It's Nothing to Be Ashamed of

Some people think this is a bad thing...but I think it's actually a good thing.  I've always been a strong believer in the "love your enemies" principle.  Combatting hate with more hate just lowers you, which makes them hate you more, which makes you hate them more, and you just keep being sucked into the black hole of hate.

But if you love those who hate you, you're giving them the opposite of what they expect.  Sometimes, this changes their way of thinking and makes them stop hating you...sometimes it even makes them start loving you!  They see how good of a person you are, and they want to become like you.

Of course, there are exceptions.  Some people just refuse to change, and they'll keep on hating you.  But even then, hating them isn't going to help anything.

The time that this can be a bad thing is when you let it get you down.  Some people who love their enemies grow to hate themselves.  And hate is never right, even if it's yourself that you hate.  You have to not care whether they hate you or not.  The love has to be unconditional love.  You have to have the philosophy I love you.  You can hate me, love me, or not care.  But I don't care what you think about me.  I love you anyway.  THAT is the key to true agape love.  Jesus is the perfect example of this.  He wanted everyone to love Him, but it didn't change who He was or how He felt about Himself when people didn't.