The Power of Nonviolence For Christians in the Holy Land
What are real options for Christians in the Old City Jerusalem being threatened and harassed, facing eviction and violence? Or Christians in Gaza and the West Bank? Does MLK still resonate?
What are your real options when you are the minority population facing overwhelming force?
This was the question that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. faced as he preached to his congregation in Atlanta, as he spoke to black Christians across the South, as he ministered to the poor white and black families broken by the triple evils of poverty, racism and militarism.
It is an easy temptation to turn pragmatic on The King Philosophy of Nonviolence and ask: does it work?
But the harder question is: if we are Christians in the USA, how do we embody the life of Christ Jesus through our actions and attitudes in community, amongst a humanity caught up in vengeful violence and the madness of war?
How do we face the monsters without becoming the monster, how do we actually love our enemies while fully committed to truth and justice, righteousness and equity, dignity and mercy?
The following content is from The King Center and provides an overview of The King Philosophy of Nonviolence:
PRINCIPLE ONE: Nonviolence Is a Way of Life for Courageous People.
It is not a method for cowards; it does resist.
It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
It is aggressive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
PRINCIPLE TWO: Nonviolence Seeks to Win Friendship and Understanding.
The outcome of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.
The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation
PRINCIPLE THREE: Nonviolence Seeks to Defeat Injustice, or Evil, Not People.
Nonviolence recognizes that evildoers are also victims and are not evil people.
The nonviolent resister seeks to defeat evil not persons victimized by evil.
PRINCIPLE FOUR: Nonviolence Holds That Unearned, Voluntary Suffering for a Just Cause Can Educate and Transform People and Societies.
Nonviolence is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation; to accept blows without striking back.
Nonviolence is a willingness to accept violence if necessary but never inflict it.
Nonviolence holds that unearned suffering for a cause is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.
PRINCIPLE FIVE: Nonviolence Chooses Love Instead of Hate.
Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as the body.
Nonviolent love is spontaneous, unselfish, and creative.
PRINCIPLE SIX: Nonviolence Believes That the Universe Is on the Side of Justice.
The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.
Nonviolence believes that God is a God of justice.
I don’t share this in order to tell Christians around the world facing persecution what to do. But I do share it as my own personal reflection on what I can do with my life here in the USA, which is in solidarity with my dear friends who are Palestinian Christians facing atrocities and injustices with little political or civil recourse to address it with equity.
Locally I am grateful for Alive Community Outreach and their Peacemakers Academy, their work to implement the King Philosophy of Nonviolence into the high schools of Fort Wayne, training students in the ways of peace and nonviolence as a way to bless their school and foster the flourishing for all. It is beautiful to witness.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.
Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
This is my command: Love each other.”
Jesus to his Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane, John 15.9-17, NIV