Things You Cannot Unsee & Hatred

This morning I read upon a posting on another site about a festival of EID where the Muslims were butchering a camel alive but stripping the meat off its flesh as it struggled to get away.

Sometimes there are things I read or see, especially with the internet, that affect me very negatively. The world can be very horrifying. I am not a person with a thick skin and I am not desensitized. In general I read a lot of articles and I pray a lot as I read them.

My struggle is with hatred on these things. I am talking about reading crimes against children, rape, torture, murder, harming and killing animals horrifically.

As a Christian I struggle to not hate the person/s associated with the crime instead of just the deed. I struggle to see them as Jesus would see them.

Once I was driving and I was thinking about a crime that happened close to here. The man raped a little girl and killed her mother, it was a random crime. I was crying and I was talking to God about it and told Him it broke my heart and how much I hated that person and how evil they were and he said "It breaks my heart too because this was not just one of my children but three" (including the murderer/rapist)

I understand all sin is equal in Gods eyes but may have different levels of consequences in this world. I realize I am no better in that if I hate in my heart I murder as well.

Many Christians do not believe in the death penalty for good reasons but I do. I believe sometimes there is evil so strong that to protect the world from it that we need the be rid of it.

My questions are:

Is it important to really know the truth and know these things happen?
How do you see these horrifying things and not be broken from it?
Should we desensitize ourselves?
How do we love the people who do such heinous crimes?
How do we separate the sin from the sinner?

I would like to hear how other people deal with this and how they live out the love of Jesus regardless of the evil. Please please no snarky replies or condescension or attitude I will ignore it. I can't deal with that today...

We can love Jesus and still put evil in its place. If that means killing said evil, then so be it.

Are the people evil or just the actions they take?

I think some people are downright evil. How they became evil, I dont know, but that is not changing what I reckon to be the cold, hard facts. I'm not sure about the death penalty, but if there is no doubt...no doubt at all, and not that beyond reasonable doubt standard...then I might could be accepting it for some felonies...like the one you wrote about above...I can feel tears are coming to my eyes thinking of it

I'm not sure that I can love people like that...I know this is sinful speech...but I just cant...

That is how I feel...

Some would prefer not to and that's their prerogative. Personally, I believe it's important to be cognizant, even if we don't have all of the facts (I mean, how can we ever have all of the facts?).
Not sure if you're asking for personal experiences or more of a general response. Personally, it cuts me up inside.
To suffering? Pft! Heck no.
To ask that implies conditional love. Recall Mark 12:30-31. Beyond that, I leave how and who you love up to you.
Why should we? Forgiveness is not a get out of jail free card. We're judged by our words and our works. "Hate the sin, but love the sinner" can be a dangerous theology.

The people.

Out of the heart the mouth speaks, the feet run, and the hands shed innocent blood.

It's why man truly needs a heart transplant; lately the world has been seeing a lot of how wicked and evil man's heart truly is apart from the new birth.

Thank you all for the replies.

Maybe it is a level of maturity in Christ?

Then maybe this is natural, especially for things of this nature. ? I felt like since I might hate "them" so much that I am failing at Christs love you know? And also judgment. I know we are supposed to use discernment but I have damned such people to hell in my mind you know.

The more I am confronted with my own sin, the more I am able to see that of others with an attitude of grace. And yes, I still get angry, hurt, verbally violent, etc. However, some things are inherently wrong, and part of our role is to be salt... which preserves the good, and light, which distinguishes darkness. Still, I have more grace for those who sin like I do than those who sin differently.

I suspect that few people have lived such peaceful sheltered lives that their most troubling thing is a chicken bone. Most people have been exposed to the brokenness of this world in horrifying and heart-wrenching ways. International media only serves to bring the brokenness (which has always been there) into our homes and our minds. To some extent we can choose what we watch, and we should. Yet we are going to be exposed to (or even suffer) brokenness at the hands of misguided or evil people. How we handle that exposure indicates to some extent how much growing we still have to do. I have lots left!

God is not the author of the wrongdoing, but I cautiously believe that He allows it because He has a higher purpose. Don't hear me impugning God (far from it!) but I'm affirming Romans 8:28 and Isaiah 45:7 and Isaiah 55:9. I think He allows the exposure to instill in us a greater understanding of His nature and our sinfulness, that we would seek to be like Him in righteousness. As for people being punished for heinous crimes, I think immediately of Romans 13:4. /Sermon off

PROBLEM:
ROMANS 7:18.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me;
but how to perform that which is good I find not.

SOLUTION:
ROMANS 8:1.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Yes...and I do believe that people can change...with Gods help...

I couldn't have put it any better.