Last issue, my editorial was basically excerpts from a report from antihate.ca about how (mostly far right) anti-trans posts spiked after the shooting.
I posted a link to the report on Facebook. And someone with the same last name as me, but to whom I don’t think I am related, made a comment: “Well, what did you expect? People would join hands and sing kumbaya?”
No, I didn’t, but now that you mention it, that would be a great thing to do.
I know, I know, it sounds…trite. But here me out.
When we are wronged, our first response is often to respond in kind. It is so common a response, that it’s right there in the bible: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
But…
But if we are going to use the bible to back up what we say, we should maybe consider the whole thing.
Because this is not, in the words of Paul Harvey, the whole story.
In the New Testament, we come across this line, spoken by Jesus: “Ye have heard that it has been said, ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you….”
(That’s from the King James version; there’s a reason why I’m using the KJV, and it’s not because it was what the original bible was written in; we’ll get to that reason in a bit.)
I’m not going to assume that (m)any of you out there reading this go to the bible as an arbiter of what is good and right. Indeed, the last two thousand years are filled with people who claim to be believers in the word of God, but don’t actually do what that says, leading to everything from the Crusades to Christian Nationalism.
But this one is worth a second look, because it is underpinned by one of the most fundamental truths about society.
Lets start with the reverse: eye for eye, tooth for tooth? Where does that get us? To quote Rev Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof: “Very good. That way the whole world will be blind and toothless”.
Indeed, the origins of that rule was not to glorify retribution, but to ensure that the response was not greater than the original offense.
While I love Fiddler on the Roof, this was not the first time that idea had been floated. Indeed, Martin Luther King also famously said that “an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”
Ironically, though, it was a Canadian politician, George Perry Graham, who argued against the death penalty in the Canadian House of Parliament in 1914 who seems to have originated this idea, saying “ We can argue all we like, but if capital punishment is being inflicted on some man, we are inclined to say: ‘It serves him right.’ That is not the spirit, I believe, in which legislation is enacted. If in this present age we were to go back to the old time of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ there would be very few honourable gentlemen in this House who would not, metaphorically speaking, be blind and toothless.”
Which brings us back to “love your enemy,” and “do good to those that hate you.”
That’s hard. That’s really hard.
One of the most profound expressions of this idea is from Martin Luther King, Jr, who in 1957 delivered a sermon on this very topic. The very verse from the King James Bible I quoted earlier.
“Over the centuries,” says King, “many persons have argued that this is an extremely difficult command…They would go on to say that this is just additional proof that Jesus was an impractical idealist who never quite came down to earth.
“But far from being an impractical idealist, Jesus has become the practical realist. The words of this text glitter in our eyes with a new urgency. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, this command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.”
King spoke these words to a people who we—70 years on—can barely comprehend the level of oppression they were experiencing. We’ve seen the movies, read the books, but we have not lived their lives. We cannot understand the experience of people who lived with Jim Crow laws. With redlining. With “separate but equal.”
And in the face of this, MLK came up with one of the most beautiful restatements of this ideal.
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Only love.
I grew up Mennonite, which means I grew up a pacifist. While that is frequently interpreted as being anti-war, I would argue that it is more accurately pro-peace.
It is not just about avoiding conflicts between nation states, but about bringing a spirit of peace to all that you do. About going beyond hate and divisiveness, because hate? Begets hate.
More than that, it causes an unsettled spirit that is not at peace with itself or with others.
And so, in a spirit of peace, I refuse to hate a group of people for the action of one. I would do so even if that action were done by all. The only way to combat hate is love.
And more than just refusing to hate, I refuse to be used as fuel for someone else’s hate. I encourage you to not allow yourself to be used as a pawn to project hate onto others.
It’s hard. Pressingly hard, to once again quote MLK.
But it’s worth it.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
