‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction … the chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we will be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.’
Martin Luther King Jr., writing in ‘Strength to Love’
It was just three months ago on 23rd June that our commentary called for a ‘Global Assembly for Faith’, a precursor to our call last week for Global Democracy. It was rooted in the understanding, within multiple faiths, that we need to love our enemies, not just those who are closest to us.
Since June, matters have gone from bad to worse, and not just on an international level. The inability to understand the position and perceptions of others extends deeply into society, as shown by protesting choruses on both the far right and the far left. ‘Free speech’ is under attack in an almost Orwellian context, and the murder of Charlie Kirk in the United States has shown how it can easily erupt into violence.
Social media has considerably heightened this enmity; it brings out the worst in people, voicing hatred in a way that would rarely find its way into face-to-face speech.
That's why we need to revisit once again this challenge to love our enemies — it does not mean ‘kill our enemies’.
Having been deeply involved as a Christian in the Church of England over the past thirty years — I was a lay member of the General Synod for twenty-six of these — I have to say that there is an uncomfortable absence of teaching into what ‘Love your enemies’ actually means. Endless discussions on gender-related issues and Church organisation seem to take precedence over the things that really matter: this clear instruction from Jesus in Matthew 5:44 being right at the top of that list.
I've therefore been searching online for inspiration, and I’ve found a range of resources which are quite useful — including a YouTube video explaining why it's so important in a social media context. Much of this guidance bridges multiple faiths, and there is clearly huge inspiration drawn from leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. (whose quotation is at the head of this commentary) and Nelson Mandela, whose avoidance of violence in South Africa has to be one of the greatest peacekeeping achievements in history.
Some of the more secular guidance is as follows:
- Be aware of emotional triggers which could result in saying or doing things which you might regret later. In this respect, you might find this week's episode of the Hypnotist, drawing a parallel between embedded emotional triggers and landmines, of particular interest;
- Look for the common ground between you and your enemy, and the goals you share for a better world and a better society looking forwards;
- Listen to their story: don't just cling to your own convictions, but try to understand where they're coming from: free speech is all very well, but don't deliberately say things to hurt other people. In his comments following the murder of Charlie Kirk, Pope Leo spoke of the need to refrain from rhetoric that leads to polarisation rather than dialogue;
- Don't talk down to your enemy but ‘walk alongside’ them, showing respect and compassion without a sense of superiority. Humour can also often help to break the ice.
... and, for those of a religious persuasion, pray for them.
The focus of this guidance is personal, but much of it also applies to international relations. The news that Russia is digging in deeper from its aggression in Ukraine, with drones in Polish airspace and warplanes over Estonia, begs the question of whether Patriarch Kirill is even aware of Matthew 5:44. There should certainly be common ground between Christian leaders, and his ‘moral support’ has provided a key justification for Putin’s aggression.
These guiding principles could also apply to the debates taking place this week in the United Nations: emotional triggers built through history are much in evidence in both Russia and the Middle East. There should be plenty of common ground and planning to be shared, in respect of both climate change and economic fairness in addition to peacekeeping.
But we also need to share stories directly between our populations, so that people can listen better to what moves those in other countries — and at least gain a better understanding of their fears. Our call last week for global democracy would help significantly in the search for this common ground.
These two contexts of the international and the personal are now drawn together by social media, with its extraordinary capacity to publicise instantaneously across the great expanse and variety of humanity. Therefore, if there's one place more than others where a better appreciation of ‘loving our enemies’ is called for, it is in this respect.
Perhaps those of a Christian persuasion could try much harder to understand and live out what this teaching means, and then take determined steps to communicate it with a much more visible presence on social media. I was particularly encouraged to see the open letter which has been published by Church leaders in the United Kingdom last weekend, stating clearly that ‘Jesus calls us to love both our neighbours and our enemies, and to welcome the stranger’. They went on to say that any co-opting or corrupting of the Christian faith to exclude others is unacceptable.
As a final note, however, it's important to recognise the real gender difference which makes Jesus’s instruction so much harder for men than it is for women. It’s men who start the wars, who occupy the prisons, and who are almost exclusively involved in the worst of human atrocities. Rather than spending hours debating gender issues of a second-order nature, men need to learn from women how to live at peace with one another.
Gavin Oldham OBE
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