Anyhow, great thot provoking post! We need more of this!

Psalm 23.5 “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies”.

Old testament kings and prophets were pretty clear on what they thought of “non-believers”. 1 Samuel 17.36-37 “Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. > David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”

Thankfully the “eye for an eye” of Exodus was replaced by a doctrine of love and perpetual forgivness from every human heart to every other human heart in the personage of Jesus.

Try Luke 10.27 starting with “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” Jesus then imparts the story that every frist grader that ever went to Sunday school knows (you know the one about the Samaritan), ending with “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”

It’s not my place to judge an intollerant scumbag like Ahmadinejad, but at least as a Christian I can take comfort and strenght in knowing that it is not my place to judge him. Moral rights and wrongs exist. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were all evil people, but only God can judge them. Sometimes, however good people have to stand against up to them and tell them they are wrong.

Iran and it’s entire theocracy is evil. Top down it must be opposed, yet as Christians we must be able to still see their leaders as both human, and our neighbors. Otherwise we are lost.

I’m sorry that I’ve given the appearance of self-righteousness. It’s certainly not true. I am a very flawed man whose only good comes from God’s grace.

As to your question, I think I’ll follow Jesus’ lead and answer your question with another question: According to the commands of Jesus, does their status as enemy or friend change the way He asks us to treat them?

To prove you are not a hypocrite I want you to invite the ten worst black drug dealers from the nearest urban hood into your house and have a nice meal and a sit down chat with them.

Actually, I already have.

After that I want you to go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.

Actually, you need to study the Bible a bit more. When Jesus said that, he was talking to a rich man whose love of wealth was keeping him from the Kingdom of God. Jesus gave a specific instruction for his situation to reveal the condition Jesus saw in his heart. Because of his loving money above God, he refused. If God asks me to give all my money to the poor, I would gladly do so.

Of course, from your picture, you haven’t graduated from eigth grade yet. This probably also indicates your a socialist too. Have your mama wipe the snot from your nose and be in bed by 8:30.

Actually, I’ve graduated from two years of Bible college (in addition to graduating with honors and a 4.0 from High School). With your skill in Biblical interpretation, I suggest you do the same. (Also, when engaging in ad hominem attacks against someone’s (appearance and) education, you would do your argument a service to properly spell “eighth”.)

And, no, I’m not a socialist. In fact, the furthest thing from it. If you would make that comment after meeting me on the street and chatting for a few minutes, it would be understandable. However, you have my entire blog archive (most importantly the last three weeks of blog archives which has tons of material relevant to showing that I most definitely am not a socialist) at your fingertips to show the absurdity of such a comment. Many have ostracized me for being a right wing Republican, but never have I been accused of being a socialist!

After that I want you to go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.

If you don’t do these things you aren’t a real Christian either.

Morons like yourself never heed the parts that say you are to be as crafty as serpents but as innocent as doves. Also, the government was not given the sword for nothing. Government is supposed to reward those who do good and punish those who do evil. Sucking up to the worst evil in our world is not helping rightiousness prevail.

Of course, from your picture, you haven’t graduated from eigth grade yet. This probably also indicates your a socialist too. Have your mama wipe the snot from your nose and be in bed by 8:30.

Thanks. Interesting comment. I’m afraid I lack the context (I have not read JHY’s Politics) to respond to your comment with anything but a simple (and perhaps simplistic) statement of what I believe from studying the NT that our responsibility as Christians is:

Our first priority should be to bring people to Christ. A secondary task is to do simple, non-resistant things such as voting to try to have a government that acts righteously and justly, as God designed.

Again, that’s based on a fairly superficial single reading of Yoder–but I found it intriguing, and I’d say enlightening. You may well have already beaten me to reading, thoroughly digesting, and critically analyzing his writings–but if not, they may offer an input worth considering.

This post has actually been written and open in my browser window for quite some time. (I was leaving it gestate and to think and to give me the opportunity to get some feedback from some people on it.)