4 comments

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  hewhocutsdown

  1 year ago

  What I appreciate of Chomsky's work is that, generally speaking, when he condemns an individual or a group, he does so using that very group's metric for success - if they proclaim peace, he points out their wars, if they proclaim freedom he points out their imprisonment, if they proclaim their love he points out their hate.
  
  It is this judging by their own measure that I appreciate, for you are correct; judging by another's measure makes little or no sense. As a nation state cannot in any meaningful way be 'Christian', to confuse it's policies with Christian ethics makes the same sense as measuring length in kilograms.
  
  Is there a Christian-approved state response to enemies? I'm not sure there even needs to be one. But I greatly appreciate your distinction between state-declared enemies and our neighbors and siblings.
  
  God bless
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  unorthodoxology

  1 year ago

  This is something I, too, have been thinking and writing about recently.
  
  It seems that loving our enemies as the state defines them is merely hate masked as piety, for what we really hate is the state. Deep down, we don't hate America's enemies. We hate America, not for what it has done to others, but for what it has done to us. It has fed us with complacency and we have consumed gluttonously. It has frozen our feet that would bring the good news of justice with wealth and its shadow side, fear. It has swapped graceful living for easy living.
  
  So, do we love our enemies if these enemies are merely the enemies of the state and not our own, dark, hidden enemies?
  
  I hear so many people discuss the entanglement of politics and religion and how Christianity has been co-opted and acts as a divine legitimizer to the state. These same people, myself included, then exclaims that we must love our enemies, not kill them, as Jesus taught. Yet, we use our nation's definition of enemies as the standard, skirting any soul searching that would reveal those enemies we see when we look in the mirror on a bad day, those people we blame for the conditions of our lives we dislike.
  
  I think Jesus, though, did answer the question, "Who is your enemy?" He answered that question as well with his response to the query about "Who is your neighbor?" The two questions are one in the same.
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  lsomers

  1 year ago

  "The circle of love becomes a sphere in which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere. Heck, the Gentiles even get grafted into the people of God. How’s that for sharing the love?"
  
  Before Christians start talking about loving enemies - and that usually means people you cannot see, or will not see, or don't want to see - they need to start loving their neighbors - those they can see, those who live among them and those they would rather not see. The hateful attitude of millions of Christians - or those who lay claim to that name without meaning - towards their gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and trans- gendered neighbors is legendary.
  
  Don't worry about the American government naming your enemies. Worry about the preachers of hatred who claim the name of Jesus speak with the tongue of Satan.
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  Jon Cooper

  1 year ago

  Thanks for turning me on to "The Plow." It looks like some really great stuff. This image really conjured up some reflection in me.
  http://wayoftherevolution.wordpress.com/2008/06...
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