such as police precincts not responding to the FBI’s requests and strange laws defining what constitutes a hate crime. In Kentucky, for example, homicides are not considered hate crimes, even when racially motivated.

These trends are troubling, to be sure, but perhaps the greatest concern is that it’s hard to look around us and conclude that the situation will improve any time soon.

But why is that?

Don’t blame the culture

While some will be quick to point at the rising animosity in our culture as the reason for the escalation in hate crimes, that explanation only scratches the surface of the true problem. To be sure, the rancor of our day, whether it comes from the president’s Twitter page or the headlines of CNN, contributes to the rising hostility. And there is some merit to the argument that when our cultural leaders seem to embrace hate and derision it gives license for others to do the same. Yet, placing the blame on public figures only further removes the responsibility that every individual holds for his or her own actions.

Hate is nothing new to humanity. Whether it manifests in jealousy, rage, derision, or any number of other displays, hate has been around since the earliest days of our existence and will remain as something we have to deal with until we find ourselves in a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21).

Encouraging, right?

Perhaps it should be. After all, if the potential for hate is woven into the fabric of fallen humanity, yet people across time have learned to overcome it, then we can…