There is No Place for Violence or Threats of Violence in Our Community
Over the last year, I’ve spent a lot of time with the writings and sermons of Martin Luther King. Studying his large body of work has been a real treat, and I highly recommend it. I want to talk about a well-known theme in King’s work: his commitment to nonviolence.
First, check out this clip (especially the first minute or so):
Here King is full-throated in his condemnation of violence. He said he would hold to his commitment to non-violence forever, even if he was the last black man on earth to believe in it. He said he will never change on this “basic idea that non-violence is the most potent weapon” in his struggle. He said it would be both impractical and immoral to turn to violence.
King’s fight was on two fronts: a fight against racial injustice, but also a fight against the seductive call of violence that was a constant threat to both the efficacy and the very soul of his movement. And so he often had to speak against both racism and calls to violence among those who opposed racism.
Martin Luther King is a hero to me, and I want to follow his teaching here. A board member has recently stated that she and her family have experienced threats:
Threats of violence against Ms. Fullhart, or against any board member, their families, or indeed any fellow human being, are unacceptable and immoral, and I condemn them fully and without qualification.
I want to also include what we might call indirect threats here: posting photoshopped images of people engaging in violent acts, posting pictures of an adversary’s children, and things of this nature, are wrong. There is a group who has been doing this sort of thing in recent weeks on Twitter, and calling for HSE schools to be defunded. This group needs to repent of this sort of immoral behavior, and take the lesson of King that only light will drive out darkness.
I have some very sharp disagreements with various people involved in the local politics of Fishers, Indiana. But I want good things for these people. I want them to turn from the errors of their ways and to be well. I do not want them to be threatened with violence.
I leave you with an awesome quote from Dr. King:
…the nonviolent approach … does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect. It calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally, it so stirs the conscience of the opponent that reconciliation becomes a reality. (King, “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence”)