By Their Fruits

I have yet to see a battle that hasn’t sown the seeds for future conflict. Perhaps that’s why I do whatever I can to avoid participating in one. There’s a maxim I heard years ago that says: “Be careful who you make your enemy for you shall become them.” While I can’t find the source of it, that statement agrees with what I see in the world. It’s like in Orwell’s Animal Farm where the pigs end up looking just like the humans. That’s an extreme and fictitious example but it’s valid.

Taking out a bully by being one means there are now two bullies. Preventing or avenging a murder by murdering still leaves a murderer running around. In World War II, we were supposedly the “good guys” and all of the violence we committed was justified because we on the right side of the issues. Were we the good guys to the citizens of Dresden when we fire-bombed them? Were we the good guys to the citizens of Hiroshima or Nagasaki?

I don’t know how we could have better responded to the threat of Hitler or Hirohito but I do know we continue to feel the fallout from what went on, some of which came about because of how we chose to respond to the actions of others. After the war, we fell prey to some pretty shocking hubris that allowed us to think we could and should police the world and manipulate other peoples into acting in our best interests even if it was to their detriment. “We never lose a war” got us into Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Syria. We deposed a democratically-elected leader in Chile in 1973 because we disagreed with his ideology. We have held ourselves up as a model of liberty and virtue yet we have committed acts of oppression and depravity. I could go on, but I hope these examples will suffice to illustrate where I’m coming from.

On a much smaller scale, the toxic online culture we currently experience shows how little is truly resolved by drawing lines in the sand and screaming at each other, and it spills over from our PC’s, laptops, and smartphones into our streets and churches and schools. Nothing is fully resolved and the fights intensify.

I don’t know what the answer is. I know humans are inherently tribal. I know we easily view the world as “us vs. them”. I know there are times we don’t see any other choice but to fight for what we feel is right. That said, my friends, if you see me hanging back while a fight is going on in front of me, please understand that I’m trying to gauge what is right and what the right response is. I’m evaluating if I can truly help resolve the conflict by entering into the battle. I’m attempting to discern as clearly as I can in this human state where the truth actually lies and what my Lord would want me to do. I might even be seen speaking to your enemy, hoping to discern their intent. If you choose to interpret that as disloyalty or weakness, I can’t control that. If you choose to sever our relationship because I haven’t sided with you, I can’t control that either, but know this: I can only do what I feel is right and I will always welcome the opportunity for healing and reconciliation.

Peace.