Who is our enemy?

(Please excuse the ramble...I'm still processing this through.  Your thoughts, as always are welcome!) 
         As I continue to reflect on the conversations I've been having with others around what it means to "love our enemies" one thing becomes especially clear to me.  We all define that word "enemy" differently.  I've heard people talk about "enemies" as people who hold power and use it in ways they believe to be wrong or hateful towards others. Enemies, then, can be politicians who are doing things that harm others, or they can be people we know and interact with personally.  If an "enemy" is anyone who injures others, some will have faces and names and others won't. Many people have told me they have no enemies.  But for others, enemies are very personal: specific faces and experiences come to mind of people who have done personal injury to that person or to a loved one.  I think how you define "enemy" will change how you learn to love that enemy.
        Personally, I undoubtedly define enemy differently depending on the context of the conversation as well as the person with whom I am speaking.  Still, if someone were to ask me if I believed myself to have enemies, I would have to say "yes".  There are people who would choose to do me or those I care about harm; there are people who have, intentionally, chosen to do me or people I value harm; and there are people who, out of a sense of revenge, anger, hatred, or fear intentionally hurt me, or other people that I value.  For me, those are the people I identify as "enemies".  If you intentionally seek to hurt me or other people whom I value, you put yourself in that category.
         What does that mean for me?  Well, it doesn't mean I hate you. I choose not to hate my enemies  because that would be "returning evil for evil".  It also doesn't mean I will try to "get you back" because that, too, is against what I believe and against what I practice.  I take the call to turn the other cheek very seriously - not just for the other person, but because I believe I allow the "enemy" to do more damage to me if I allow them to infect my soul with anger or hate.  I won't go there.  Some may say, "well, then how are they an enemy?"  For me, that term is helpful because it helps me to name the reality of these people in my life, and the call for me to work towards something different. Again, I do not and will not choose to treat them as such.  But it does me and my family no good to lie to myself about the intentions of some people with their harmful words or behaviors.  I am certain that some would/will label me as less than "holy" or less than "whole" because of the very labeling of others as enemies.  And perhaps they are right. When people like the Dalai Lama, Ghandi, MLK, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, or even Mr. Rogers use the term "enemy" it is always in the context of building bridges with those folk, getting to know them, seeing them as the real people they are, so that they might be transformed from being enemies into being something else.  But they are better people than me. The call for me is to strive to love and work towards bridges with these people.  But I am also all too aware that I do not have my heroes' gifts of being easily able to transform those relationships, or of being able to cross those bridges easily.  For me, naming them as "enemies" sets before me the call and challenge of working to love that enemy.  The term does not let me off the hook, it calls me to work harder to transform those relationships and to cross those bridges.
       Again, I have to recognize that I cannot successfully do this with everyone.  When I can't turn an enemy into a friend, "the other" becomes simply the object of my prayers: prayers for transformation of hate into love, of fear into trust, of greed into generosity: prayers for healing; prayers for wisdom; and prayers for reconciliation.  Mostly I pray that I might be given the wisdom, courage, strength and insight so that I can do my own work towards healing and reconciliation in these difficult situations.
      I wish there were no enemies.  But until the world has been made perfect, there will always be a need for us to face that which is hard.  For me, that starts with the call to love our enemies.

Enemies? Love? Loving enemies? Definitions and challenges

      I speak and write constantly about the call to love our neighbors, and yes, even our enemies, as ourselves.  This is central to my faith, central to what I believe we are supposed to be about: offering love even in the face of hate, non-violent protest in the face of violence, empowerment in the face of oppression, justice in the face of greed. I believe nothing as strongly as I believe that this is our primary call: to respond, always, with love.
     Many of my parishioners hear this as a political message, and in many ways it is.  I don't think there is room in our faith to tolerate, let alone condone the "isms" (which are forms of hate, the opposite of love) that we see so rampant in our leadership these days: the sexism, the racism, the heterosexism, the nationalism, the "this person/people is better than this other person/people and therefore is more deserving, more worthy of resources, well-being, survival, safety, care" thinking.  We are called to stand up to all of that, to say "no" and "enough" BY loving even our enemies and modelling something different, by choosing and insisting on something different.  But this causes confusion.  Some tell me it is impossible for them to love those who are creating such pain and injustice for our brothers and sisters.  After all, how can they feel love for people who espouse hatred and entitlement with every decision they make and every word they speak.  Besides, they ask, isn't loving the same as condoning?  Isn't loving a passive thing that says we tolerate abuse and injustice?  Isn't forgiveness about letting go of what has happened and giving more chances for that abuse to occur again?
      No!  No, no and no.
      First of all, love in this context, is not about a feeling.  It is not about liking the other.  It is an action and a choice, every single time.  I find it just as impossible as anyone else to like what is happening or to like the people who are greedy, self-promoting to the cost of others, and hating/judging of other people.  I can't like them.  But I still believe in the call to love them.  So what is love?
       Love to me is "working for the highest good for the other."  And while I realize that this, too, could be confusing, I will try to offer some clarification here.  "The highest good" for the other is not riches beyond belief for one person while other people in the world are starving to death.  The highest good is not happiness and ease for some while others struggle daily, often working several jobs simply to put food on the table.  I believe deeply that as long as any one person is without, is struggling, is in pain and does not have what they need to live, that all of us are lessened, that every one of us is less than whole because of it.  The "highest good", then for everyone, is for each person to have enough, to have what they need, to be able to live full, healthy lives.  I do not see it as in anyone's best interest for them to be able to amass riches beyond belief while others don't have their basic needs met.  I believe strongly that the highest good for those who have too much is liberation from their greed and extreme wealth even as the highest good for those who have too little is to be able to have enough.  I believe the highest good for those who live in their fenced in, security ridden houses is to create a world where those walls that keep others out are not needed because each person has what they need and doesn't need to threaten those who have more.  I also believe the highest good for any one person is not allowing them to be abusive or harming to others.  How can it be good for you to be allowed to be a bully?  It is for your highest good as well as everyone else to be stopped from bullying and harming others.  I could go on.  The point is that wanting the highest good for any one person means wanting the highest good for all people.  To me this makes things easier at some level because I believe people having what they need really is best for everyone.  Easier, I say, but still not easy.  It is still hard to respond to hatred with love.  It is still hard to respond to injustice with nonviolent action.  It is still hard to refrain from judging or condemning and instead to work for the best for everyone.  But that is the job, it is the call, it is what we are to be about.
        In another blog post I want to talk about this more personally.  But for now, I will just repeat that to me, this is the call; to love our enemies, personal, political, economic: individual, group, national - to love them all as ourselves.