Fallen Into Knowledge

Carl Schmitt asserted that the most basic political distinction is that which divides friend from enemy.  This distinction, Schmitt was quick to point out, does not entail any animosity, but merely points to the boundary of our community:  Friends are part of the Us, whereas enemies are the Other, strangers, those who our outside our boundaries.

The Bar-Bar peoples.

This friend-enemy distinction has been leveraged by the church in a couple of related ways to establish the realm of the Other.  For one, it is sometimes used to draw lines across the category of those who call themselves “Christian:”  dividing between Protestants and Catholics, for example, in order to claim that one or the other is not properly “Christian.”

This distinction, or something analogous to it, also typically governs  how churches choose who to partner with for “ministry.”  We draw a line across groups doing humanitarian endeavors:  we consider partnering with christian organizations and typically don’t consider partnering with organizations who are not Christian.  Which is to say, we tend to apply the “do not be unequally yoked” language when deciding on ministry partners.  THese are not the only terms Christians have at their disposal, however:  we have another, “Neighbor.”  

Can we insert into this friend-enemy distinction the concept of “neighbor” such that we can conceptualize partnering with organizations who aren’t Christian - affirming and supporting their humanitarian mission without giving up our identity as Christians?