Enemies

Enemies




We need enemies.

People we can fear and mistrust.

And hate. Against whom we can unite

our efforts and our souls.



Look, can you see them;

those ones, over there, they don’t

share our values at all. They threaten the way of life

that God has given us and that our comfort has blessed.

They are dangerous.



Yes them;

Let us take up our arms,

our pens and our umbrage

and demand that they are suitably confronted,

confounded and called to account.

Feel the pleasing warmth of our cultivated outrage;

enjoy the convenience of enemies.



Even Jesus had enemies,

People who opposed his work,

ones against whom he felt he had to stand;

but perhaps fewer than we might have thought.

Passing up the opportunity of rallying his supporters

and joining in their fears,

he is said to have once declared

that “whoever is not against us

is for us.”

No wonder he was such a failure.



© Ken Rookes 2012