God calls upon us to love and care for our neighbors in every way we can. We need to be good neighbors to our brothers and sisters no matter where in the world they live. We are called to be the modern Good Samaritans, caring for present day victims of war, poverty, illness, or lack of food or clothing. We need to realize that everyone is our brother or sister and neighbor. This is so, because as the Bible states, we all have one spiritual Father. This relationship with our Father-Mother God means that everyone, everywhere, is of one spiritual family. We must take steps to protect our country and ourselves from terrorism. But we should do this without hatred. Governments, armament manufactures, special interest groups and others try to make us believe that we should hate our enemies. But what does Jesus say? His instructions to his followers are (Matthew 5:43-45): "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." W. Norman Cooper Ojai Valley News 02/15/2002

This message is from an article by W. Norman Cooper which appeared in the Ojai Valley News.