A lot of us have enjoyed seeing the movie Wicked this fall. The first half of it at least. Or maybe you know the musical from a stage production and don’t really care to see it adapted to the screen. I’m just going to assume that once we pass the 20-year mark, we don’t have to worry about spoilers.

In the story of Wicked, there’s a large-scale campaign to oppress and marginalize a certain group. A character reveals the strategy of the propaganda scheme with a simple statement: The best way to bring folks together is to give them a really good enemy.

This has been a tactic in human society for a long time. We love having someone to blame. And we love the feeling of being united against a common foe. But we seem to keep adding enemies to the list, as our group of perceived allies becomes ever more fractured.

People with power often define a society’s really good enemies, but all of us who group together with other human beings tend to feel good about identifying an opposing group. In defining really good enemies, we also get the benefit of identifying ourselves as the heroes of a story. The good people, uniting together against a threat. 

As a people who affirm the inherent worthiness of every person, this is somewhat problematic. And yet, it’s all around us. We’re encouraged on every front to look for enemies. There are constant threats being identified. Except that, instead of bringing us together, it only seems to encourage us to be ready to identify anyone as a really good enemy if we feel somehow threatened by something they say or do. It’s easy to start seeing enemies everywhere. People against whom we have to protect ourselves. Even within our own community.

Our faith tradition doesn’t mesh well with a “trust no one” spy movie mentality. I feel as scared of some people’s vision for society as you do. And yet, I also know how isolating it becomes to disconnect from every potential threat. Constant vigilance is exhausting.

So, what do we do when identifying really good enemies causes the very wiring of our brains to thrum with excitement? How do we exist in a world with so many potential foes and also live with deep integrity to our life-affirming values? 

What if our really good enemies aren’t groups of people? What if we look instead at the obstacles that stand in the way of us being living embodiments of our values? Could Resentment be a really good enemy? What about Perfectionism? Maybe False Urgency is a foe that could bring us together instead. What if Over-functioning and Shame are really the common enemies to our ability to be fully alive in connection with one another?

In other words, what if we forged our sense of spiritual community around defining the enemies within ourselves rather than enemies out there in the world? What if our way of uniting against a common threat means investing deeply in one another’s wholeness and well-being? What if instead of focusing on really good enemies we focused on developing really good connection? 

Of course there are threats in the world. We absolutely need to be a welcoming safe space for people who are experiencing persecution and marginalization. And naming other groups of people as our mortal foes may not be the ideal way to embody the values we affirm. Maybe what most effectively unites people in resilient community is a mutual commitment to meaningful connection. And the real enemies are everything we allow to get in the way of that.

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