Comments on: MLK day and the need for enemies http://kenwilsononline.com/2008/01/21/mlk-day-and-the-need-for-enemies/ one step closer Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:34:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Duke http://kenwilsononline.com/2008/01/21/mlk-day-and-the-need-for-enemies/#comment-50 Duke Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:15:52 +0000 http://kenwilsononline.com/?p=53#comment-50 This love your enemies stuff is where the true dangerousness--the true subversiveness--of Jesus shines through. Christianity is fundamentally unsafe. Fundamentally at odds with self-interest. A self-centered understanding of the world is the upside down picture of the world. It is the evil one's picture of the world. Politics is the art of the aggregation of power. To whom? To the self. Jesus is subversive without being political. He shrugs off political power. He hides from those who try to thrust political power on him. The kind of power Jesus exercises is spiritual power. And at the heart of all God-breathed spiritual power is love. This love your enemies stuff is where the true dangerousness–the true subversiveness–of Jesus shines through. Christianity is fundamentally unsafe. Fundamentally at odds with self-interest.

A self-centered understanding of the world is the upside down picture of the world. It is the evil one’s picture of the world.

Politics is the art of the aggregation of power. To whom? To the self.

Jesus is subversive without being political. He shrugs off political power. He hides from those who try to thrust political power on him.

The kind of power Jesus exercises is spiritual power. And at the heart of all God-breathed spiritual power is love.

]]> By: ken http://kenwilsononline.com/2008/01/21/mlk-day-and-the-need-for-enemies/#comment-44 ken Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:31:18 +0000 http://kenwilsononline.com/?p=53#comment-44 steve and garrett, more on this, please! garrett, what's origin of term "echtrology"--from Greek for enemies? Did you coin it or is it something others are using? Whatever it is, keep working it.... ken steve and garrett,

more on this, please! garrett, what’s origin of term “echtrology”–from Greek for enemies? Did you coin it or is it something others are using? Whatever it is, keep working it….

ken

]]> By: garrett http://kenwilsononline.com/2008/01/21/mlk-day-and-the-need-for-enemies/#comment-43 garrett Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:30:27 +0000 http://kenwilsononline.com/?p=53#comment-43 that quote by dr. king is amazing, brings to mind the interfaith dialogue (A Common Word Between Us and You, issued by a muslim adherents and the christian response issued by the yale center for faith and culture) that happened earlier this year. pretty encouraging stuff. quotes like that could form the basis for a new branch of christian study, echtrology, the theology of enemies. or maybe i should just get to work loving people... that quote by dr. king is amazing, brings to mind the interfaith dialogue (A Common Word Between Us and You, issued by a muslim adherents and the christian response issued by the yale center for faith and culture) that happened earlier this year. pretty encouraging stuff.

quotes like that could form the basis for a new branch of christian study, echtrology, the theology of enemies. or maybe i should just get to work loving people…

]]> By: steven hamilton http://kenwilsononline.com/2008/01/21/mlk-day-and-the-need-for-enemies/#comment-42 steven hamilton Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:40:12 +0000 http://kenwilsononline.com/?p=53#comment-42 have been recently reading and meditating (lectio divina) thru the Sermon on the Mount, this has caused me to seriously reflect on Jesus message...in fact, it now haunts me. "You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." can I read these words of Jesus now the same way i used to skim over them before the 'war on terror'? i can't seem to...they haunt me now. and i just hope someone is telling Muslim people around the world that the actions/bombs the U.S. has dropped and may continue to drop on their brothers and sisters have nothing to do with the true teachings of Christ. i talked a little about some of the implications in this at the beginning of advent http://verveandverse.blogspot.com/2007/12/christ-is-leader-of-free-world.html too often as Christians seek to bring all things under Christ we "Christian-ize" the principalities and powers instead of subverting/redeeming the powers that be (admssion: it's much harder)...i think Dr. King could have been speaking to us today when he warned: "If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos." and still Jesus' words haunt me: Love Your Enemies have been recently reading and meditating (lectio divina) thru the Sermon on the Mount, this has caused me to seriously reflect on Jesus message…in fact, it now haunts me.

“You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

can I read these words of Jesus now the same way i used to skim over them before the ‘war on terror’? i can’t seem to…they haunt me now. and i just hope someone is telling Muslim people around the world that the actions/bombs the U.S. has dropped and may continue to drop on their brothers and sisters have nothing to do with the true teachings of Christ. i talked a little about some of the implications in this at the beginning of advent

http://verveandverse.blogspot.com/2007/12/christ-is-leader-of-free-world.html

too often as Christians seek to bring all things under Christ we “Christian-ize” the principalities and powers instead of subverting/redeeming the powers that be (admssion: it’s much harder)…i think Dr. King could have been speaking to us today when he warned: “If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.”

and still Jesus’ words haunt me: Love Your Enemies

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