Creating the Beloved Community

Shortly after the election of Barack Obama as the first person of both African and European descent to the Presidency of the United States of America, a news item circulated across the country that exposed an ugly vein of incipient violence lurking in Eastern Idaho. Apparently schoolchildren on a public school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, began chanting "Assassinate Obama, Assassinate Obama." It's quite possible that the students didn't understand the full meaning of "assassinate," nor comprehended the full implications of what they were saying. However, those who started the chant had heard those words put together some place and decided it was acceptable to publicly broadcast them. Raw Story carried a story, as well as KIDK. 

Even though Rexburg is politically very conservative, with 93 percent of the voters voting for McCain and Palin in the 2008 election, and with an overwhelming Mormon influence, that neither excuses nor explains such frankly anti-American behavior. Why do I say "anti-American?" Because the cornerstone of the political system of the USA is the basic agreement that binds us as a nation to be governed by our own self-chosen system of laws and Constitution. Certainly politically conservative people would subscribe to this idea. We don't have to agree with political results. That is never required. To require assent to a political position is totalitarianism. The First and Second World Wars were fought, in part, to confront and challenge the spread of just such totalitarianism. 

So why have such uncivil and violent sentiments infected the language of children and the thoughts of their parents? 

This blog is not a political blog. I start with these questions to probe the deeper issues of violence in our communal life. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was deeply concerned with the question of how to address the violence that existed in American society as the means for perpetuating injustice and oppression. For Dr. King, violence was a symptom of a deep and profound spiritual malaise, a malaise that the Good News of Jesus Christ existed to heal and transform. In the speech, "Facing the Challenge of a New Age," he said this:

(The) challenge that stands before us is that of entering the new age with understanding goodwill. This simply means that the Christian virtues of love, mercy and forgiveness should stand at the center of our lives. There is the danger that those of us who have lived so long under the yoke of oppression, those of us who have been exploited and trampled over, those of us who have had to stand amid the tragic midnight of injustice and indignities will enter the new age with hate and bitterness. But if we retaliate with hate and bitterness, the new age will be nothing but a duplication of the old age. We must blot out the hate and injustice of the old age with the love and justice of the new. This is why I believe so firmly in non-violence. Violence never solves problems. It only creates new and more complicated ones. If we succumb to the temptation of using violence in our struggle for justice, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization. There is still a voice crying out in terms that echo across the generations, saying: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven." This love might well be the salvation of our civilization. This is why I am so impressed with our motto for the week, "Freedom and Justice through Love." Not through violence; not through hate; no not even through boycotts; but through love. It is true that as we struggle for freedom in America we will have to boycott at times. But we must remember as we boycott that a boycott is not an end within itself; it is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority. But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.

Tomorrow: exploring the dynamics of violence and non-violence.