Āstārā A friend alerted me to the following Sullivan post, which I highly recommend reading in full:
Lincoln Park http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/09/not-racism-projection.html#more
One of the lessons of the spiritual life which can be put in brief form, is this: If you think of evil as something that someone else is or does, you don’t understand it and you don’t understand yourself. There is nothing alien about it. When Luke goes to cut off Darth Vader’s head in the cave, he finds on the head his own face. Until you recognize this, you must strain at gnats and swallow camels.
Sullivan is quick to point out that he does not want to engage in ad hominem psychologizing of the people who disagree with Obama: this is reductionist, obscures the understandable policy differences, and so forth. He’s right. But I think he’s also aware of this: if you say that this kind of hatred and projection is something the opponents of Obama do, because they’re evil and crazy and immature and fascist, you’d be doing precisely the same thing. This is always the problem: how do you oppose evil without becoming it yourself?
“But I say to you, do not resist evil. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
“You have heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father in heaven, because he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and rains on the just and the unjust.”
As I have mentioned before, Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden because they begin to separate good and evil. The only way back is to put them back together again. The people who are most filled with hatred are the ones who believe they are all good.
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