Time is cluttered with the wreckage of communities which surrendered to hatred and violence. For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way. This does not mean that we abandon our righteous efforts. With every ounce of our energy we must continue to rid this nation of the incubus of segregation. But we shall not in the process relinquish our privilege and our obligation to love. While abhorring segregation, we shall love the segregationist. This is the only way to create the beloved community.
To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
Thursday, March 11, 2010
love thursday 03.11.10 ~ loving your enemies
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3 comments:
Goosebumps! Thanks for this.
That the world has still not recognized this makes me weep with sadness.
That the world had an opportunity to experience this makes me weep with gratitude.
That you posted this and are spreading the Light makes me weep with hope.
A lot of my #5minutes standing for peace is spent asking for that love, when so often I feel something much less ... healing. Yet I have seen the power of love at work. Gandhi proved it. How far would MLK have taken it, I wonder? Thank you.
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