Love your neighbors much, and your enemies that much more

By Paul Rasavage

The battle for these United States is comprised not of the confrontation between mutually exclusive poles of economic, ethnic or religious fundamentalism, but rather the ever increasing tension between those for whom the highest social good is the total and complete emancipation of the self (the "it's all about me" mentality) from legal and culturally imposed restraint (either real or imagined) — and those for whom the highest social good is the service of God, singularly manifest in love of neighbor and love of enemy.

Such service is accomplished by means of our character and to the degree which our character enables us to serve.

Our character, in turn, is continually molded and forged in the fires of virtue.

Within these fires, the soul is cultivated, renewed and formed, as Sacred Scripture records, with the ultimate objective of making us in the image and likeness of God.

If we choose to ignore God, then there is no need to work on our character.

Modern society is replete with such examples of people who have abandoned God and themselves, and as a consequence, have no character and no foundation, save the passing and ever changing social winds that sustain them, such that they become nothing more than a reed swaying in the breeze.

Complete freedom of self cannot help but infringe on the rights of others.

This is what the concept of law is all about — the protection of the intrinsic, God given human rights due each and every human being, from conception to natural end.

Complete freedom without consequences amounts to anarchy, or stated more succinctly, "I'll do it to you before you do it to me." This prevailing attitude makes us far worse than the savage beasts of the forest, who only kill and consume enough to survive. Even they acknowledge the existence of the One who created them.

Social guardrails, therefore, are imperative for defining, maintaining and protecting basic, fundamental human rights in all of their forms.

No group of individuals can legitimately say, "I possess all rights to do as I wish. You and those like you, on the other hand, have no rights."

This poor group of individuals has convinced themselves that they can do anything they want, as long as they want, however they want, to whomever they want as often as they want, regardless of the consequences.

Such a philosophy is logically unsupportable and morally indefensible.

The difficulty and frustration that the servants of God have with the "it's all about me" crowd is that we have no common basis for discussion or debate. They have abandoned all we hold dear and sacred. We, likewise, abhor those self-centered evils to which they hold fast, seeing them as abominable and worthless, the chaff of this world to be burned in the fires of the next.

Without such a common basis for dialog, the servants of God can do nothing more than what we have been doing, working to serve the God who so loves us, working to love and serve our neighbors, even our enemies, as our Lord compels us, and, most of all, to pray for those who persecute and hate us.

It is incumbent upon each and every servant of God to bear witness on behalf of everyone who ever caused them pain, suffering and difficulties of every sort — even unto death, for they may have no other defense before the judgment throne of God, save our testimony on their behalf.

Yes, to win the battle for these United States, we must love our neighbors much, and our enemies that much more.

© Paul Rasavage