'To Bless All Mankind' April 27, 2015 Issue

Loving one’s enemies

Jen McLaughlin

Originally printed in The Christian Science Monitor, February 12, 2015.

The idea of loving one’s enemies can sound, to the uninitiated, naive and impractical. But in fact, it’s a powerful commandment that fosters real and lasting peace. The Monitor editorial “Love from China’s famed dissident” lifted my thought and led to the resolution of a tough personal challenge.

When imprisoned Chinese political dissident Liu Xiaobo wrote a friend, his message said in part, “Hatred can rot away at a person’s intelligence and conscience. Enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation’s progress towards freedom and democracy.”

Liu’s phrase, “enemy mentality,” takes the stance that an “enemy” is not a person, but rather a state of thought that is externalized in hurtful behavior. But it starts with a thought.

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