“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Our ‘Thought for the Week’ a fortnight ago was called ‘Unbridled Revenge is not the answer’, but there's little sign of conflict and tension reducing in the Middle East: on the contrary, it’s becoming more and more evident around the world.
Meanwhile, Trevor Phillips wrote a comment piece in The Times entitled ‘The King is wrong to extol separate communities’ following a speech by King Charles describing Britain as a ‘community of communities’. While he described the King's charitable work in the Prince's Trust and Business in the Community as ‘the most effective engines of racial integration and equality’, he spoke of failure to integrate as fertile ground for extremists: and you only have to witness the surge of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rallies across the UK over the weekend to see what he meant.
The opening quotation from that commentary on 16th October included the words ‘Love your enemy ..’’, from Matthew 5: 43-45. I repeated this in a reply to Archbishop Justin's prayer for the Middle East on X (formerly Twitter) saying that there are ways to do it. There was a quick reply from another X account asking, ‘What would Jesus say?’. So, after some thought, here’s my reply:
- unconditional love, as we see in the gospels;
- moving steadily from national to international law;
- restorative justice, as in South Africa at the ending of apartheid; and
- global inter-generational rebalancing.
There's not a lot of scope to expand on these elements in an X post (formerly ‘tweet’), so here's some more detail and associated links.
Unconditional love is at the heart of Christian teaching, and the journey from loving the person least likely to be our neighbour — our enemy? — to loving God is clearly laid out in the gospels. There's much emphasis on zeal and mercy in the other Abrahamic religions, but the Christian faith is the most explicit in this respect.
It's for this reason that Christian leaders need to be at the heart of the long-term resolve and governance required to deal with the current situation in the Middle East; they need to be mediating, not just in prayer but also in applying logic and practical solutions to achieve integration between Jews and Arabs.
Moving steadily from national to international law will achieve a host of essential outcomes. In practical terms, it means that justice will not be constrained by national borders; and that we can gradually look forward to a form of international civil law enforcement which will take the place of having to rely on military force in order to resolve criminal outbreaks — such as the 7th October assault on those villages In southern Israel, and the murder and kidnapping of their inhabitants.
It will also help us to resolve the challenges of climate change, as we proposed on 14th November last year. A balanced international approach which treats all regions equitably would remove the current instability caused by the pressures and swings of national politics.
Integration is, in practise, well underway following decades of migration, inter-marriage, and global travel and communications. Trevor Phillips is absolutely right to speak against extolling separate communities: we should restrict individual identification and allegiances to the world of sport with its common respect for all, however different.
The process of applying justice also needs to be thoroughly overhauled, and we are amazingly fortunate to have the real-life example of restorative justice from South Africa following the end of apartheid. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu took hold of a situation as inflammatory as the Middle East. The effort they put into making it work and the leadership they gave was extraordinary, and this approach, spelled out in detail in Wikipedia, should be the cornerstone for resolving situations such as the long-standing hatred and aggression in the Middle East.
An organised process of restorative justice applied under international law enforcement, and built on that firm platform of unconditional love, would gradually draw people together who are currently consumed with fear and hatred, so that we can start to see a way through.
However, these initiatives must be accompanied by a more equitable sharing of the world's resources: not just geographically, but also inter-generationally. Wealth is currently so concentrated, not only by nation but also by age cohort; and the fact that so many nations beset by poverty and violence also have such young populations goes to explain why this approach of inter-generational rebalancing would be so effective. It also recognises the fact that old people can't take their wealth with them when they die — so to what better use could it be put than resolving the world's flashpoints of violence?
We have written on this subject many times, and it forms one of the central propositions of the Share Alliance. On 21st August we asked whether incentivised learning could benefit Africa, and it is this kind of global approach which would allow us to tackle the poverty and squalor of places such as Gaza, where the average age is just 18.
So, there are ways forward for loving our enemies, and we should at the same time embrace Trevor Phillips’ plea for integration. There's a well-known, relatively modern hymn which says, ‘I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry. All who dwell in dark and sin my hand will save. I, who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright. Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send? Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart’. Christian leaders need to embrace this determination to find solutions to the world's problems, and to press for practical solutions for loving our enemies.
Gavin Oldham OBE
Share Radio