Loving your enemies.....


This icon shows Christ to be the Good Samaritan and Adam, or every human being, the recipient of his gracious ministrations. It is an icon of the Kingdom represented by the mountain, with the Church at the top out of which flows healing, living waters in Baptism and the Eucharist. The sky is gold to depict the light of the Sun of Righteousness, Christ Himself.

On August 22nd, Pat Robertson, a prominent media figure who claims to speak to and for Christians, made an alarming "call" for the assasination of the President of Venezuela. Declaring him an enemy of the United States and justifying his comments by adding that "taking him out" would be "cheaper" than a war and would not affect the flow of oil. Mr. Robertson has apologized for his comments made on national TV.

A good friend of mine calls this an example of the "hijacking of Christianity."

I call it "God in the hands of angry sinners." A play on words from a famous quote by the fiery American Preacher Jonathan Edwards. (Sinners in the hands of an angry God)

In my mind, any person that justifies a call for murder or revenge in the name of religion is a terrorist of the worst kind. Identifying the act as the right choice for the betterment of the world goes against everything that Jesus taught.

Jesus redefined our worst enemy as being our neighbor and worthy of love and forgiveness. He demonstrated the undeniable truth of this commitment by sacrificing Himself for those who, by their actions, were "enemies" of God.

The "Christianity" of Pat Robertson is a belief in self-righteousness based on the idea that the American way of life is a blessing from God and that "conservative" politics is the vehicle of God's justice to the world. How is this view different from the Islamic concept of religious war or Jihad as justification for "elimination" of perceived enemies?

People who speak evil in the name of God cannot, by their actions, be what they claim with their words.

I love this part of a prayer that many Orthodox pray daily:

"Save, O Lord, and have mercy upon those who envy and affront me, and do me harm, and do not let them perish through me, a sinner."