Michael Moore asked Sean Hannity if he loved his enemies like Jesus said to do. His followers are to do the same. When Hannity said yes, Moore said, "Well, then you love al-Qaida!"

This "gotcha" question is supposed to put a person in a no-win position regardless of the answer.

The proper answer is "yes," according to the way the Bible uses the word. It means to desire what is best for our enemy. The objectives our national enemy, al-Qaida, has in mind aren't what is best for them and definitely not for us. What would be best for such enemies would be the renunciation of their evil intent and the embracing of the universal Moral Law.

The Moral Law is basically what is referred to in our Declaration of Independence as the "laws of nature and (of) nature's God." This expression was a term used in historical legal parlance by such as Hugo Grotius, Burlamaqui, Blackstone, and others. These are laws that transcend time and cultures.

In 1963, writing from the jail in Birmingham, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted, "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God."

Cicero, noting this law is universal and applies to all people, wrote, "This true law diffused among all men, is immutable and eternal. To replace it with a contrary law is a sacrilege."

Thomas Jefferson's God was the source of moral values. In a letter to his nephew Peter Carr, he wrote, "He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if He had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. Rather, God made man with a sense of right or wrong."

Jesus gave these illustrations of moral law in response to a young man's question, "Do not kill (murder), do not commit adultery, do not lie, do not steal. Honor your father and mother."

Here is another aspect of loving our enemies. We can love people and not like what they do. It is reasonable for an American to detest what al-Qaida stands for and does. Such conduct is reprehensible, egregious, insufferable, and besides it is wrong.

Many people unable to differentiate between loving a person and not liking what they do end up with a guilt complex. This is true of children especially. They instinctively want to love their parents and are told to do so. Yet, they see and hear their parents do things they intuitively know are wrong. Unable to discern between loving the person and not liking what the person does causes emotional conflict.

There is a reason some people don't like the concept of a Moral Law. It is based on the fact that where there is a law there is a law giver. State and local laws exist because at some point lawmakers made the laws. To say where there is a moral law there is a moral law give is logical. At this point God steps on stage. Some people are offended at His presence.

Grotius, a Dutchman, was among the first Westerners to write about God and government. He believed the only relation between the two was for government to acknowledge there is a God. Many in modern America assert that just the acknowledgment there is a God is a violation of church and state. Most of our founding fathers were deists, not Christians, but they readily acknowledged God.

An element in our nation today does not want government to even acknowledge there is a God. For their sake, they better be right.

Jefferson wrote, "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."

The Rev. Dr. Nelson Price is pastor emeritus of Roswell Street Baptist Church. Contact Price at nlprice@aol.com.