Credit: (AP Photo/File)The King Center, founded the same year as Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, annually sets a theme for the national holiday commemorating King’s birth. This year — even among violent conflicts in both Gaza and Ukraine and our own country’s political unrest — the theme centers around the continued study and practice of Kingian nonviolence.
Nonviolence, according to the King Center in Atlanta, “is the sustainable solution to injustice and violence in our world, ultimately leading to the creation of the Beloved Community, where injustice ceases and love prevails.”
With today’s activists focused on battling these wars and issues like police brutality, discrimination, and the continued fight for equality, how does nonviolence fit into the tools and strategies used to create change?
That can still be done following King’s methods, says Seton Hall University’s Rev. Dr. Forrest Pritchett. Nonviolence, after all, is an active strategy, he said, “not a passive commitment to inaction.”
“The more we remain nonviolent toward oppression in this country we are becoming even more active. We still march. We still take cases to court,” said Pritchett, who directs the university’s MLK leadership program, as one of the many hats he wears.
“We are aggressive on the streets. People are aggressive on social media. The more we are active, the evil around us becomes more evident,” Pritchett said.
A cultural shift
Raul Ruiz, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Latino Pastors and Ministers said as clergy, they must believe in nonviolence but he acknowledges that there’s been a cultural shift in some corners of the world, especially among some evangelicals.
“Now they are reacting in an unlike Jesus way to the war in Gaza. They’re the ones that do not appear to look like Jesus,” Ruiz said.
“Our stance continues to be the same. We need to follow the guidelines of Kingian nonviolence,” he said. “Even though they will push in a different direction, we need to continue.”
‘Nonviolence, after all, is an active strategy, not a passive commitment to inaction.’ — Rev. Dr. Forrest Pritchett, Seton Hall University
Rev. Bolivar Flores, the vice president of the coalition, says it’s even more important to be nonviolent during times of violence. He said he often recalls in the Bible when Jesus tells his disciple Peter to put his sword away, even though Roman soldiers had come to seize Jesus.
“If there were ever a justifiable reason for violence, I think that this moment would be it,” Flores said, “and yet Jesus says quite the opposite. There is an important lesson for us to draw here, and I am confident that Dr. King often contemplated the wisdom that Jesus spoke that evening.”
A focus on the individual
Rev. Dr. Angela Battle of Bethel AME Church in Passaic said nonviolence is still “a valid strategy.”
“Are people going to do it? Because now, people have their own agendas, which makes it very challenging to do that. But we are capable. It is possible,” she said.
What she likes about the King Center’s theme is that it focuses on the individual. “It starts with me,” the center says.
“Being a faith leader, my thing is, it’s in prayer, and in reading, your faith, your book. Everything always starts with you and your relationship that you have with your Maker,” Battle said.
She says Dr. King wanted individuals to participate in social service, and that’s how many spend the day — helping others. She plans to go to a soup kitchen and then to a community rally.
“A lot of times people think that they must be one of the speakers to make an impact, but that’s not necessarily so. You can speak to people individually, or even in groups,” she said. “You can meet people that way and make an impact, influence, and learn stuff as well.”
“So, start with me. What can I do?”