Who Said This? A Republican or a Democrat or a Religious Leader?

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

Who Said This? A Republican or a Democrat or a Religious Leader?

 

If Obama said this, Republicans would continue to declare that he is exactly what they've labeled him to be - a liberal, idealogue, crazy, anti-American, etc.  (And Democrats did the similar kinds of demonization to George W. Bush).

 

If a Religious leader said this, she/he would be ridiculed by the religious right who find it easy to pledge allegiance to the flag of the USA. (I will compare my citizenship to any religious zealot, I've never cheated on my taxes, I vote, I serve, I love being an American, I love my country). 

Who Said This?

Republican president Dwight David Eisenhower made this statement in a Presidential address on April 16, 1953. Isn't the vision he shared in this quote in sync with God's mission to bring about restoration and a return to Shalom for humanity, the world and the entire cosmos?

I know that we live in a sinful, fallen and broken world where evil people desire to harm and subjugate but I also believe that followers of Jesus Christ must be willing to pick up their cross, walk in the way of the cross and stand up for peace, for the greater true, for the oppressed, for the marginalized, for immigrants, for the poor, for the mentally ill, for the persecuted, for minorities, for the left outs and stand up to the oppressors, the persecutors, war-mongers and the self-righteous religious idealogues.

Jesus said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  Matthew 5:3-11

Comments

[Mike King]

The Eisenhower quote came to me today via The Daily Dig, July 15.
www.plough.com

[Jack Hager]

And how does one "stand up" to oppressors etc without arms? Are you saying pacifism is the way? Not looking for a fight, but for clarification...

[Mike King]

Of course, Jack, you ask the classic question every time something like this comes up. It has always been the classic question but it still doesn't eliminate what I believe to be the call by Jesus to love, even our enemies.

I'd like to think I'm a pacifist but if I was honest, I'm not sure I have that much courage.

Here are some other thoughts. Peace to you brother.

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." - Dr. Martin Luther King

But Did Jesus Really Mean It? (John Frye)

Jul 17, 2014 @ 5:05Leave a Comment
by: Scot McKnight
Love Your Enemies

“To love enemies breaks through the self barrier into divine space,” writes Scot McKnight in his SGBC: Sermon on the Mount (144). We have come to the last pericope in Matthew 5: verses 43-48 titled in the NIV “Love for Enemies.”

Jesus steps into the “love your neighbor/hate your enemy” Jewish world with “a radical hermeneutical guide for proper observance of Torah: Love God and love others” (139-140); what Scot calls and has written about The Jesus Creed. Jesus is going “to reveal an Ethic from (so far) Beyond that it would boggle some in his audience.” Where exactly Jesus got “You have heard it said, …hate your enemies” is unclear, according to Scot, yet there were factions of Jews (Essenes) who hated the Kittim (the Gentiles) and some zealous Jews hated even their own compromising Jewish leaders and, for sure, the Romans.

The startling thing that Jesus does is change the definition of neighbor. “Jesus commands his followers to commit themselves to be with their enemies, which involves proximity and attentiveness, and to be the sort of person who longs for and works for the good of the enemy. Because love cannot be reduced to ‘toleration,’ working for the good of another, including one’s enemies, means striving for them to become the sort of person God wants them to be” (143). Simply, “love must be defined by how God loves.” Love, at the least, includes praying for our enemies: “pray for those who persecute you.”

Scot notes that Jesus’ ethic from far beyond caught on in the church. Jesus modeled it (Luke 23:34); Stephen followed Jesus’ example (Acts 7:60); Paul counsels it (Romans 12:14) and Peter urges his readers to follow Jesus’ example (1 Peter 3:9). Also, Polycarp both lived out (his martyrdom) and taught Jesus’ ethic from beyond (To the Philippians 12:3).

The followers of Jesus are to put on display, as Jesus did, the character of their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:9; 5:45). We are “to live in a way that reflects who God is” (144). To love only those who are like us is simply to love ourselves; a love not demonstrated by God the Father Who is good to the evil and the good, to the righteous and the unrighteous. Jesus blasts away his culture’s stereotypical categories that defined who could be loved and who couldn’t. Jesus offers a profoundly radical ethic; an ethic some still try to tone down to this day.

Different scholars have different takes on what Jesus means by “be perfect” (5:48). Scot presents a collage of different interpretations (145-46) and offers this conclusion: “The ‘perfect’ of God in this text is his love for all. Thus, Jesus is urging his followers to be ‘perfect in love’ or to ‘love completely’ in the sense that they are to love not only fellow Jewish neighbors but also enemy neighbors. Jesus urged his disciples to love all because God loves all (5:35)” (146). To Live the Story, Scot invites us to identify our enemies. Name them, him or her. We all have enemies. Admit it. Secondly ask, How am I turning my enemies into my neighbors? We are invited to help create a society marked by shalom “because the kingdom is shalom” (148). Lord, help us.