yāall,Ā iām actually christian (christopagan, technically, but thatās beside the point), the religion where the whole āunconditional loveā and ālove thy enemyā doctrine comes from, and iām here to tell you -if youāre using that philosophy to shut down any kind of resistance that isnāt explicitly nonviolent, nondestructive, and ānon hatefulā, youāre doing it wrong.
you cannot love people while simultaneously not doing everything in your power to protect them. you also cannot claim that youāre allowing someone to oppress others because to use force to stop them from doing so would be āhatefulā. at the end of the day, even if you do nothing at all, you are being complicit in the inherent violence of the system; that sure as fuck is not ālovingā the people the system exploits and oppresses. yes, it is crucial that we love our enemy -insofar as we recognize they are human and can change, can redeem themselves, and so on. not ālovingā them to the point of stepping aside and letting them brutalize our fellow human beings.
love isnāt passive. love isnāt a feeling. love is a commitment to respecting someone and doing what you can to promote their well-being. love is preventing the rise of those who would promote suffering, hatred, and fear to rise. of course there will be casualties, and thatās a tragedy, but those casualties are necessary to prevent far, far more.
blakekathryn
prguitarman
