The following article by Deepak Chopra
was published in the San Francisco Chronicle and on his own website
today. For anyone that believes they are Christians then writes the
kind of personal invective published in the newspaper here, here and
here. I don't know if you'd call these people extremist, far right,
conservative Republicans or what? Their ideology and belief-motivated
conduct expressed in their articles match, in spirit if nothing else,
the justification by the Norwegian Anders Breivik for his vicious
attack on fellow countrymen and women, people he believes are his
mortal enemies.
Although devotion to Christianity is often required in modern-day American politics, one of its central teachings—to love your enemy—is overlooked. Former President Bill Clinton has commented on the virulence of the political atmosphere that seemed to drastically increase during his time in office. Instead of winning against your opponent, he observed, the new attitude was that the other side needed to be destroyed. As a result, the sense of being colleagues or of reaching across the aisle was lost—and remains lost. The other party is nothing less than the enemy.
The difficult question of how to love your enemy goes much deeper than this. Many teachings in the New Testament clash with psychological reality. To love someone who hates you, like turning the other cheek when someone hits you, seems like a spiritual ideal that can't be attained except by saints. Who among us is a saint?
We could turn the issue around, however. Saintliness becomes realistic by seeing it as a state of higher consciousness. Christ was talking about personal transformation. That much seems to be beyond doubt. "Higher consciousness" is not a religious term, however, even if Christ does point to the kingdom of heaven being within. My purpose is not to argue that personal transformation is specifically Christian. But it is the key to loving your enemy.
