I have visited The King Center in Atlanta as part of the ECC’s Sankofa Journey – a weekend bus trip helping Americans look back at the history of racism and struggle for civil rights in our country in order to move forward and reconcile and move toward righteousness more deeply in the church. The King Center’s principles of non violence are powerful ones for me to remember today, on the day when we remember the life and untimely violent death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here are those powerful principles:
1. Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
2. Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
3. Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice not people.
4. Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform.
5. Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
6. Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.
Today I thank God for the power of nonviolence and the witness of MLK, for the ongoing witness of the African-American church in the US, and for the choice we have in Christ to also take up our cross, live out of faith, and keep one hand open to forgiveness while our other hand is fighting injustice. Amen.