Friends,
As we prepare to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., on Monday we will primarily recognize his success in mobilizing the civil rights movement, his powerful gift of soaring oratory, and his ability to integrate his Christian faith with the founding ideals of the American democratic experiment. The commemoration ceremonies and the media coverage more likely will focus on his familiar Dream speech for an integrated nation where each child and every person deserves respect and the opportunity to live in freedom and prosperity. All worth remembering and honoring. But this evening I particularly want to honor his courage as a steadfast adherent to his core commitment to the efficacy of nonviolence. MLK credited the discipline of Gandhi’s nonviolent movement for the liberation of India from the British Empire as a primary inspiration for the strategy for confronting the injustice of segregation. And he was further grounded in his personal, profound conviction that the life and teachings of Jesus and the most valiant parts of the history of. Christian nonviolence provided him the courage to defy those who actively defended segregation as well as all those within his allies who counseled him to follow less confrontational tactics. But, like Gandhi, he held to his spiritual convictions, and, like Gandhi, he was killed in living out his beliefs, and we now consider Martin Luther King, Jr. a revered hero and martyr for the cause of nonviolence. So we both hold our heads high in gratitude for his great leadership in living and promoting nonviolence while we also bow our heads reverently for his sacrifice and in gratitude for his faithfulness in overcoming fear to live out his commitment to following his Christian faith with loving discipleship. To nuance the meaning of nonviolence is difficult. We understand it isn’t violence, but it is not clear what it actually means in practical terms. Gandhi called it ahimsa, the Sanskrit word defined as “refraining from harming any living thing; absence of injury; or universal love and compassion." My understanding what we call nonviolence has been highly influenced by its contemporary practical strategic application as a means of confronting injustice, often described further as active nonviolence. The values that ground active nonviolent action include the universal virtues of compassion, mutual respect, courage, discipline, and empathy. Nonviolence represents the highest level of ethical and moral standards needed to nurture cooperation and reconciliation over domination, control, and submission. Individuals and communities that value and observe nonviolent kindness and mutuality exemplify how we all ideally want to conduct our personal and social daily lives. To observe a discipline of nonviolence, then, allows us to become more trusting and capable to better share our ethical and emotional lives with kindness and mutual support. Given what I just wrote it would seem obvious that we would all want to choose a nonviolent way of life. But in reality the practice of nonviolence is not only often ignored but considered naive. It often seems just easier to succumb to the temptation to try to unilaterally and offensively control our relational lives and to submit to those who wish to control us in return. However, we believe a strategy and practice of disciplined active nonviolence provides the most promising means to break this passivity and unjust control. We also recognize that the status quo that protects privilege and power will resist nonviolent interventions, often with violence, and one of the greatest strengths of nonviolent practice is the willingness to accept the anger and violence of the oppressor with the expectation that a resistance to counter violence with violence is the ultimate means of converting the oppressor. This is the essence of the Gandhi and King nonviolent movements. So what does the MLK, Jr., legacy mean to us today? His life and death remind us of the potential and the reality of a reliance on the “force more powerful” of love that nonviolence represents. We dare not romanticize its attraction, but King's inspirational legacy also reminds us that we now have his powerful example and legacy to continue to inspire us with the truth of nonviolent practice as an alternative to the temptation to rely on control, domination and fear, the strategy which sadly only perpetuates violence and war. Active nonviolence thus represents a great promise and hope that peace and justice are always possible. I am committed to studying, teaching and practicing nonviolence in my own life and community. I do not expect in the near future that a revolution toward a universal adherence to nonviolence that I envision is possible. But I am encouraged by an increased awareness of the tragic futility of warfare and an increased willingness to employ means of mitigating inevitable human conflict through mediation techniques and the judicial system. My most profound hope is that we can build on what we have learned about greater cooperation, the use of judicial effectiveness, and simple good will - all crucial tools of nonviolence - will lead us eventually toward a world where nonviolence offers a culture of promise for a planetary future. So, much gratitude to MLK, Jr., and all those who have been the prophetic harbingers of the “force more powerful” of nonviolent practice. We honor them with profound gratitude. Peace, Tom ________________________ [I feel I need to add a brief postscript to tonight’s Saturday Evening Post given the historical significance of the Trump inauguration and in conjunction with my post on nonviolence above. Read it if you have time. - Tom] Inaugural Reflection 1/18/25 There are many ways we can respond to the Trump administration. We can just resist; we can simply pretend not to acknowledge it; we can deny it and try to evade its impact on our country, our own lives, and the world; and then there’s my preferred approach: pay close attention to the opportunities to work with whatever part of their agenda we can support while also maintaining our own integrity and values, applying the practice nonviolent non-cooperation as necessary, and committing to establishing our own alternative social and governmental framework. We need to develop our own strategy for how we can create the kind of communities and government we envision based on our own sense of values and creativity. Someone has said if you want change you need to throw a better party. My idea of a party would be to live with a disciplined commitment to practice nonviolence, to serve the common good, to be lovingly inclusive and respectful of all - especially those on the margins - and to seek to recognize, support, and celebrate those with whom we share such a vision. We can intentionally and creatively figure out what that means as we go along. During much of the Biden administration there have been significant advances in supporting human and environmental welfare, and we can continue to support those policies locally if national support fails to do so. We don’t need to wait for the next election cycle. Let’s continue with our own agenda despite any efforts to dismantle the progress we have made. The values and policies of the Trump administration will likely offer a striking contrast to our values and practices, and this will give us an even clearer contrast about what we believe, what values such as democracy are sacred to us, what it means to be a compassionate and caring neighbor as we have seen in the response to the California wildfires. This is our challenge during the next two to four years. May the “force more powerful” of love and kindness abide with us! Tom Ewell Clinton @tomewellconnections.org
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