Overcome Evil

“ Recompense to no man evil for evil... If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord... Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.. ”

Revenge , it's been said, is a dish that is best served cold. Sort of like cucumber soup, I guess. I disagree—not with the soup, but with revenge. When an evil has occurred, it's not for us to pursue the evil one, take careful aim, and clobber him (or her). And how is that? Because we are purposed to take the captives away from the evil one, and restore what has been lost.

Things in our world are evil. Certain causes are evil. The devil is evil. Many practices are evil. And some people have given themselves over to evil, doing evil, making a mess of their own lives and the lives of others. But it is those people, even our enemies, who we are in this world to try and save. This is a feature of life that often gets lost for the good, principled, conservative lover of God. We are supposed to save the lost, not judge and hate them.

Do you have enemies? Is there anybody out there that just cringes when he or she hears your name, sees your picture, gets a glance of you walking by? Is someone out there plotting and planning your downfall? Could there be someone who actually prays against you, curses you, spreads false rumors about you and waits to watch your missteps? Isn't it neat to get so much attention?

What did you do to get such an enemy? Sometimes we do something wrong and injure another. If we haven't gone to them, asked their forgiveness, made reparations and sought to heal the wound, then the enmity we feel coming from that direction is entirely our own fault and we might still do something about it. Other times, it's just who we are, what we stand for or represent, who we are associated with that sets us up to have enemies. Having enemies may indicate that one is doing the right thing. ‘A Christian who has no enemies,' it's been said, ‘is obviously not doing enough as a follower of Christ.'

Jesus Himself said it would be so. “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.” Matthew 24:9 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” John 15:18-19 Jesus predicted that people would hate Christians because they hated Him first. He told His disciples that this would be a cause of celebration: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Matthew 5:10-12 We're in good company if we have enemies. However, remember that we do nothing in order to make anyone our enemy: our motivations must be right.

Many of you saw the article in the Chico ER yesterday of me painting a mural in Augie's and about our plan to create this coffeehouse. While being interviewed by Larry Mitchell, the author of the piece, he sort of prodded me a little and reminded me that not all men will think our good idea to be good. He asked: “Will the charities you give to include anti-abortion groups?” I answered that we were considering giving some money to the local pro-life crisis pregnancy centers. I stressed that these are truly pro-life and not “anti-abortion” because they serve women who have had abortions, while they don't perform abortions themselves. I also mentioned that we were probably not going to give any money to the ACLU. “Well do you figure that the members of the Peace and Justice Center will want to come to Augie's when they hear the places you're giving to?”

It was the first I thought about having enemies because of the gifts we were giving to feed the poor, house the homeless, minister to women in crisis, teach the illiterate, counsel those needing direction, and giving a helping hand might be seen narrowly by certain parties with suspicion that we are doing this for political reasons. He asked if we might give to the Christian Coalition, the ‘Christian Right' organization for informing the public on issues relating to elections that Pat Robertson established. I began to see what suspicious minds might do with our generosity. Sometimes you can't help but make enemies. Fortunately, Larry's probing questions didn't result in any snide comments in his article and I'm very happy with it.

And why didn't he snipe at us? One reason may be that I've cultured a relationship with Larry Mitchell over the years. He describes himself as a liberal , and attends a church that has in times past expressed distain for the creedal Christian faith. His could be called a very liberal theological view, much different from my own. But he's the religion page editor, and fortunately I've found that he keeps an open mind and a civil tongue when writing about religious groups that differ with him. So we've had many cups of coffee, discussed a wide variety of topics, and I've been able to challenge him to see the Catholic faith a little my way, and I call us friends. He knows me to be the leader of the pro-life group, ChicoLife , and he comes to me as other media do, for comments on abortion when it's in the news. He could have been an enemy. I've chosen to make him a friend. And yesterday I certainly appreciated my friend's article about Augie's.

Abortion is a subject that creates enemies, even in families, even between loved ones. This horror came into our culture at a time when everything we've held dear was being re-evaluated, redefined, and largely destroyed. The roles of men and women, the centrality of the family, the sacredness of marriage, the care of children, and the life of unborn babies were all on the block, and new ideologies took the place of ancient values. The unborn babies were pawns in a game to enhance women's power over the things in their lives viewed as oppressive: wedding rings, housekeeping, rearing of children, Almighty God Himself. Taking the life of your unborn seemed a real symbol of freedom and self-realization. Lies were told the public about the number of women dying by back alley abortions. Illegal clinics were set up across the country to provide abortion services to women “in trouble.” Even churches supported the effort to solve problem pregnancies by abortion. At one time, only the Roman Catholic Church voiced a negative opinion on abortion, and the nine justices of the Supreme Court, 33 years ago today, ruled in favor of Roe v Wade , making abortion legal in 50 states.

Today, 50 million babies have died and the legacy of Roe is that its proponents still fear the appointment of a pro-life Justice to the Court. In the 33 years, public opinion has kept this issue hot, and a majority of women today actually favor a return to laws that restrict abortion to only victims of rape, incest, and life-threatening pregnancies—including ‘Roe' herself, Norma McCorvey. In the meantime, unplanned pregnancies have skyrocketed. Planned Parenthood teaches sex education in our schools, and actually causes girls to become more promiscuous. I myself have watched at Planned Parenthood how this is so. 13 years ago, abortions at that clinic were about 700 a year. After we'd prayed there for 10 years, abortions dropped about 10% a year to under 300. Then Chico Schools invited Planned Parenthood to teach sex ed to Jr. & Sr. High kids, and in two years the abortion numbers we counted with our own eyes shot up 40%. There is evil in this world, and I pray at the doors of an evil organization every week. Some who work there can easily be called my enemies, because that's how they feel about me.

But that's not how I feel. It would be easy to burn with hatred, to plot some devastating deed, to ask God to punish them, or relish in the thought of their damnation. Easy, but not pleasant. I know why we stand there, and it's not to fight in this way. We can't overcome abortion or any evil by hating. We can't overcome them at all. Only God has the power to change a heart, and He does it through love. So we love the women who work there, pray good things for them, loving the young women who come there fearfully seeking abortions, and crying out the loss they will know at the end. We pray for the downfall of Planned Parenthood—an organization—but also for the release of its captives, the workers, clients, donors and supporters who are betrayed by its deceptions and ideology.

Jesus once came to a wedding in support and celebration of intimate love, commitment, families, child-rearing, and even a little wine drinking. The people ran out of wine, causing a stir that His mother caught and related to Him. Her audacious suggestion that He do something about it received a slight rebuke, but ultimately Jesus turned 40 gallons of water into good wine. Far from the pruney-faced mullah or brimstone prohibitionist preacher, Jesus actually got the party going again. He loved people. He came for people. People are not the enemy. He said: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Matthew 5:44 St. Paul says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephes. 6:12 St. John encourages us, saying: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 Jesus says again, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21 This is how we do battle against the most evil things in our world. As Christians we can't help but have enemies, but if we love them, pray for them, seek their good, then despite themselves and their wicked causes, they can't keep it up forever. I've seen them smile at me as I've held the door open for them and wished them Good Morning . And they have actually said to me, Oh quietly of course, and almost against their will: “ Good morning .”

PFH+