By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON
(CNS) — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s support of nonviolence to bring
about social change applies as much to today’s society as it did when Rev. King put
his philosophy to paper 60 years ago, said speakers at an Oct. 2 news conference at the memorial dedicated to the civil rights figure in Washington.
That
the news conference was scheduled in advance of, and held the day after, the
Las Vegas shooting spree that killed 58 people and injured more than 500 only underscored the importance
of Rev. King’s message, according to the speakers.
“It’s
hard to find something in times like these that doesn’t sound like
cliches,” said Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, chairman of the
U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism. “As a society, we need to
stop making excuses and commit to nonviolence.”
He
added, “Pope Francis speaks of the earth as our common home. So it is. And
so it is with our society. … It is so easy to speak of human dignity,”
he noted, “but do we believe it selectively — applying it to some people
but not to others?”
Bishop
Murry, who is African-American, acknowledged he has been the target of racism
and segregation. One of the more frustrating episodes for him, he told Catholic
News Service, was when a white airline passenger called for a flight attendant
because he did not want to sit next to Bishop Murry.
Rev. King’s
essay, “Nonviolence and Racial Justice,” appeared in the Feb. 6, 1957,
issue of the Christian Century, a theological journal. It laid out his
principles for acting nonviolently to seek change.
In his
essay, Rev. King wrote: “How is the struggle against the forces of injustice to
be waged? There are two possible answers. One is resort to the all too
prevalent method of physical violence and corroding hatred. The danger of this
method is its futility. Violence solves no social problems; it merely creates
new and more complicated ones. Through the vistas of time a voice still cries
to every potential Peter, ‘Put up your sword!’ The shores of history are white
with the bleached bones of nations and communities that failed to follow this
command.”
One of
the points Rev. King made about nonviolent resistance as an alternative is that it “does
not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and
understanding.”
“The nonviolent resister,” he said, “must often express his protest through
noncooperation or boycotts, but he realizes that noncooperation and boycotts
are not ends themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame
in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of
nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of
violence is tragic bitterness.”
“Things
looked bleak, and the violence was real, but Rev. King held that high ground.
And people rallied to him,” said Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the
Knights of Columbus, which sponsored the news conference. “He understood
that there were two non-negotiable principles in our democracy: first, that all
are created equal and are entitled to the equal protection of our nation’s
laws; second, that in our democracy, there can be no place for political
violence.”
The United States has many challenges, including renewed racism by groups like the Ku Klux Klan, he said, noting that from its founding in 1882, the Knights as an organization “has long assisted the cause of racial equality.”
Anderson
added, “Today, as then, we stand united in the principle that all are
created equal, and we reiterate the words of Pope Francis last month calling
for ‘the rejection of all violence in political life.’ We believe the way of
nonviolence is as relevant today as ever.”
“Dr.
King is still the beacon of the way forward,” said Bishop Charles E. Blake
Sr., presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ, in remarks delivered by
Bishop Edwin C. Bass, president of the denomination’s Urban Initiatives. Bishop
Blake added that 2018, the 50th anniversary of Rev. King’s assassination, should be
seen as “the year of Martin Luther King Jr.,” with programs and
conferences to renew the commitment to nonviolence.
The
Rev. Eugene Rivers, founder and director of the Boston-based W.J. Seymour
Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies, called this moment “a
biblical opportunity to be salt and light in the midst of this political
darkness. … We have to learn how to disagree without being disagreeable.”
Rev.
Rivers cautioned the change would not be instantaneous: “I’m not
optimistic, yes, but I’m full of faith.”
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