Overcoming evil, hate crimes and terrorism

This last week there have been some complicated issues splashed across headlines, talked about in the news, and posted about on Facebook. There is remembering 9/11 and all those who were lost. It was a tragedy that brought this nation to a halt. Other stories, appear to me, to be responses to the grief and confusion caused by the hate crime towards those working in the twin towers and this nations' very way of life. Mosques are being protested and spiritual leaders are threatening to burn the sacred book of Islam. All going on in the land of the free. Some of this going on in the name of the God of love. While it is important we educate ourselves on the true nature of each of these issues, there appear to be some facts we cannot ignore. Evil exists. It exists in the act that killed thousands and grieved so many more who lost someone whom they loved and who filled their heart and a place in their life. Evil exists in hate, and hate is what causes us to fight and insult one another and the differences between us rather than listen, reason, and most importantly, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Paul writes in Romans 12:21 that we are not to be overcome with this evil, rather overcome it with good. I believe this must be how the God of love would want us to respond to something as small as a misunderstandering and as large as an act of terrorism.