Loving Enemies: A Manual for Ordinary People

Like parents and grandparents everywhere, Randy and Joyce Klassen are deeply concerned about the state of the world in which their children and grandchildren will be living. Will violence and wars escalate? Or will the world's peoples, including those in a United States so often involved in war, try a different way? Will even ordinary people commit ourselves to selfless love? Will we strengthen and expand the reality of justice and peace in our world? This book is a manual for those of us ready to try. As Robert K. Johnston, Fuller Theological Seminary, observes in the Foreword, the authors "remind us how inspired we become by the illogic of nonviolence, how moved we are by the redemptive role of forgiveness, how alluring and inviting the example of those like Martin Luther King Jr. or Christians in the Philippines."

Randy and Joyce Klassen, Walla Walla, Washington, both artists, are retired church leaders who developed a new church in California and revived another in Arizona. Randy, also pastor of established churches or founder of new ones for over 40 years, is author of What Does the Bible Really Say About Hell? (Pandora Press U.S., 2001) and other books. Now the Klassens are enjoying semi-retirement in Walla Walla while remaining active as artists. Randy also fills pulpits and teaches classes as opportunities come along, and Joyce is involved in community theater. Their deeply felt concern for peace in this violent world has led them to give time and effort, hearts and minds to the formation of this book. The call of Jesus to love our enemies has challenged them to ponder its implications and how it can be accomplished, even by ordinary people such as they consider themselves to be.