Let’s go all the way back to the time of Jesus. Some Christians insist he was the son of God as if that isn’t true for all of us. No, he was just a dude. But oh my what an enormous impact he had on the world. Please don’t hold against him the many later crimes committed in his name. Let’s go back to the time when Christianity was just starting.
At that time, Rome was crushing most of the Western world in its brutal, slave empire. Israel had recently been conquered. Resistance was futile. And then there arose this crazy sect that taught people to love like they hadn’t loved before. Women and slaves were now beloved of God. In a sneaky act of subversion the cross which represented the most horrific death that we all fear — slow and painful, now instead became a symbol of redemption and hope. And this sect spread and grew and grew until three centuries later Rome finally capitulated and converted to Christianity. Rome fell to this new religion despite its desperate attempts to suppress it with violence. There were no victorious armies, no great battles waged, no conquering generals. Instead what arose was something new for this section of the world — Blue. Remember this stage is the reaction to Red. At times the only answer to Red’s violence is more violence. But Blue shows another way.
Jesus was apparently a great teacher. What was he teaching? I think the core message was unconditional, universal love. He was showing another way to conquer the world than with the sword. And his message inspired others. Let’s fast forward from his time to the 20th century. That century was incredibly bleak. It was a century of world wars, genocide, intentional famine, and yet more genocide. But there were some hopeful things that emerged. And in my opinion the very most hopeful thing that emerged were the movements lead by Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They showed the beautiful power of non violence. They showed that it can shift hearts and minds where simple violence can not. And since I started with Jesus, let’s focus on Martin Luther King.
Americans when they are looking for an example of ultimate evil quickly go to Hitler. So much so that there is a popular meme, called Godwin’s Law that states that the longer an online discussion goes on the more likely it will end up with comparisons to Hitler. This astonishes me. When I think of an example of how wrong things can go, I personally think of slavery. If you don’t already get it I don’t know if I can adequately describe the horror of it. Please imagine people ripped from their land, packed into coffin like ships were many of them died. Most of them ended up in sugar plantations were they were literally worked to death. The ones in the South were “lucky” in that they had a much better chance of survival, but they were stripped of everything. They were stripped of their pride, dignity, language and culture. Generation after generation endured rape, whippings, and mutilation. Then suddenly there was this false of hope of freedom given to them only a few years later to see that taken away and finding themselves back in just another form of slavery (share cropping). The Klu Klux Klan (and other groups) led a reign of terror where they could just lynch any Black person with complete impunity.
Consider the world MLK lived in. In the 1950’s Blacks were literally second class citizens. This was the actual law. Many Blacks, especially in the South, were not allowed to vote. Any attempt to vote was put down with brutal violence. The hearts of most Whites were hard and full of hate. They were not open to even the mildest reform. And then MLK helped to start a Black movement based on non violence. He said non violence is the “guiding light of our movement. Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method”. This movement worked in a way that no other movement in the U.S. had until then. People’s hearts shifted. And when people’s hearts shift that is when we can start to heal. Real, substantive, change happened. The various civil rights bills were passed, and for the first time Blacks gradually got their rights honored. It has been a very long journey and we are still not there, but we are so much further along. We owe much of that to this nonviolence movement.
So why did it work? It is hard to imagine but back then we were so much more Blue as a country. People really got that the world did not start and stop with just them. They got that they were part of something much, much bigger and eternal. MLK was a devout Christian reverend who could speak to people’s deepest hopes and dreams. He was bringing Jesus’s teachings into the present day. He made them real yet again. This was not a rational discussion, it was not even primarily just an emotional one. It was an appeal to spiritual truth. So now we are back to truth again. Let’s go there next.