Speak Compassion

This video from Palm Springs shows a Christian women who went into an angry crowd of protesters holding a cross.   The cross was quickly knocked out of her hands and stomped to the ground.  It is unclear to me if she was with a number of other people or just the one guy holding a sign, but regardless this is unacceptable behavior all around.

To start, I think I can’t help but wonder what on earth this women was thinking.   The last thing I would ever think of doing would be rolling in a cross burning in drag and screaming “hey boys”.  Sometimes, common sense must prevail in our actions but I fail to see what she thought she would accomplish unless her mission was to have happen exactly what did,  (provoke the protesters.)   That aside, the way she was treated was not acceptable.  If we are going to win over hearts and minds to our struggles, we must remain nonviolence in action, mind and spirit.   The spirit of our actions must be love.

During the 50s and 60s civil rights marches and direct nonviolent actions, protester never used violence regardless what was happening or how angry they were.   Fire hoses where brought out to try and stopped the protesters (and hurt them) and the protesters danced in the water, but never fired backed in violence or anger.   In the lunch counter protests, courageous people were subjected to milk being pour on their heads, food mashed in the faces and brutally beatings by segregationist.   Those protesters never fought back.  All of them were either trained in Nonviolence by Martin Luther King, Jr. or members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

The successes of the protests during the civil rights movement were dependent on nonviolence as taught by King.   A gay man by the name of Bayard Rustin, a close confident and friend of King, was responsible for King learning the ways of Gandhi.  He was a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and a strong influence on the creation of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) which was influence by Thoreau and Gandhi’s models of civil protest using noncooperation.   We cannot win without nonviolence.   We cannot change minds and hearts without the use of nonviolence.

Nonviolence is not for cowards, it is for those strong enough to stand up to oppression without becoming the oppressor.  We have got to be the ones on the right side of justice and if we use violence we are not on the right side of justice.   Every protest must be free of violence even if violence is inflicted upon us.  We must get back up and stand tall letting our opponents know we will not back down no matter what they throw at us.   We must follow the paths we know works from our history and that is NONVIOLENCE.

So when you go to the protest and stand for equality, embrace those who hate you, it is the only way to win the over.   Gandhi said it well, the object of nonviolence is not to win against your adversary but to win over your adversary.   We must win over hearts and minds and never use violence.   We must stand tall knowing that justice is on our side.

To the left of this post, you will find Martin Luther King, Jr’s 6 Principles of Nonviolence that I hope you will study.   To the top right, you will find more links to information about nonviolence and its POWER.   Spread the word to others that we must remain nonviolent in our actions, our words and our spirits no matter how angry we get.  We must channel our anger into a force more powerful than their ignorance and hate…love.

Soulforce has also made a plea for us to remain nonviolent in our protests.  They write:

Nonviolent direct action strategies such as marches, vigils, demonstrations, boycotts, public protests, and civil disobedience, seek to create what Dr. King called “healthy tension.” This constructive nonviolent tension forces those who perpetuate injustice, and society as a whole, to pause, reflect, and consider the ugliness of their prejudices and the indecency embodied in their discrimination. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King wrote: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.” Public protests empower us and educate those who are still the victims of fear and division.

It’s imperative that we remain nonviolent in our approach. Although it may provide short term emotional release, it’s ultimately counterproductive to scream expletives at those who have harmed us. We must refrain from damaging property or trying to destroy the character of others and instead approach those who promote discrimination in a spirit of nonviolence. As both Gandhi and King taught, we must avoid violence of the fist, tongue, and heart and remember that in truth we are challenging unjust systems, not people. In due course, we seek to be in community with those from whom we currently find ourselves divided.