The Rev. Dr. Kortright Davis, famous Anglican theologian and priest, exponent of emancipation and liberation, especially among African peoples, was the preacher yesterday at our annual celebration of Absalom Jones and Richard Allen. After an intriguing wind-up on the poetics of the Bible and the poetics of faithful people being the ongoing instrument of inspiration for those longing and working for liberation, he poetically chanted, “Pre-pare today for the freedom tomorrow! Pre-pare today for the freedom tomorrow!” An affirmative, prayerful, thankful “Amen!” leapt from me, as I have been thinking about this continuously through these stirring days of transformation in North Africa and the Middle East, and perhaps in other places too.
“This” is the need to prepare for nonviolent social movements. All the great nonviolent movements had prior periods of careful preparation before action. It is most interesting, however that the popular portrayal of nonviolent movements and actions is that they were spontaneous actions, individual or collective, of people who had just had it, were fed up and had to do something.
Working backwards, we’ve learned in the last week from New York Times reporting that the galvanic movements in North Africa and the Middle East had a two-year buildup with conscientious study of the works of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gene Sharp, among other sources.
Last summer I had the honor of being one of the community readers for the Freedom School in Marin County. Carson Perez, then a staff member of the Children’s Defense Fund, suggested I use Nikki Giovanni’s well-known book, Rosa, about Rosa Park’s initiation of the Montgomery Bush Boycott. It is beautifully told and illustrated book, but finally misleading. Rosa Parks is portrayed as a woman with great personal integrity and dignity who finally would no longer be pushed around by segregationist racists. She simply refused to move from her seat on the Montgomery bus after a long work day…and so it all began.
The truth is that Rosa Parks had spent time at the famous Highlander School in Monteagle, Tennessee, in workshops on nonviolent social change, and had been involved in the NAACP for several years before the crucial day that got the bus boycott going. So, far from a spontaneous action, we might view Ms. Park’s action as a point of fulfillment of her intention, for which she had prepared.
Better known, interestingly, is the fact that Martin Luther King, Jr. himself prepared carefully for nonviolent actions, and was part of a well-prepared movement as well. I’m not sure why we know more about the prepared nature of the Civil Rights Movement, but I’m grateful, as it stands as a model and source for other movements. Here is what Dr. King wrote, in his letter from the Birmingham Jail about preparation for nonviolent action: “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham.” (Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”
And I suppose you know the great story of Les Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the Haute-Loire, France, the tiny village that saved the lives of about 5,000 Jews during World War II? The story would make a charming movie, with simple, yet clever villagers outfoxing the Nazi sympathizers, if one didn’t look at the background of preparation that made the definitely heroic response of the villagers possible.
First, Pastor André Trocmé had established Le Collège-Lycée Cévenol International in 1938. This was an international school that taught, in addition to traditional school subjects, nonviolence. So there was a culture of non-violent activism alive within the community at the advent of WWII, and the founder of the school was pastor of the Protestant Church in the village – there was a continuity of leadership. In Les Chambon the preparation for non-violent action was a potent combination of what Christians might recognize everywhere; the returning again and again to the formative stories of the Old and New Testaments, along with training in the techniques that changed the political landscape of the 20th Century and the still-new 21st Century – non-violent action. Pastor Trocmé was the figure who held both the old and new together and helped Les Chambon prepare for its role in history.
Let’s pause for a moment and say how remarkable that Egypt, Tunisia, Montgomery and indeed mid-20th Century America, and the village of Les Chambon have all been presented as the scenes of spontaneous non-violent actions and uprisings, when in fact in all cases there was a background of careful preparation. Is this simply because it is easier to believe that great change can come about without dedication, sustained focus, and hard work? This seems a likely explanation to me, and an understandable though dangerous one.
Dangerous because idealists will be tempted to “follow” the seeming-examples of those who have gone before in the non-violent movements of history without doing the necessary work, perhaps over a period of years. The danger is wasted effort, the failure of the movements, and the continuation of oppression.
And it is Holy Week, 2011 now and we need to turn to the fountainhead of peaceful action, world-changing action, the purposeful life of Jesus of Nazareth. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan gave me yet one more new view of the Pioneer of my faith in a few years ago when I read their superb book, The Last Week. The big, pure nugget of learning that has stuck with me was that the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, which we re-enacted this morning at St. John’s, Clayton as Christian churches world-wide did in Palm Sunday liturgies, that this stirring story was an event of political theater, a perfect non-violent action, which must have been carefully planned.
Here is how Borg and Crossan re-contextualize Palm Sunday: the Roman governor didn’t live in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, but rather in a pleasant coastal palace. He came to Jerusalem, however during the Jewish holy days, in order to ensure calm in the city, to head off unrest. So, at the start of the Passover week, Pilate was entering Jerusalem from the west, in a show of Roman force, in a company of armed soldiers, with strong horses trained for war. On the same day, Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem from the opposite direction, on a young untrained donkey, with an army of unarmed people, many probably from among the poor of the country. An unmistakable, stark contrast was deliberately laid before Jerusalem by Jesus.
The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is the culmination of a life dedicated to the total liberation of the cosmos. The breaking of political, emotional, economic, physical, and spiritual chains was the life of Jesus of Nazareth. To “set his face towards Jerusalem” is the biblical phrase that sums up his resoluteness, and I think that every saving encounter we read about in the Gospels is part of “setting his face towards Jerusalem,” keeping his eye on the goal at all times, in each encounter of his adult life.
And with this focus on the liberation of each and of all and with Jesus’ commitment across time too, we move into a new area, so far beyond the necessary work of prepared non-violent action, for the end of Jesus’ sustained effort, his martyrdom, was not an end, but rather a beginning, the Resurrection.
The Resurrection, this enormous surprise that has been hope beyond hope for multitudes across the centuries, but also the most insurmountable stumbling block for many others, is not made understandable, but is believable when seen in the light of Jesus’ life. The import of Martin Luther King, Jr’s. phrase from his “I have a dream”speech, “But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” And then, in a connected thought from the same speech, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
The content of Jesus’ character, his absolute commitment to the path of peace and total liberation, letting go of all other proximate goals, even the most basic human goals of a home, or a job, it is this which allows us to go the precipice of our rational understanding and open ourselves to receive the truth of the Resurrection. As C.H. Dodd said, it is Jesus’ extraordinary life that makes belief in the Resurrection possible. And it is the Resurrection, the divine gift of new life extended through Christ to all of creation that set firm the course of the cosmos towards justice, peace, and liberation. It is this path all who love Jesus in the unfurling centuries seek to discern through all confounding, competing currents and winds, and having discerned it to follow it. Following the path of Jesus is another way we might express the preparation for non-violent action.
Dear Bishop Marc:
Yes, yes, yes! The difficulty of working with people who are unprepared for non-violent demonstration was clearly seen when the KKK came to Athens, AL. The Rev. Jeremy Lucas gathered all the people he could think of to stand in silent protest. We held signs saying, "Love," and we were to pray for the KKK. A lot of people came to hold signs, but when they started to hear the vitriol, ignorance and hatred that the KKK were spewing, they couldn't keep the silence and hold the tension: We hadn't had time to prepare them. It was a big learning event for me.
In fact, due to Jeremy's great leadership and a wonderful group of people, the message of rejection of the KKK's presence in Athens or anywhere else in Alabama did get through. But we saw the importance of preparation. Pre-pare the Way, indeed.
A blessed Holy Week to you all. Zara
Posted by: Zara Renander | 04/18/2011 at 04:55 PM