Virtual R.S. Lesson – President Dallin H. Oaks, Love Your Enemies October 2020

Questions

• Who is my enemy?

• Why are they my enemy?

• What do I need to do about it?

Background & Thesis

QUOTE 1.

“We live in a time of anger and hatred in political relationships and policies. We felt it this summer when some went beyond peaceful protests and engaged in destructive behavior. We feel it in some current campaigns for public offices. Unfortunately, some of this has even spilled over into political statements and unkind references in our Church meetings.”

– President Dallin H. Oaks, Love Your Enemies October 2020

QUOTE 2.

“However, as followers of Christ we must forgo the anger and hatred with which political choices are debated or denounced in many settings.”

– President Dallin H. Oaks, Love Your Enemies October 2020

NOTE: This lesson is not about any side being “right” or “wrong”. The focus of this lesson is “how do I love another who doesn’t see important things the way I do or whose experience is not mine?”

Radical Action

NORMAL ACTION: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.”

Matthew 5:43

• Loving people who are “like us” – whatever that looks like.

CALL TO ACTION: “But I say unto you, 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

• Loving people who are “not like us” – who come from different circumstances, make different choices, and have different values then we do.

Principles

What are some guiding principles for creating our actions to love others not like us?

Render Under Caesar – Setting and Refining Boundaries

QUOTE 3.

“How do we keep these divine commandments in a world where we are also subject to the laws of man? Fortunately, we have the Savior’s own example of how to balance His eternal laws with the practicalities of man-made laws. When adversaries sought to trap Him with a question about whether Jews should pay taxes to Rome, He pointed to the image of Caesar on their coins and declared, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s” (Luke 20:25).”

– President Dallin H. Oaks, Love Your Enemies October 2020

This example is all about existing in 2 kingdoms that overlap but are not the same kingdom. The individual is required to figure out what obligation(s) that person has to their society (or government) and what obligation(s) that person has to God. That individual is also required to figure out to what degree to utilize their resources in these kingdoms.

Anger Management Leading to Charity & Forgiveness

QUOTE 4.

“Anger is the way to division and enmity. We move toward loving our adversaries when we avoid anger and hostility toward those with whom we disagree. It also helps if we are even willing to learn from them.”

– President Dallin H. Oaks, Love Your Enemies October 2020

Being Willing to Connect, to Learn New Things & Change our Perspective

QUOTE 6.

“When we are trying to understand and relate to people of a different culture, we should try getting to know them. In countless circumstances, strangers’ suspicion or even hostility give way to friendship or even love when personal contacts produce understanding and mutual respect.”

– President Dallin H. Oaks, Love Your Enemies October 2020

The Brain

“The single most powerful statement to come out of brain research in the last twenty-five years is this [in 1989]: We are as different from one another on the inside of our heads as we appear to be different from one another on the outside of our heads. Look around and see the infinite variety of human heads—skin, hair, age, ethnic characteristics, size, color, and shape. And know that on the inside such differences are even greater—what we know, how we learn, how we process information, what we remember and forget, our strategies for functioning and coping. Add to that the understanding that the “world” out “there” is as much a projection from inside our heads as it is a perception, and pretty soon you are up against the realization that it is a miracle that we are communicating at all. It is almost unbelievable that we are dealing with the same reality. We operate on a kind of loose consensus about existence at best. From a practical point of view, day by day, this kind of information makes me a little more patient with the people I live with. I am less inclined to protest, “Why don’t you see it the way I do?” and more inclined to say, “You see it that way? Holy cow! How amazing!”

– Robert Fulghum – It was on fire when I Lay Down on It (1989)

Good Samaritan Story

Radial story because of context.

QUOTE 7.

“Think About your own neighbors. Are they “too” something? Too black, too white, too brown, too red, too clannish, too different, too scary, too Catholic, too Protestant, too liberal, too conservative, too divorced, too many children? The Jews thought the Samaritans were too unrighteous, too racially impure to help them rebuilt the temple or to worship with them in it. But I don’t think the wounded man lying by the road thought that wine and oil in his wounds were too Samaritan.”

Chieko Okazaki, Lighten Up

Final Thoughts

“I am here to get it right. I am not here to be right.”

-Brene Brown