Getting arrested with followers of Jesus
My decision, in the twilight of my life, to practice nonviolent civil disobedience and get arrested strikes some of my friends as a bit odd and even unChristian.
A lifelong friend confided: I cannot support your advocating non-compliance with the law in a society that seems hell-bent of finding all kinds of ways to violate the law.
That is a valid point. But nonviolent disobedience after the practice and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is not simple disobedience to the law. Rather it is a reasoned, deliberate and targeted non-compliance with a specific law.
The purpose of nonviolent disobedience is to register protest against laws that are unjust. It is the strategy Jesus taught his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount: Do not resist evil with evil and the ingenious instructions to resist by turning the other cheek, giving your undergarment, and going the second mile.
All these combined for a powerful means to resist oppression. It has worked through the ages, most remarkably with King’s civil rights movement but also through out the globe in India, Poland, and even the far east.
The Tennessee Poor People’s Campaign is part of the nationwide “Forty Days of Moral Revival” inspired by King’s Poor People’s March initiated 50 years ago.
The actions conducted by the Tennessee arm of the campaign in Nashville from May 14 to June 18 were directed at specific concerns related to social justice issues and the plight of poor people across the nation.
Those of us who participated pledged to abide by the principles of nonviolence. Our actions were limited and specific. For the most part and after the initial week’s experience, they were conducted in a manner that presented no hazard to the public other than minor inconvenience.
In submitting to nonviolent direct action, all participants agreed to being arrested and were pledged to conduct themselves in a respectful and humble manner. I was arrested twice.
In the current scene, nonviolence is simply a means to draw attention to what many feel to be grievous injustices in our system of government as it relates to the condition of the poor and immigrants among us.
We are saying, in essence, things must change for the better. We must move the needle on policies that affect the well-being of our least and forgotten citizens – the ones whom the God of both testaments calls us to treat as brothers and sisters.
We are not indicting the whole justice system. Many of us participating in the Poor People’s March witnessed exceeding restraint and kindness on the part of the police. We appreciate their role as protectors of the peace. It is the policies about which we take issue and why we resort to this extreme behavior.
In all humility we are asking fellow citizens: Can’t you see things are not right? We aren’t calling for lawlessness, but only for laws that conform more nearly to God’s singular law of love.
May we abide by the Apostle Paul’s admonition “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:10.)
Rev. Fred C. Morton is a retired elder in the United Methodist Church in Memphis.