LETTER: Don't return evil, but offer love

There is a wide gulf between the spirit of radical love and the spirit of the times. It helps me to span that gulf with love when I remember that we are all one. Perhaps the simplest insight of the big bang theory is that everything that exists is connected by virtue of origin, time, and matter.

That is why the evil and violence of the recent terrorist attacks around the world tear our hearts apart. Literally. A part of our heart dies in each heinous act of terror. And in our response, it seems to make sense to retaliate, to kill, to hate, to close borders, to fear.

We profess our Christian identity from mountain tops and fly flags of empire in our churches. However, if we want to transform the world, maybe it is time to try something different and ask ourselves if the homeless teacher wandering the hills of Palestine 2,000 years ago was serious when he said that we shouldn’t respond to hatred with hatred and to violence with more violence? Was he naive, or worse, when he said that we should love our enemies?

Maybe one reason we reject radical love as too ethereal is that we think it negates justice. Justice is important and necessary in ordering a world that is safe for the coexistence of diversity. But justice guided by radical love does not enter into an alliance with a specific race, religion, or country. Instead, it stands in solidarity with the commonality and sacredness of all life. —Bob Muth Sr., Kalispell