Today, I'm surprised at which places choose to honor Martin Luther King Jr. by celebrating his birthday as a day off and those for whom is it simply another day. As Americans, we all can learn so much from his philosophy.First, we must acknowledge that the concept of peaceful resistance didn't come from Western ideology. It was not based on Christian practices of the era King lived in. Rather, it came from Asia: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Thus, the concept of peaceful civil disobedience was not based in itself on Christian values and Western concept of democracy.
Gandhi was a Hindi and gave the movement a Sanskrit name: Satyagraha. Gandhi based this movement on the principles of honesty, openness, fairness, and physical and mental non-violence along with self-sacrifice.A British educated lawyer, Gandhi first used Satyagraha in resistance toward a Christian nation (Great Britain) to obtain civil rights for Asian Indians transplanted in another British colony: South Africa. More famously, Gandhi used it in order to end the oppressive colonial rule (British Raj) and along with it, challenge the concept of the white man's burden as romanticized by Rudyard Kipling in his 1899 poem in response to America's takeover of the Philippines at the end of the Spanish-American War ("The White Man's Burden").
Kipling, who won a 1907 Nobel Prize in literature, also romanticized the white man and his superiority and the appropriate inferior races' reactions in his poem 1890 poem "Gunga Din" and his book Kim.To be sure, Christianity does have a concept of peaceful resistance and that was much the case when Christians were a minority in Europe and North Africa. Yet that concept also exists in Buddhism. Consider the kind of courage the first wave and second wave of Christians must have had to believe and maintain their faith as a minority community.Likewise, today, we should consider the kind of moral strength and emotional fortitude that today's Muslims in the United States must have to continue to believe while facing prejudice and negative stereotypes.
It is not easy as a religious minority in the US to maintain one's religious practices - from eating and not eating certain foods to being able to pray in a Judeo-Christian society that doesn't not even particularly embrace Christian practices in secular life save for holidays.King had great faith in God and he inspired people with his faith. He was, we now know, a flawed man. Yet though he spoke about the condition of America, we should also consider how his words would apply to the world as technology makes the world grow smaller.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked "insufficient funds."
We should look to see how America's industry and how America's policy affects the other nations we deal with. When we ask for cheaper goods, are we asking other people in other countries to live lives and work under conditions we, as Americans would not want?If we demand justice for Americans, and I'm not saying that this has been achieved for all Americans, shouldn't we also ask for justice for others in other countries, including places we control such as Guantanamo Bay? King said:
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
As with Gandhi and his Hindu consideration for justice, most religions consider justice a thing to be strived for. The Baptist minister King said:
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. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As Americans, we should consider this in our foreign policy and in the way we speak of other people. Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, talked about the urgency of today for our environment. This is something that we as Americans cannot do alone and we use a large percentage of the world's resources. What justice is there in that?
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Article comments
1 - Michael J. West
MLK's birthday has only merited one post this year? Really? What's up with that?
As to this article:
Thus, the concept of peaceful civil disobedience was not based in itself on Christian values and Western concept of democracy.
Weeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllll...it's not quite so cut and dried as that, either. First of all, the phrase "civil disobedience" itself came from an American - Henry David Thoreau. And that was in 1849, 20 years before Gandhi was even born; in fact, it was one of Gandhi's acknowledged major influences. Second of all, another of Gandhi's acknowledged major influences was Christianity, whose texts he read as a young student.
I only say this to point out that we Americans have a capacity to understand and embrace and even have a hand in creating such movements. I think your article is spot on. I certainly think that striving for justice is the best thing we can do to honor Dr. King.
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Mike,
I used to be on the Board of Directors of an anti-poverty agency that served Ramsey County when I lived in St. Paul. Given that this organization had been organized by black civil rights workers in the mid sixties, Martin Luther King was their big hero, and after he was killed, they fought very hard for a holiday to honor the man.
This anti-poverty agency, which has a big dinner every MLK day, is now into hiring expensive consultants, overpaying its executive staff, and screwing over the poor people it used to give a damn about.
If you want to understand what is really wrong with your country [and by extension, mine], I mean rotten and bad at its heart, open your Bible to Psalm 56 and read it in its entirety. Let it sink in. That will tell you why virtually nobody gives a damn for someone who championed the poor and downtrodden in your society.
3 - Purple Tigress
Peaceful civil disobedience was not the word that Gandhi used. He used a word made up in Sanskrit.
There is more than one post on this site in regards to MLK Jr. Day.
One assumes to much when one assumes I have a Bible. I do not, being a non-Christian.
India is not only a nation with Hindus, it is the birthplace of Buddhism. To assume that Christianity and only Christianity was Gandhi's major influence is like assuming that living in a Judeo-Christian nation has no influence on Americans, even those who do not go to church.
I do not believe that the US is inherently bad no more than any other nation. Americans are remarkedly generous people.
4 - Purple Tigress
Just for reference, the BBC credits non-Christian religions for Gandhi's concept of non-violent protest.
All of these religions pre-date Christianity and Thoreau. It's very sad that Americans and Christianity attempt to take credit for it.
5 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"One assumes to much when one assumes I have a Bible. I do not, being a non-Christian."
Purple Tigress,
I was writing to Michael West, who presumably has a Bible. Many non-Christians also have Bibles, PT. We're known as Jews. If you are curious, you can Google up psalm 56 on the internet.
I can't really address the content of your article beyond what I said in my previous comment to Mike. When I lived in your country, as acted as an American, I followed the ancient tradition of the people of Israel of pursuing justice. The founder of the Baha'i wrote about this very subject himself, as you quoted in your piece above.
Now that I've returned home, I still must pursue justice, for this nation has unjust rulers who return "insufficient funds" on the promissory note to reunite all Israel in her land and pursue justice. So the struggle continues.