Odium et Caritas

It seems to me that when the Beatles sang "All you need is love," and Jackie DeShannon sang "What the world needs now is love" they were correct. How much hate is there in the world? How much fighting and bickering?
Recently, I've attracted more attention than I should because of my baptism and a letter to school newspaper about why we should invite Obama to the campus. The responses I've received have been diverse. Some people have praised what I've said. Others have condemned it. Others yet, have taken what I've said and contorted my words to make me say things that I have never said.
There are two interactions I have had with people that have had strong impacts on me personally. The first was an interaction on the Indy Star blog with a man who goes by the moniker "Roymondo." He exhibited a lot of anger and hostility to my conversion to Catholicism. Every chance he got, he tried to enlighten the world with what he thought to be the true reason why I converted. I was personally offended, but mostly I felt sad for him not being able to understand that I would truly convert out of a genuine movement of mysoul.
The second was with a friend of mine whom I shall call Steve for the sake of this post. He personally contacted me after reading my Observer post. He didn't respond with a whitty letter to the editor explaining why I loved abortion and hated God or anything of that nature. Rather, he advised me on staying true to the tenets of Catholicism and exercising obedience to the council of the bishops. After each message to me, he concluded with "With love" or "In the love of Christ." He never condemned me nor did he tell me that I was completely wrong. But he did warn me and tried to guide me.
The example of Steve is an example to me of truly Christ-like love. Roymondo's example is the opposite. There tends to be a fine line between Christ-like admonition and self-righteous condemnation. Sometimes the difference is obvious to those outside, though. Nobody on the Notre Dame campus views the actions of Randall Terry and the Center for BioEthics to be in Christ-like love. But to think that there are no people protesting Obama's invitation here who have no love in their intention is not only false, but an affront to those who respectfully and graciously demonstrate their feelings.
The real question we must ask is this: How do we show our distaste for something without exuding a condemnatory attitude? How can we respectfully display our disagreement? How do we know which battles are worth fighting?
I would suggest that Christ's counsel here is very applicable "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison." (Matthew 5:25)

What would Jesus do?

So I saw something that I would label not only as offensive, but also in bad taste. The man above, who looks like such a great citizen with his family, hired a plane to fly around my campus showing the entire Notre Dame and South Bend communities an image of a dead human fetus.
Why did he do this? He looks like such a great family man, complete with American flag and small children to show how much of a great guy he is. This is Randall Terry, and he is a terrorist. No, he doesn't blow things up, take hostages or kill people, but he has threatened the joyous events of Notre Dame's graduation and has even gone so far as to send proponents of abortion dead fetuses.
He does all these things in the name of Christ and supposedly against abortion. There is more than a little in his claim that makes my skin crawl.
Christ advocated peace, mercy, and a mild-manner. "Blessed are the meek," he said, "blessed are the poor in spirit...blessed are the peacemakers." Where in Christ's teachings are extremist measures propagated? Where does Christ advocate offending children, women, and people with dignity? What place do shock-and-awe efforts have in the Kingdom of God?
A lot of people have called President Obama a great many things. Some have called him a murderer. Some have compared him to Hitler.
But what would Jesus do? Jesus mingled with the publicans in the market place. Jesus ate with publicans at supper. Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, a man who killed thousands in his tenure as governor, and faced him, not scorning or abusing him, but respectfully entering in dialogue with him.
It is my personal, and I would argue supportable, opinion that Jesus Himself would have been fine with President Obama speaking at Notre Dame's commencement. Yes, he might support legislation with terrible, immoral consequences. But this is no reason to turn him away. St Paul stood before King Agrippa and, instead of railing against him, met him as an equal, which ledd to the king's statement "Almost you have convinced me to become a Christian."
Christ was the perfect example of reaching out to people in friendship. He befriended harlots, beggars and tax collectors. He attacked the elite, those who thought they were justified in their religious beliefs. Christ's message is clear: we must reach out to those who we think we should despise. On the other hand, we should not feel secure in our convictions of our security and our own righteousness.

Quid caritas est?

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your might, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like unto it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Upon these hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)
I find it perplexing how often this one small passage is ignored (by the way, St. Luke includes a similar passage whereby we get the parable of the "Good Samaritan") by those who would claim to be Christians. Jesus himself states "Upon these hang ALL the law and the prophets." There is nothing more important than these two commandments.
But what kind of a name has Christianity earned for itself within the last few years. Better yet, what of the last few decades? Last few centuries? Last thousand years? It is true that Christianity has a lot of atoning to do for the acts committed in the name of the Prince of Peace.
However, there is no way to change the past. The most we Christians can do is apologize for our past mistakes (viz Vatican II, In Eo Tempore) and pray that we make no more such egregious decisions. We must start now. The true Christians of today must work hard to shine brighter than the darkness brought upon us by such groups as the Westborrough Baptists and Randall Terry and his squad of fetus crusaders.
I use the term we, but I by no means wish to exclude any non-Christians from reading this. As a theist, and one who has had a very real struggle in finding my faith, I adhere to the Muslim notion of "لا اكراه في الدين" meaning "there is no compulsion in religion." Jesus commanded us to be lights on the hillside, not torches in people's faces.