Nonviolence

This book seemed incomplete without acknowledging the confluence of spirituality and EQ in the behavior of nonviolence. It is the preferred path of most, but not all, spiritual sources. My own beliefs and values lean toward nonviolence, yet I support violence in some cases, such as in the struggle to defeat Hitler and the Axis powers during WWII, or if someone I love is being physically assaulted. But that is enough about me. I will let the following spiritual sources speak for themselves on this topic:

The root of violence is the illusion of separation—from God, from being one with oneself and everything else, and from Being Itself. When we don’t know how to consciously live out of union (which is called love), we resort to violence, fighting anything that is not like us and that we cannot control. Contemplative practice teaches us to honor differences and also realize that we are all much more than our nationality, skin color, gender, or other labels which are all aspects of the passing and thus false self. Contemplation brings us back to our True Self, who we are in God.

Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar (1943–)

If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turned to them the other cheek also.

Jesus (Matthew 5:39)

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct 96action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

MLK Jr.—Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Carson, 1998, p190)

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed … For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied” … One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

MLK Jr.—Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Carson, 1998, p191)

My study of Gandhi convinced me that true pacifism is not nonresistance to evil, but nonviolent resistance to evil. Between the two positions, there is a world of difference. Gandhi resisted evil with as much vigor and power as the violent resister, but he resisted with love instead of hate. True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power, as Niebuhr contends. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflicter of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while 97the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart.

MLK Jr. (Carson, 1998, p26)

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

James (James 2:26)

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone.

(Hebrew 12:14)