Sermon Re: [RC] The Martial Art of Loving Enemies to Death

[Dr.Ernie Prabhakar]

Hi Chris,

On Sep 18, 2004, at 8:13 AM, Chris Hahn wrote:
> I have quoted Dr. Martin Luther King before.  The following is a  
> wonderful
> "on topic" sermon.
>
> http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/ 
> 571117.002_Loving_Your_Enemies.html

Thanks for the citation. That was a great read -- very much in the  
spirit of Radical Evil, though far more eloquent.  While I'm not a  
pacifist per se, I do think non-violent approaches are woefully  
underutilized.  The trick is to figure out how and when they can work.

Though its a bit like doodling on the Mona Lisa, I can't resist a few  
comments.

I fully agree with his sentiment as expressed here:

>  Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this  
> command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization.  
> Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love  
> even for enemies.

His approach starts out very parallel to my Rules of War:

>  In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self.

I love the fact that he differentiates between mere prejudice and  
fact-based (even if still unjustified) hatred:

> They’re going to dislike you, not because of something that you’ve  
> done to them, but because of various jealous reactions and other  
> reactions that are so prevalent in human nature. But after looking at  
> these things and admitting these things, we must face the fact that an  
> individual might dislike us because of something that we’ve done ...  
> it was that something that aroused the hate response within the  
> individual.

He even extends that to a "loving enmity" towards communism, coupled  
with a loving critique of democracy:
>  The success of communism in the world today is due to the failure of  
> democracy to live up to the noble ideals and principles inherent in  
> its system.

His second point is equally as profound:

> A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy  
> is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you  
> begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize  
> that there is some good there and look at those good points which will  
> over-balance the bad points.

Dear God, we are so without excuse.   Why does it seem like every  
political and religious leader in America -- including Dr. King's  
followers -- has forgotten this elemental truth?

> It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level  
> of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil  
> systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you  
> love, but you seek to defeat the system.

I think that is part of what I mean by loving individuals though hating  
the sin.  Though, I might go even further, in that systems themselves  
contain both good and evil.  Like people, sometimes we need to destroy  
them if we're too weak to find a better way, but we nonetheless always  
desire their redemption:

> "Love your enemy." And it’s significant that he does not say, "Like  
> your enemy." .... There are a lot of people that I find it difficult  
> to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say  
> about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like  
> some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says  
> love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding,  
> redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because  
> God loves them.

Its also interesting how he pictures hate:

> I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think  
> this was at the very center of Jesus’ thinking, is this: that hate for  
> hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the  
> universe.... The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain  
> of hate, the chain of evil.

> There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is  
> because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think  
> of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or  
> the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous  
> and injurious to the individual who hates

Amen.  Like forgiveness being primarily for ourselves, to free us from  
hate.  Yes, there's a holy hatred of evil, but (like love) it needs to  
be purified so that we hate only evil, not the individuals or even  
systems which share in it. And, in a very transformational way, he ties  
social redemption into personal integrity:

> you want to be integrated with yourself, and the way to be integrated  
> with yourself is be sure that you meet every situation of life with an  
> abounding love. Never hate, because it ends up in tragic, neurotic  
> responses

Preach it!

> Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your  
> enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power.

I think that says it all.  The reason I believe in love is not (merely)  
my pietistic background, but because I believe -- based on my study of  
history -- that just, humble love is actually the most powerful force  
in the universe.  Stronger than anger and hatred -- because it alone  
knows their proper place, and is powerful enough to constrain them to  
the service of righteousness.

> There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet. Jesus  
> discovered it centuries ago. Mahatma Gandhi of India discovered it a  
> few years ago, but most men and most women never discover it. For they  
> believe in hitting for hitting; they believe in an eye for an eye and  
> a tooth for a tooth; they believe in hating for hating; but Jesus  
> comes to us and says, "This isn’t the way."

Alas, by and large we still haven't discovered it.   We have settled  
for shallow mud puddles of fleshly power rather than drinking from the  
deep well of spiritual power:

> We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of  
> love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old  
> world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the  
> only way. Jesus discovered that.

God, where are the men today who are powerful and wise enough to be  
transforming fools for love?

> So this morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of all of  
> my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say  
> to you, "I love you. I would rather die than hate you." And I’m  
> foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love  
> somewhere, men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed. And  
> then we will be in God’s kingdom. We will be able to matriculate into  
> the university of eternal life because we had the power to love our  
> enemies, to bless those persons that cursed us, to even decide to be  
> good to those persons who hated us, and we even prayed for those  
> persons who despitefully used us.

So this morning, as I look into the web of polarized factions covering  
our globe, I look at the bleeding-heart liberals and the ditto-headed  
conservatives, at the fundamentalist Islamists and the militant  
atheists, the heartless capitalists and the mindless socialists, and I  
say to all of you: "I love you. I would rather die than corrupt myself  
by hating you. And I would rather you live full and free lives than  
hate me."

And I'm foolish enough to believe that the power of God's love flowing  
through a flawed human being like myself yet contains enough power to  
heal the nations, as well as my own heart.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

-- Ernie P.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D. <DrErnie at RadicalCentrism.org>
RadicalCentrism.org has a dream.   And is willing to die for it. And  
even to live for it.